On the morning of July 5th, 1865, a cleaning lady from the UK had just arrived to the house the two supposed to work at and found the owner dead on the ground. Now, this owner was no ordinary person. He was a very famous and well-respected surgeon named Dr. James Berry. And back then, throughout the entire British Empire. This guy was one of the top ranking surgeons in the British Army and was pretty much known just throughout the entire world for having an extremely versatile and talented surgical skill set. Point being, this guy was no average Joe, and for him to suddenly just be dead on the ground. This was a crazy and even monumental revelation. And the cleaning lady obviously understanding this and knowing who this guy was, she wanted to try to find a way to really prep him for his funeral and his burial. But as she started taking off Dr. Berry's clothes one layer at a time, something about the situation just felt really strange to her. Something didn't feel quite right. And then she just kept going and eventually reached Dr. Berry's shirt before taking it off. That was the very last layer protecting his skin from view. And when that had come off, she instantly realized why things had felt so strange. Because the body she was staring at, the body of this famous and incredibly esteemed male surgeon, was the body of a female back in 1789, a girl named Margaret. And vocally it was born into the world in the city of Cork, Ireland. Now, at some point, the emergence teenage years, her family fell upon some hard times. As a result, they were forced to move from their home of Ireland to London, where Margaret's mum, Mary Ann Buckley, had a pretty well off and frankly, rich brother, who was a well-known professor and painter named James Berry. The idea was they could go ask this relative for financial help, you know, a little bit of money so they could get back on their feet. And this guy straight up said, no, he hadn't seen Margaret's mom. He hadn't seen his sister in over 30 years. And he was feeling used. So as a result, he told them, I'm sorry, I can't help you. And although this was a devastating blow, it would turn out to not matter because just two years later, James Berry would actually pass away and leave Margaret and her family behind a very large inheritance. But not only did this guy leave behind his money, as you can probably guess, he also left behind something else, which is, you know, particularly relevant to the story, his name and Margaret, who at this time was very, very frustrated and annoyed at the fact that she was being constrained and not allowed to do what she wanted to do in society due to her gender. Immediately saw this as a massive opportunity. She had the idea to create an entirely new identity, surrounded around facts that could only be verified by James Berry, her uncle, who, you know, conveniently is now dead. But she presented himself as his nephew. And again, since he was not there, there was no way he could confirm or disprove this specific familial relationship. That was the start of her complete new identity. She was going to create an identity using James Berry, her late uncle. Before long, she began taking other actions, such as telling everyone to direct any mail that was meant for Margaret and vocally to her mum, to really trying to do anything she could to erase any evidence that her former self actually existed. And although we don't know whether any of her family members knew, I mean, maybe she had an incredible excuse that really made it so none of them had any suspicions. That's for you guys to figure out a few years later. Margaret and Bulkeley no longer existed. Now it would turn out that taking James Berry's name was actually a very smart idea, not just for the reason that it was convenient and available, but because, Margaret, by having this guy's name and this guy's connection was all of a sudden gaining access to James Berry's extremely extensive circle of friends, which included many very, very powerful and influential people, among which was Lord David Erskine, a nobleman who was the 11th Earl of booking and who had really, really helped Margaret throughout her entire career. As you'll know from this point on. I'm actually going to be referring to Margaret as James Berry. And in line with this, actually, I will be referring to her as he and him in his using using male pronouns is just for consistency and, you know, logic with the story of which a lot of confusion if I continue using these pronouns. So just wanted to clarify. But with his new identity and freedoms, James Berry, who had always actually been a very, very bright and even from a young age, recognized for his intelligence, he applied and enrolled in medical school at the University of Edinburgh. But here he was met with his first major roadblock in major problem. You see, despite having a completely new name identity and presumably a new boyish haircut, looking at them visually at his core, he was still a girl. He had the body of a girl. He was skinny. He was very, very petite. He had a very, very high voice. And this was a problem because if he was going to pass off as a guy and be able to attend medical school, which back then, by the way, women were not just completely not allowed, completely bored. He had to do something. And his solution to this was twofold. He first had these little like little pads, maybe like plastic pads, some sort of padding he would use padding around his body to give