Richard James Arthur Berry

Professor Richard James Arthur Berry FRSE FRCSE (1867–1962) was a British-born surgeon and anatomist who was well-known in Australia. He was author of several internationally recognised books in his field.

Early life

He was born on 30 May 1867, in Upholland in Lancashire,^[1] the son of Jane Barlow and James Berry, a coal-merchant. His father died before he was born and he was largely raised by his grandfather. He was educated at small private schools in Southport, before winning a place at the University of Cambridge. However, he did not take up his place at the University, instead taking an apprenticeship with a firm of shipbrokers in Liverpool. In May 1886 he entered the University of Edinburgh, h to study medicine, graduating with an MBChM in 1891.^[2]

He then took up a role of House Surgeon under Thomas Annandale at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on Lauriston Place. In the same year Berry was elected President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. On receipt of his MD in 1894 he had written a prize-winning thesis on the Vermiform appendix.

In 1895 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the following year began to lecture in anatomy at the University of Edinburgh.

In 1897 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Professor of Anatomy

In December 1905 he was accepted for a role as Professor of Anatomy at Melbourne University and travelled over with his wife in February 1906 to replace Sir Harry Brookes Allen in his role of Head of Anatomy. The style of teaching was revolutionised by Berry. He taught until 1929. He also served as Honorary Psychiatrist at Melbourne Children’s Hospital.^[3]After settling into his new role he became interested in studies of the skulls of the aboriginals. His collection of skulls and bones was rediscovered in 2003. From this he developed a further interest in the skulls of mentally deficient children. He was a proponent of eugenics, supporting the killing of "the grosser types of our mental defectives".^[4]

In 1923 a new Anatomy Department was opened at Melbourne University, and was nicknamed ‘’Berry’s Folly’’’ on account of what was thought to be its over-size, but this proved to be prudent foresight once class sizes swelled after the Second World War.

From 1925 to 1929 he was the Dean of the Faculty. He strongly advocated a closer physical relationship between the university and the hospital. However this met with opposition from Sir James Barrett. However, in 1927 he toured hospitals of North America with Sir Stanley Argyle the Premier of Victoria, and this ultimately led to the plan being adopted.

Later life

In 1929 he unexpectedly resigned and returned to Britain to take up the role as Head of Medical Services at Stoke Park Mental Hospital near Bristol in England. He also then took Chairmanship of the Burden Mental Research Trust. He represented Queensland and New South Wales in his membership of the council of the British Medical Association. He continued studies into mental deficiency until 1940.^[2]

In 1959, Sir William Upjohn persuaded Melbourne University to grant Berry the title of Professor emeritus, and Berry, by then virtually blind, returned to receive this honour.

He died on 30 September 1962 at Clifton, Bristol.

Family

On 7 August 1900 he married Beatrice Catherine Brighouse (d.1949), daughter of Sir Samuel Brighouse, whom he had met through his hobby of cycling and mountain climbing.His daughter Beatrice married Professor Ian Maxwell of Melbourne.

Memorials

His portrait, by Justus Jorgensen hangs in the Anatomy Department of Melbourne University.^[2]

The building housing the anatomy department at Melbourne University was named the Richard Berry Building in his honour. The building was later used by the Melbourne's mathematics department. Following protests about Berry's racist and eugenicist view, the name of the building was changed in March 2017 to honour recently deceased mathematician Peter Hall instead.^[4]

Publications

• Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria: ‘’On the Tasmanian crania’’ (1909)
• ’’A Clinical Atlas of Sectional and Topographical Anatomy’’ (1911)
• Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria: ‘’On the Australian crania’’ (1914)
• ’’Practical Anatomy’’ (1914)
• ’’Brain and Mind’’ (1928)
• Report on mental deficiency in Victoria (1929)
• ’’A Cerebral Atlas of Normal and Defective Brains’’ (1938)
• ’’Your Brain and Its Story’’ (1939)

References