Berry , Sir , James , 1860-1946 , Knight , surgeon

Sir James Berry was born in Kingston, Ontario, in 1860. He was educated at Whitgift School, Croydon, England, and St Bartholomew's Hospital. At the London BS examination in 1885, Berry took first-class honours and won the University scholarship and gold medal. He served as house surgeon at St Bartholomew's, and was demonstrator of anatomy. He then became surgical registrar. He became surgeon to the Alexandra Hospital for Diseases of the Hip (Queen Square, London) in 1885. He was elected surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital, in 1891. At the start of World War One, Berry's knowledge of Serbia led him and his wife, an anaesthetist at the Royal Free Hospital, to volunteer for medical service there. They organised the Anglo-Serbian hospital unit, under the British Red Cross Society, and largely from the Royal Free Hospital. It was established early-1915 at Vrnjatchka Banja. They were over-run in 1916 by the Austro-Hungarian army and an exchange of prisoners was arranged. Berry then led a Red Cross unit in Romania and was with the Serbian army at Odessa, 1916-1917. He was awarded the Orders of the Star of Romania, St Sava or Serbia, and St Anna of Russia. He returned to England in 1917 and was honorary surgeon at the military hospitals at Napsbury and Bermonsdsey. He was president of the Medical Society of London, 1921-1922; a member of the Council of the RCSEng, 1923-1929; and President of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1926-1928. He was knighted in 1925. He retired in 1927 and was elected consulting surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital. He died in 1946.