himself more tonnage, give himself make himself more look, look more a lot more muscular. And he would also wear these boots, these very high heeled boots that were male, but also just made him significantly taller and gave him a couple of inches. But on top of all of this, he also needed to find a way to conceal, obviously, the most noticeably female part of his body, which was his chest, and to to actually remedy this problem, he decided to wear a overcoat, a very long and thick overcoat during all seasons. Every time he was outside and basically everywhere, you know, he would always have on this distinct overcoat. Everyone knew him for his overcoat. And although this might have been definitely or definitely might have been very, very uncomfortable, he had to do it. Or people would instantly notice just from by looking at him that this was no boy, this was this was a obviously a full on female. And actually, although it seems like all of this might have been a bit too much in might not even work. I mean people could just see right past it. How obvious can padding be it actually worked well. And that in and of itself, by the way, was great. But it might have worked too well. And what I mean by that is, although people weren't hopping on him and attacking him for being a girl who obviously should not be in medical school, people sort of leaving and sort of thinking that he was, in fact, a very, very young boy who still obviously should not be in medical school. A lot of people just thought he was a child. They thought he was around age 12. And because of this, the university said it actually blocked James from taking any of his exams because of his age, even though he was 22. As a female, he looked 12 as a guy. Apparently, there was actually a chance that that right there could have been the end of his entire medical career. I mean, he just wasn't allowed to pursue medical school. And for all he knew, he should have just dropped right there and pursued something else instead. But remember what I said about James having some very, very influential friends. Now, that one guy in particular who would help him a lot. Yeah, well, Lord Erskine, upon learning that the nephew of his dear, dear recently deceased friend was not being allowed to attend medical school because of his age, he immediately intervened and he had a talk with the Senate and ultimately actually convinced the Senate to let him attend his exams again. And as it turns out, that was all James needed. I mean, after he received the green light from Lord Erskine, he passed all these exams with flying colors, and he would go on to receive his medical degree at age 22. Around a year after that, he also successfully completed the exam for the Royal College of Surgeons of England, which, by the way, made him secretly, of course, the first woman to ever become a licensed doctor in the UK and honestly, maybe even Western society as a whole. Keep in mind that this was more than 50 years before women were even allowed to become doctors in the UK, which is honestly just completely crazy. James decided to start his medical career by mixing in the British Army as a hospital assistant to really get all the experience and basic prep that he needed to become a full flight surgeon. Here, however, he was met with the second big roadblock and also a little bit of deja vu because although a few years had gone by since medical school, this guy James still looked like he was 12. And when his committee officer first saw him after he had first enlisted, he immediately thought this was some kid. Why is he in my army? You know, get them out of here. There's no way this kid should be serving as a hospital assistant. And yet again, what could have happened was that James could have been blocked. He could have just left and not been able to work. And that could have completely derailed his career, for all we know. I mean, things might not have worked up the same, but just take a second and guess who would have instantly come to James's rescue and James's help defending him the minute he heard about the situation? Who who could that be? Who could this possibly be? This benevolent, powerful Lord Erskine or Lord Erskine? You know, with a deep three step back, Steph Curry comes in, pulls up and talks to the sky, talks to the commanding officer. And before anyone knows it, before anyone knows it, James Berry is back to work. Doctor James Berry is back in the Army. As a hospital, assistant lawyers can pull some strings and James various back on track and with this major roadblock overcome once again, that's all James needed. I mean, he had everything else, everything else he could properly control. And his career just simply took off. It just took off. Two and a half years after joining the British Army, he was promoted to the position of assistant surgeon, which is equivalent to the position of lieutenant. Just a year after that, he was posted to the city of Cape Town, South Africa. And this honestly could have been one of the luckiest things that could have happened to him. This was a huge turning point for his career. And as you soon see, this was this was a miracle blessing in disguise. You see, shortly after he arrived, he was given a letter of introduction to the local governor, a man named Lord Charles Somerset. Through his introduction, while he was getting to know the man, Lord Somerset's daughter actually got sick. And this will actually turn out to be really lucky. It will