Berry, Sir James (1860-1946)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0114 MS0282
Held at	: Royal College of Surgeons of England   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/archives/ ›
Full title	: Berry, Sir James (1860-1946)
Date(s)	: 1888-1927
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 6 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Berry | Sir | James | 1860-1946 | Knight | surgeon

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

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.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Sir James Berry, 1888-1927, comprising medical notes titled Thyroid cases- History and Correspondence, for surnames WA-WIL and WIL-ZUP; drawings and notes relating to specimens in the museums of Charing Cross Hospital, Middlesex Hospital, St Marys Hospital, Westminster Hospital, St George's Hospital, Guy's Hospital, University Hospital, St Thomas's Hospital, King's College Hospital, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Bristol University and Bristol Royal Infirmary; pictures of cases of hare lip and cleft palate; medical notes titled Operations for goitres- Notes of cases 1-26; 126-1549; and manuscript notes and annotations of publications Hare-lip and cleft-palate (1912), and Diseases of the thyroid gland and their surgical treatment, (1901).

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

As outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

By written appointment only.

Conditions governing reproduction:

At the discretion of the librarian.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Mostly donated by the widow of Sir James Berry.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Sir James Berry appears in the College Council portrait of 1927.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.

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:
Oct 2008