Richard James Arthur Berry

Richard James Arthur Berry FRSE FRCSE (1867–1962) was a British-born surgeon, anatomist and eugenicist who was well-known in Australia.

Early life Berry was born on 30 May 1867, in Upholland in Lancashire, 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, beginning at Dame’s School and then in 1877 going onto a private school for boys 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. After some time Berry was granted permission to terminate his contract. In May 1886 he entered the University of Edinburgh to study medicine, graduating with an MBChM in 1891.

Berry then took up a role of House Surgeon under Thomas Annandale, Regius professor of clinical surgery at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on Lauriston Place. In the same year Berry was elected President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. The following year Berry was appointed lecturer in anatomy at the School of Medicine of the Royal Colleges of Edinburgh. On receipt of his MD in 1894 he had written a prize-winning thesis on the Vermiform appendix. Berry was held in very high regard within the institution and was a greatly respected and well established academic.

In 1895 Berry 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 Berry 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. 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. From here he became a consultant psychiatrist to the Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital in Parkville, close to the University of Melbourne. He was a proponent of eugenics, supporting the killing of "the grosser types of our mental defectives".

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 Berry 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 Berry 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. Following protests centered around Berry's racist and eugenicist views, the name of the building was changed in March 2017 to instead honour recently deceased mathematician Peter Hall.

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)