Obituaries Australia

Dr. Robert Sewers Berry, who died at his home at Southport last night at the age of 68 years, had lived at Southport for about 40 years. He was on a visit to England when the war broke out in 1914, and enlisted in the British Army. He served in France, Egypt, and Palestine, and attained the rank of major.

Dr. Berry was born in Somersetshire, England, and made several trips between England and Queensland as a ship's doctor on the Ducal line before settling at Beaudesert, where he practised for a time. He then went to Southport, where he was married in 1900 to Miss Cecil M. Milman, the second daughter of the late Mr. Hugh Milman (formerly Government Resident at Thursday Island and at one time Commissioner of Stamps) and Mrs. Milman, who still lives at Southport. Mrs. Berry died in 1928.

Dr. Berry made many long and arduous rides on horseback over rough country roads and bush tracks to reach patients who required treatment. Frequently these trips were made in the middle of the night and during heavy storms, and on more than one occasion Dr. Berry suffered injuries as a result of his horse crashing into a tree or a fence in the darkness. He had been Government Medical Officer at Southport for many years, and he also was the medical officer for the Southport, Nerang, and Coomera councils and for the Defence Department and Repatriation Commission. Years ago he was a member of the Southport Town Council. He was associated with a number of local and sporting bodies. He was a Freemason, and for many years was a church warden of St. Peter's Church and a parochial councillor.

He will be accorded a military funeral, which is timed to leave his late residence, Scarborough Street, Southport, at 3 o'clock this afternoon.

"Dr. Berry was a man with a sympathetic, loving heart, which endeared him immensely to the people of the district," said Bishop Dixon last night. In those earlier years of Southport he was essentially the typical bush doctor, who thought nothing of distances. The people had implicit confidence in him, and knew always that they could rely on him to get through to them if it were humanly possible for him to do so.