He worked in India from 1902 to 1912 serving as an Imperial Bacteriologist and later collaborated with his wife Edith Berkeley in studies on polychaetes.
It was his step-father Alfred James Puttick who introduced him to science through scientific periodicals and visits to lectures at the Royal Institution.
[1] Cyril went to University College London and worked in William Ramsay's laboratory from 1897 to 1899 alongside others like Morris Travers.
He collected across altitude gradients and worked on these specimens with Michaelsen, who named a species Megascolides bergtheili after him.
The family changed from their German-Jewish surname around 1916 to Berkeley due to the World War and public suspicion around those with German names or connections.