James Barry
Barry was originally from the city of Cork in Ireland. He received a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh Medical School, then served in Cape Town (South Africa) and in many other parts of the British Empire. Before he retired, Barry had risen to the second-highest medical office in the British Army. Everywhere he served, improvements were made to sanitary conditions and to the diet and conditions of common soldiers as well as native inhabitants. This helped improve the rates of patient survival and pushed forward the field of surgery. He performed the first recorded caesarean section by a European in Africa in which both the mother and child survived the operation.