With a Silent Companion

Darleen R. Golke is a high-school teacher-librarian in Winnipeg,
Manitoba.

Dr. James Miranda Barry, called the “perfect gentleman” by one
biographer, served as a British army physician and surgeon from 1813 to
1859. Only after death did the truth emerge: Dr. Barry was a woman who
had defied 19th-century restrictions by masquerading as a man in order
to study and practise medicine. Town has based this historical novel on
the extensive research she conducted.

The remarkable Dr. Barry started life in Ireland as Margaret Bulkley.
After a financial crisis, her mother fled to England taking her brother,
the artist James Barry. Although Barry was of little assistance, his
friends, the Earl of Buchan and General Francisco de Miranda, urged
young Margaret to masquerade as a boy and enrolled her in the University
of Edinburgh. Buchan, a champion of women’s rights, encouraged and
sponsored Barry, enabling her to graduate as a doctor in 1812, spend
some months studying with surgeons in London, and enter the army on July
5, 1813.

Barry’s first overseas appointment to Cape Town, South Africa, in
1815 lasted until 1828. There were subsequent postings to Mauritius,
Jamaica, St. Helena, Corfu, and Canada until her enforced retirement in
1859. In 1865 she succumbed to diarrhea, an illness for which she had
often successfully treated others. Throughout her career, Barry fought
to institute protocols for hygiene and sanitation, advocated
preventative medicine, and urged various reforms to improve conditions
for patients in hospitals, prisons, and even leper colonies.
Unfortunately, her irascible manner, quick temper, and impatience with
bureaucracy often interfered with her reforms. Nevertheless, this
exceptional woman functioned successfully under extraordinary
circumstances.

Town effectively portrays the difficulties faced by Barry and paints a
colorful portrait of 19th-century life in the British colonies. With a
slow-moving and chronologically organized plot and dialogue that
sometimes lacks spontaneity and naturalness, her book seems more like a
biography than a novel. However, With a Silent Companion provides
readers with an excellent overview of a historical period and introduces
them to a remarkable woman who sacrificed much to succeed as a doctor.
Recommended.