not for his daughter, but really lucky for James because he was able to instantly just hop in and treat his daughter and it would turn out that he would do a marvelous job. He you know, Lord Somerset was extremely impressed. And after James Berry had completely healed, Lord Somerset's daughter, Lord Somerset instantly became close friends with him. And after making James his own personal physician, actually, that would be the start of a very, very long and very poor friendship. Now, as you might be able to tell Doctor James Berry, despite his age, which would have been around maybe 25 years old, was already an extremely talented doctor and surgeon. But despite this talent, there was just physically no reason for him to receive an actual promotion. I mean, he was just too young in his career and too inexperienced. But Lord Somerset did not care. You know, there was some sort of nepotism in, say, nepotism. He promoted Doctor James Berry just a few years later to colonial medical inspector, which, by the way, was an extremely ridiculous and huge jump from James's originally low medical rate. But it made him in charge of all military medical matters in Cape Town. Now, you may be wondering how on earth Dr. Berry got such incredible introduction to the local gov in the first place. I mean, this incredibly powerful ally, it completely changed his career. It gave him this incredible promotion. It gave him an incredibly powerful friend who on earth could have done such a thing. Who who could? Lord Erskine, Lord Erskine, once again coming through and just blessing Dr. Berry. This guy is not even this guy is not aura. If he were to know if Lord Erskine were to know that the person he had been helping all along was just a complete fraud, a complete fake, I wonder, Hugh, I wonder how he would have felt. But that's an interesting question. But this guy has been full on just hearing that's where the powerful friends from before were so important, because this is what they do. They just come in, you know, nepotism, all these connections, and all of a sudden you have a 33 year old surgeon who, you know, is just at the prime or the start of his career, rather. And he is now a colonial medical inspector for Cape Town. Yeah, but that's the way it goes. As time went on, it became even more clear that James was just simply no ordinary surgeon. In fact, it was clear that he had an extraordinary, if not unprecedented skill set. This guy was maybe just completely ahead of his time. He was that incredible of a surgeon, which can be seen in the fact that he would go on to perform the first European documented C-section in Africa, where both the mom and the daughter survived the procedure. But what's even more crazy is that it seems like throughout James's career so far, no one could actually tell that he was a woman. Actually, he developed a reputation for being a quote unquote lady killer, which definition take it from? Google is a very charming man who is very attractive to women. Now, I don't even begin to know what that means for, you know, sexuality. I mean, if you're a girl who is attracted to a guy, but it's a girl dressed up as a guy, what does that mean? I mean, it's I'm kind of saying move on thing, but for sure I have no idea. I'm just not going to touch on that. But the point is, Dr. James Berry, you know, with his pads and his little, little high heeled boots, he done so well pretending to be a man that he was actually getting women, he was getting girls. But the reason he attracted so many women could be the fact that, as we saw at the beginning of the video, this guy, despite having such a massive secret, you know, on him at all times, he was not afraid to make himself known. He was not afraid to actually have the spotlight on him, to have attention on him. And as you'll soon see, this is a massive double edged sword, as in good and bad. On one hand, James was extremely passionate and vocal about social reform. In Cape Town, for example, he was appalled at the extremely unsanitary conditions of barracks, prisons and asylums. In fact, everywhere this guy went, he was pretty much always outraged at the unnecessary suffering and how poorly organizations were managed and run. And the fact that he was just very vocal about his thoughts hoarsely criticizing local officials and their mishandling of medical matters. He gained quite a few enemies and on several occasions he was actually arrested and demoted for the sheer severity of his behavior and worse. Now, his strong connections with many very powerful individuals, such as Lord Somerset of Cape Town, meant that any potential repercussions were usually just very quickly smoothed over. This was actually really helpful not just for him, but also for just the overall social good, using the extreme power and influence of his own position, as well as the positions of many of his friends. Dr. Barea was able to enact significant changes to both sanitation and the water systems in Cape Town. As a result, this greatly improved the conditions and quality of life of very, very underprivileged communities such as enslaved people, the mentally ill and prisoners. In fact, throughout his entire career, wherever Dr. Barry was, throughout the British Empire or the entire world improvements, the quality of life and sanitation almost always seemed to follow. And despite his fame and his incredible stature, Dr. Barry always treated the rich and the poor, the colonists and the slaves completely