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Royal Geographical Society

BERRY, James (1860-1946)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0402 SSC/4

Held at: Royal Geographical Society

Title: BERRY, James (1860-1946)

Date(s): 1879-1926

Level of description: Collection level

Extent: 2 boxes

Name of creator(s): Berry | Sir | James | 1860-1946 | Knight | surgeon

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Sir James Berry was born in 1860; educated at Whitgift School, Croydon; received medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital; was admitted Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (English), 1882; elected a Fellow of the College, 1885; having graduated in the interval BS at London University with the University Scholarship and Gold Medal. Berry was employed as house surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital; demonstrator of anatomy; surgical registrar. In 1885 he became surgeon to the Alexandra Hospital for Diseases of the Hip, Bloomsbury and elected surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's Inn Road. Berry became distinguished in general surgery, focusing on plastic work and then the operative treatment of goitre.

Berry travelled and had knowledge of French, German, Serbian and Magyar languages. In 1915, Berry organised a Red Cross Unit in Vrnjatchka Banja, Serbia. The hospital was confronted with an epidemic of Typhus, with Berry having to take on the role of physician. The German-Austrian invasion caused the hospital to fall into the hands of the Hungarians. Berry and other captives were treated well and during 1916-1917 Berry served as the head of a British Red Cross unit in Romania and Russia. Berry was made an Officer of the Star of Romania; decorated with the orders of St Sava of Serbia and St Anne of Russia. In 1917 Berry returned to England; became honorary surgeon to the military hospital at Napsbury and then Bermondsey. He was elected president of the Medical Society, 1926-1928 and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1918-1940. Berry was knighted in 1925 and died in 1946.

Publications include Diseases of the Thyroid Gland, 1901 and A Red Cross Unit in Serbia, 1916.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of James Berry, 1879-1926 comprise a journal of a world tour via the Suez Canal, Colombo, Austrailia, New Zealand, Canada and include photographs of illustrations and text from the original manuscript. The collection also includes diaries, including one entitled 'My Journal 1892' and others dated 1879 and 1918-1926 and two annotated copies of the journal of a world tour.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Arranged as in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

Accessed via the Foyle Reading Room. Free of charge for Fellows, Members and those with valid academic identification. All other users pay a charge and must bring identification in order to register on arrival.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopying at the discretion of the Archivist and subject to completion of 'application for copies' form. No reproduction or publication without permission of the RGS-IBG Archivist.

Finding aids:

Collection information can be accessed online at Access to Archives and a hard copy catalogue and card list can be found in the Foyle Reading Room at the Royal Geographical Society.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Unknown.

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Sources: Obituary from The Times, Monday, Mar 18, 1946; pg. 6.
Prepared by an archives volunteer using existing finding aids and edited by Samantha Velumyl, AIM25 cataloguer.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal Place and Corporate Names 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: 29 November 2001 and modified April 2008.


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Geographical exploration | Geography
Travel abroad | Travel
Travel writing | Nonfiction | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature

Personal names
Berry | Sir | James | 1860-1946 | Knight | surgeon

Corporate names

Places
Australia | Oceania
Colombo | Sri Lanka | South Asia
New Zealand | Oceania
Suez Canal | Egypt | North Africa