Back in the 19th century, it was simply not allowed for women to study medicine in the UK. However, that was not going to stop one particular woman who came up with a rather cunning plan to go ahead and beat this particular system.
The woman was called Margaret Ann Bulkley who studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. The only problem was that, in order to do so, she had to dress up as a man and she adopted the alter-ego of James Barry.
Upon graduating, she had a distinguished career serving as an army surgeon and working in different parts of the world. He was apparently sympathetic to patients, but very bad-tempered elsewhere and the famous Florence Nightingale apparently hated him. It was not until she died in 1865 that it was discovered that he was actually a she.
The army was incensed and aside from putting across various ideas and theories as to how he was able to get away with it, they then closed all records on him which lasted until the 1950’s. It was then that a local historian uncovered the story and brought Margaret Ann back to life and was then able to show how she had managed to trick the establishment for decades.