alike, which was actually very, very unorthodox and rare for his time period. On the other hand, of the sword, however, hold something that is not entirely as positive. You see, Dr. Barry was actually known for being an extremely rude, argumentative and impatient person to the extent that an incident would happen so often, it would probably leave the real James Barry rolling in his grave. He was often described as having an extremely sort and hot temper, and this can really be seen by the fact that many stories have him just full on picking up and medicine bottles and any other supplies that he had near and just talking them at people who he was talking to. And now, James, his position of power was actually hurting him instead of helping because he was able to get away with so many just rude and terrible things, because he had powerful friends. He had very, very influential friends. He was just so esteemed and well known that there would never be much punishment or backlash for any of his actions. And as a result, he just kept doing them. At one point in his career, he got into such a heated argument with a senior army officer named Josiah's that he actually got into a full on pistol duel like standoff with him. In the end, miraculously, no one was hurt, although it was said that Dr. Berry had better aim because his bullet actually grazed of two sides while decisive bullet didn't hit anyone. But the sheer buffoonery to actually start a duel with the good old army officer, you know, in the middle of a war as a surgeon, nonetheless is a bit just different. Yeah, that, that that's a great example. Then in 1828, James got into an unspecified argument with this time a fellow army surgeon who found him so egregious and done what he said and what he did so horrible. He had him arrested. He had James arrested and court martialed for his actions. The man did this on a charge of conduct unbecoming of the character of an officer and a gentleman. And although Dr. James wasn't actually found guilty of this, the fact that it even progressed to this state where someone has to bring that charge upon you, that that speaks volumes. And if you thought I was done, I am not. Because the most heinous example is just about to come in the 1850s. Lawrence Nightingale, the founder of Modern Nursing, who, by the way, you know, should actually logically be on Dr. Berry's side and Dr. Berry should be on her side because they are both women who, you know, in their time, we're not supposed to be in the medical field. They they weren't they they apparently had massive conflicts. And for his own words, I never had such a horrible scolding in my entire life. Then from this very city, one is Horace. While I was crossing the hospital scrip, but only my cap on in the sun. He kept me standing in the midst of a quite a crowd of soldiers, servants, camp followers, etc., etc., every one of whom behaved like a gentleman. Well, he behaved like a brute after he was dead. I was told he was a woman. I should say she was the most hardened creature I ever met. In case this isn't entirely clear, after all, it's an old English. Basically, James, you know, for reasons that are completely unknown to me, decided to savagely critique Florence for wearing a cap in the sun. Whatever that means. I mean, why? Why is that wrong? That don't don't come to me for that. I generally do not know. But he saw Florence wearing a cap in the sun. Only a cap in the sun. And he decided to just attacker this woman with order. SCHWARTZ You know, probably money who owned business and just caught a stray from this absolutely savage surgeon who, you know, is two above. The actual law is it two above the actual rules of good conduct to face repercussions? That's what that's what happened. And to think that James did this not in private, but in front of a crowd, a large crowd of people in public. Now, it's possible that Dr. Berry's insanely horrible character in, you know, the stories about him could have been an attempt to actually just compensate for his incredible feminine side, the fact that he just had a higher voice, you know, he was shorter, he looked more feminine. It could have been his way to fit in to to fit in with the boys, so to speak. Or on the other hand, it could have, you know, actually been Kerviel personality or sorry, his real personality and that's just who he was. It is could be said. I should mention that despite all of these allegations and despite I mean, not allegations, because they actually happened from numerous eyewitness accounts, but despite his overall seemingly very, very nasty personality, it was actually said that his bedside manner, Dr. Berry's bedside manner, was always extremely strictly professional, always extremely kind, extremely caring. So there is sort of this separation between actually work and life, you know, not condoning the life side, but that just wanted to mention that whatever you have to say, Dr. James Berry was clearly not someone you would mess with. Back in his day, Dr. Berry's career was also not without the occasional scandal. Remember his friendship with the governor of Cape Town, Lord Charles Somerset? Yeah, well, allegations were eventually made that Lord Somerset was actually buggering Dr. Berry quote unquote, buggery, which basically means to have sex with. And turns out the reason Lord Somerset was so quick to promote Dr. Berry, was so quick to immediately become close friends with him, might have been influenced by the