I was recently sent the following story by Peter Davidson about his relative by marriage, James Webster Berry. He tells me that the widow of James Berry later married Claude Albo de Bernales.
James Webster Berry (Reg 4207) was the son of George Berry who was born in 1838 in Fife Scotland and Mary Berry nee Dressler born 1838 in Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland. He was born in Nerring, Pyrenees Shire, VIC in 1869. He married Florence Helen Pinkney (Pincknie) in Boulder WA in 1904. Helen came to Western Australia with her parents in 1893, her father, Alfred Henry Pinkney, died in Lake Austin in 1894. It’s not known if Helen’s mother also came to Western Australia but one of her sisters did, Caroline Annie Olga Pinkney. She also had a brother, Frederick James Pinkney who was killed at Gallipoli in 1915. James and Helen had had two adopted sons:
Thomas Alfred Berry born Boulder WA 1905 (his birth was not registered until 1976 in Perth)
Lawrie Berry born Kalgoorlie WA 1911 (his birth was not registered till 2016)
James was a Mining Engineer and a member of the Kalgoorlie Council when he enlisted in WW1 on the 15th March 1916 in the 3rd Tunnelling Corps, (as many mining men were), at the late age of 44yrs 4mths. Sadly he was killed in Action on the 31st July 31, 1917, at Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium and is buried in the Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais Picardie, France. In February of the year he was killed he was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field.
Military Medal for bravery in the field.
Kalgoorlie Miner 11 August 1917, page 8
SERGEANT J. W. BERRY
AWARDED MILITARY MEDAL – OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION.
An unofficial report was received some time ago that Sergeant J. W. Berry, who is with the Tunnellers in France, and who is a member of the Kalgoorlie Council on leave, had been awarded the Military Medal, and his wife, who resides with Mrs. C. Benness at Coolgardie. has now been officially advised of the fact by the Military Base Records Office. Melbourne, in the following letter: –
‘I have much pleasure in forwarding hereunder copy of extract from Third Supplement No. 29712 to the London ‘Gazette’ of 19th January, 1917, relating to the conspicuous services rendered by your husband. No. 4207. Sergeant J. W. Berry, 3rd Tunnelling Company : Awarded the Military Medal. His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to award the military Medal for bravery in the field to the undermentioned non-commissioned officer: No. 4207, Sergeant James Webster Berry. ‘The above has been promulgated in Commonwealth of Australia |No. 103, of 29th June, 1917.— Yours faithfully J. M. LEAN. Major. Officer in Charge Base Records.’
Notification of James death from the AIF – Ancestry.com
War Grave of Sergeant James Webster Berry – Image Peter Davidson
During his time in the military Helen Berry gave her address as ‘Anatole’ Kalgoorlie which is a Maternity Hospital at 34 Brookman Street, Kalgoorlie, between the fire station and the St Johns church hall. Helen Berry had moved to 28 George Street, Kalgoorlie by 1925. It wasn’t until 1923 that Helen was to receive James’s medals:
Receipt for the medals of James Webster Berry to his wife Helen F Berry 1923
On the 5th February 1930 in Cottesloe Perth, Helen Florence Berry nee Pinkney/Pincknie re married to Claude Albo de Bernales with whom she returned to Kalgoorlie with to reside at the George Street address. By 1939 she had moved to London with her husband and she died in Sussex England in 1956 aged 77yrs. Claude de Bernales first wife was James Webster Berry’s sister, Bessie Pickin Berry. So prior to her marriage, Helen was Claude’s sister in law.
Helen Florence de Bernales formerly Berry nee Pinkney when presented at Court in 1934 – Photo WA Museum
A full history of James Webster’s military service can be found on the Tunnellers website –
Tunnellers Research Website
James Berry & Co advertisement – Kalgoorlie Miner 16 April 1904, page 3
After Publication of this article I was contacted by Doug Daws who told me that James Webster Berry was also a member of the Masonic Lodge and he sent me the following which he compiled from the Masonic Archives:
Another lodge member dies in service to his “King and Country”
Another lodge member who received a Military Medal, also recorded on the Honour Board, was Bro. James Webster Berry who was listed as a surveyor when he was Initiated into the lodge at the age of 33 at the June meeting in 1903. His war records show he enlisted (service number 4207) as a mining engineer in February 1916. That description no doubt had a major bearing on him being assigned to the 3rd Australian Tunnelling group.
Before the war Bro. Berry had carried on business as a machinery merchant on Boulder Road, Kalgoorlie and was widely regarded as ….” an enthusiastic worker in all movements tending to the development of the resources of the Goldfields.” …. He had been elected a member of the Kalgoorlie Municipal Council in 1913 and was given a rousing farewell by the Mayor when he announced his enlistment and he was granted leave of absence from his council duties while he was overseas.
Bro. Berry was one of three men killed by a shell blast on 31st July 1917 at Hill 70 only a week after the advice that a Military Medal had been conferred on him for an act of bravery he had performed with a fellow soldier. The lodge Minutes for August 1917 contain reference to his death in correspondence received from the District Grand Secretary.
In the latter stages of the war there were occasional references to news of a former Brother being reported missing, or killed, but from this distance in time, it seems that lodge ‘life’ continued almost as normal – as if nothing much was happening ‘over there‘.
Moya Sharp
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https://www.geni.com/people/Sergeant-James-Berry/6000000199014543824