Barry Edward O'Meara

Who was Barry Edward O'Meara?

Barry Edward O'Meara was an Irish surgeon and founding member of the Reform Club, who accompanied Napoleon to St. Helena and became his physician, having been surgeon on board the Bellerophon when the emperor surrendered himself. He is remembered as the author of Napoleon in Exile, or A Voice From St. Helena a book which charged Sir Hudson Lowe with mistreating the former emperor and created no small sensation on its appearance. Less known are his secret letters he sent clandestinely from St. Helena to a clerk at the Admiralty in London. These letters shed a unique light on Napoleon's state of mind as a captive and the causes of his complaints against Sir Hudson Lowe and the British government.

O'Meara was also the physician to have performed the very first medical operation on Napoleon: by extracting a wisdom tooth in Fall 1817.