fact that he just liked the guy. Now, the reason there was so much suspicion and the reason that this theory came to light in the first place was because Dr. Berry actually lived in a private apartment on Lord Somerset's residents. Obviously, people were very confused why this doctor granted his private physician, but still was living with him, always with him. And since homosexuality was actually strictly illegal in Cape Town at the time, there was this theory. And by the way, don't even try to ask me whether, you know, Somerset, this guy was actually gay or not because I mean, again, going back to the whole move on, same thing where you have a girl dressed up as a guy. Does that mean I mean, I don't even know. And there's also this theory that Lord Somerset, in fact, was actually not gay and he just knew he was one of the few people who knew of Dr. Berry secret. He knew that he was actually a see and that's why it was, you know, they were actually getting together. But the point is, an investigation was later launched to determine whether the charges of homosexuality among the two were real or not. And eventually both people were actually found completely innocent and exonerated. Now, despite Dr. Berry's many controversies and scandals, as I mentioned earlier, he was still always known as an extremely professional and esteemed surgeon. Everywhere he went, following ten years of working in Cape Town, he would later work at posts in Morris, Jamaica, St Helena, the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands, Malta, Corfu and Canada. As well. In 1957, he was promoted to the rank of inspector general, meaning he was in charge of basically all military hospitals throughout the British Empire, the entire British Empire. And this was equivalent to the rank of Brigadier General. Just two years after that, Doctor Berry was forcefully retired by the British Army for simply being too old and too ill to actually serve. I mean, granted, the guy was 70 at this time, and although he definitely was not in the best health at the time, James actually tried to protest the decision. I mean, this was his life's work. This was what he was passionate about. It was his dream. And now that he was finally here in this, you know, powerful surgeon position in charge of so many different hospitals as a sickly woman, he didn't want to give this up. Understandably, he wanted to keep on doing it. But unfortunately, this protest was quickly shut down. And as a result, after a 56 year long career, Dr. Berry finally retired. After living a quiet but very comfortable retirement. Dr. Berry passed away from dysentery or a sort of infectious diarrhea at age 76. Now, remember, this guy had gone his entire life, his entire career. Every time he was outside in front of people, he would be wearing this large, heavy overcoat. So realizing this and realizing that the minute he died, people would have to actually remove his clothes. He had to come up with a plan. He knew that even after he was dead, he didn't want people to know his secret. He wanted his secret to live on. And after thinking about how he could potentially go about doing this, he decided the best way was to just simply states and repeat that his very last wish after his death was that he was to be left completely alone. His body, his clothes. He was to be left completely alone and untouched. In his very own words, he said, In the event of my death, strict precautions should be adopted to prevent any examination of my person and that my body should be buried in bedsheets without further inspection. He repeated this desire multiple times to multiple people and was very clear that this is what he wanted. But as you had heard from the very beginning of this video, despite his insistence over and over again that this was his final wish, that this wish was to be respected above anything. The cleaning lady who found the body obviously had other priorities. His orders, unfortunately, just simply weren't followed. When the cleaning lady arrived at Dr. Berry's house and found his body on the floor, she either didn't know that he had stated beforehand for no one to touch his body and no one to remove his clothes after his death or she knew. But it was just her job. I mean, if she didn't do it, she wouldn't get paid. So in that sense, she kind of had to. And, you know, no one could actually blame her for doing so. But whatever happened once the cleaning lady had uncovered Dr. Berry's body and actually got to look at him naked, it was so abundantly clear that in her very own words, his body was a perfect female. But what was even more crazier wasn't the fact that this male was a female all along. It was the fact that the cleaning lady found stretch marks around the body's abdomen, indicating that at some point during Dr. Berry's life, he had given birth, he had a child somewhere. And this was completely unbelievable because it's it's kind of hard to hide a pregnancy. Right. So the fact that he was able to do this and no one knew. I mean, there was no news. No one had ever even heard of this guy having a baby or seeing this guy having a baby. The fact that this was just completely unknown where this baby had gone or what when this pregnancy had taken place, was just completely wild. Now, these findings would obviously come as a massive shock to many, many people. I mean, even those who knew the doctor really well, there would be questions, tons of questions asked about how this was actually