Berry, Private Frank William

Service highlights

  • Born in West Ham, Essex (1884).
  • British Army service with the Royal Scots Fusiliers; recalled from the Army Reserve at the outbreak of war.
  • Living in St. Marys, Ontario before returning to the United Kingdom for service.
  • Posted to the 1st Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers and served in Belgium during the First Battle of Ypres.
  • Missing, presumed killed on 11 Nov 1914; commemorated on the Menin Gate (Ypres) Memorial.

A Life and Service, Remembered

Frank William Berry’s path to war started long before 1914. As a young man in England he enlisted for and served for 12 years, that included years on active service followed by time in the Army Reserve his unit was the Royal Scots Fusiliers. When that active service ended, he made a new start in Canada and settled in St. Marys. He worked as a labourer at the St. Marys Cement Company, and he was reportedly part of the town’s music and community life, drumming with the Cement Company’s Kiltie Band.

When war broke out, reservists being recalled. Berry was gathered up in the surge of early mobilization and sent back across the Atlantic. By mid-September 1914 he was pushed forward rapidly, kitted out and posted to the 1st Battalion. Within weeks he was in Belgium, in trenches east of Ypres, where the war became a grinding contest of mud, shellfire, and exhausted infantry holding and retaking shattered ground.

On 11 November 1914, during the desperate fighting of the First Battle of Ypres, Berry was reported missing after his battalion went into action on the Menin Road area. The battlefield swallowed men whole in those early months. In cases like this, the absence of a recovered body did not mean uncertainty forever; it meant a name carried forward without a grave. Berry is among those commemorated at the Menin Gate, a memorial for the missing of the Ypres Salient. His connection to St. Marys remained part of his official record, and his name is remembered at home as well as overseas.

Major battles and operations

  • Mobilization and return to the United Kingdom (August 1914).
  • Trench service east of Ypres (October 1914).
  • First Battle of Ypres; missing, presumed killed (11 Nov 1914).

Veterans Affairs Canada – Frank William Berry:
https://veterans.gc.ca/en/613752

Canadian Great War Project – Frank William Berry:
https://canadiangreatwarproject.com/person.php?pid=43628

Azzano, Mark (MA thesis PDF, access may vary):
https://library2.smu.ca/bitstream/handle/01/30909/Azzano_Mark_MASTERS_2022.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Book source: The Fallen by Richard Holt, Private F.W Berry Pg 6