Born in Kingston upon Hull, Berry joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1937 and was called up for service in the RAF upon the outbreak of the Second World War.

66 Squadron in early 1939 for a three-week period, flying Supermarine Spitfire fighters, he was called up on the commencement of the Second World War.

[1][2] Initially holding the rank of sergeant, Berry, who was nicknamed 'Ras', spent the first weeks of the war attending a gunnery school before being posted to No.

[5] By this time, he was part of a detachment based at Montrose and on 7 December, intercepted a Heinkel He 111 medium bomber south east of the airfield, claiming it as damaged.

[6] On 15 September, later known as Battle of Britain Day, the Luftwaffe mounted a large scale attack on the south east of England.

[6] The official announcement was made in The London Gazette on 25 October, and the published citation read: Pilot Officer Berry has personally destroyed six enemy aircraft, and assisted in the destruction of several others.

Through innumerable engagements with the enemy he has shown the greatest gallantry and determination in pressing home his attacks at close range.

The skill and dash with which this officer has led his section have done much to assure their successes.Despite its reduction in operations, the Luftwaffe was still active and on 27 October, Berry engaged and damaged a Bf 109 near Dover.

On 23 November, the Corpo Aereo Italiano (the Italian Air Corps) mounted one of its few raids against the south east of England, and No.

603 Squadron, which was now equipped with the Spitfire Mk IIa, was involved in its interception; during the resulting engagement, Berry shot down one Fiat CR.42 Falco biplane fighter and probably destroyed a second.

[6] His new unit had just returned from service in the Soviet Union and was based at Turnhouse and operating Spitfire Mk Va fighters.

It flew patrols over the North Sea but saw no action until in May, when it moved south to Hornchurch to join the fighter wing there.

It regularly flew bomber escort missions to France and the Low Countries as well as fighter sweeps intended to draw out the Luftwaffe.

On 8 November, the day of Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French Algeria, these were flown to the airfield at Maison Blanche.

[6] With the Tunisian campaign concluded by mid-May 1943, Berry was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) the following month.

[6] The published citation read: In the campaign in North Africa, this officer participated in a large number of sorties and displayed great skill and leadership.

His appointment was at the behest of Air Chief Marshal Harry Broadhurst, who brought in former fighter pilots like Berry into senior posts at Bomber Command.

[14] At the end of January, he was part of the RAF cortège at the funeral procession for former prime minister Winston Churchill.

[1][6] Promoted to air commodore at the start of 1966,[15] his final years of military service was spent in charge of operations at the Board of Trade.

[1] Berry retired from the RAF on 29 January 1969 and settled in Hornsea, caring for his wife, who he had married in September 1940; she was suffering a terminal illness.

[17] A plaque in his memory was laid at Kingston upon Hull's Guildhall, where he had worked prior to the Second World War, the following year.