possible, how it could have hid such a massive secret for so long. But these questions just wouldn't be able to be answered. And because they were unanswerable, they had the potential to be dangerous to some people. I mean, after the story came out, became public, there was this whole idea going around that the story should actually just be completely hushed up. It should be covered up because it just it went against everything that people, you know, thought about at the time and went to get everything. People thought about women, about the medical field. You know, back then, the idea of a woman working as a doctor was so unfathomable, was so rare. The fact that this was possible, just they didn't believe it. It went entirely against anything they had ever learned. As one person bluntly stated, Dr. Berry couldn't have been a woman for women in medicine with contradictory terms. It was still too much to imagine that any female could perform as brilliantly as Dr. Berry had done. It just completely and totally went against the narrative of what women were supposed to be like at the time. Now, what's crazy is that the number of people back then who shared similar thoughts to the man I just quoted was presumably a very large number and had one of these people been the one to actually find James, his body and discover his secret? There's a good chance we would not know about James his story today. Luckily, however, very luckily, the cleaning lady was not one of those people. She was, in fact, a lot more concerned about actually getting paid for her work and being able to make a living, obviously, than to conserve some sort of like conceived narrative around how women were supposed to be back then. But the cleaning lady was actually particularly worried back then. I mean, the person who was supposed to pay her, Dr. Berry, was dead and couldn't do so. And after thinking about this issue for a bit, she eventually decided to go to Dr. Berry's physician, a man named Major macKinnon, who was actually the one who had written Dr. Berry's death certificate and identified him as male. Her entire thought process probably went something along the lines of because of her incredible and completely shocking finding the man would somehow be more willing to pay her for the work that Dr. Berry Oder. And although Major macKinnon was indeed very soft, even though he had known James very well and had actually been with him during the last few days of his life, unfortunately he still refused to pay her. And when the cleaning lady realized that there was nothing else she could do, maybe as a sort of revenge or pettiness, she decided to take the story and her findings directly to the press, which, you know, immediately caused everyone to see it and was why the truth or how the truth got released in the first place. The really crazy thing is had this woman had the cleaning lady actually gotten paid by the physician, there's a good chance that she might not have gone to the press with the story. And if that had happened, I mean, who's to say that the story wouldn't have gotten covered up? Who's to say that the story would have even been known today? I mean, there's a chance that the truth might have never been revealed. But luckily, because of these events, the situation was actually made public. And although most people I mean, as I said, even those who knew Dr. Berry extremely well were in complete shock and disbelief. There were a few select couple who claimed they had actually known the secret all along. They had known that Dr. Berry was a female. Now it's unknown whether any of these people were telling the truth or how many people did actually know. But historians have determined that there's a good chance that at least Dr. Berry's closest circle, maybe a select few, knew his secret. However, just from a purely logical standpoint, it had to have been a pretty small number. I mean, if it was slightly bigger, a secret like this doesn't hold. It had to have someone. Someone would've said something. But regardless of all of that, it's completely clear that Dr. James Berry was an absolute trailblazer for both women and his time. Hey, guys, this is actually Andy from the Future. And as I'm editing this video right now, I realize that this next part well, I'm talking about all of Dr. Berry's achievements. So I'm really just like wrapping up the story and concluding from here on out. Every time I say he, I meant to say her. Just wanted to clarify that he was a surgeon who just clearly was ahead of his time, both in his ideologies and his natural talents. Everywhere he went throughout the British Empire and the entire world, he would bring about changes in quality of life, in the way sanitation systems worked and the way water systems worked. He truly benefited absolutely countless amounts of people. And on top of all of that, he still had time to get into a dull anger, countless higher up jerks who straight up couldn't do anything about it. And he even had the chance to insult the cap of a Florence Nightingale and basically anyone else he wanted to do it to. Again, nothing. I can do all of it, but that's a pretty well lived life, if you ask me. With that being said, I hope you enjoy today's story. If you did, please take this opportunity to do me the kindness of taking your sock and do me a favor of slapping the life out of the like, but just smack you. Thank you guys. So much for watching it to the very end and I will see you guys soon.