William Ewart Berry

by Laura Bray

In the series looking at the Berry Brothers, we conclude with a profile of William Ewart Berry, the second and middle son of John and Mary Anne Berry, who was born on 23 June 1870 at 11 Church Street, Merthyr.

The tale is told that William’s journalistic career began after he entered, and won, an essay competition, which so impressed the judge, W.W. Hadley – editor of the “Merthyr Times” – that he gave William a post as a reporter.  William was just 14.  William clearly had ambition – by the age of 19 he had left Merthyr and had a short term post as a reporter on the “Investor’s Guardian”, for which he was paid 35s a week.  That, however, did not last long and William spent three months unemployed, walking the streets and trying freelance work before getting a job as a reporter for the Commercial Press Association. Then, in 1901, aged 22 and using £100 borrowed from his brother Seymour he launched a paper of his own, “Advertising World”.  William wrote every word of that first addition.  By the second edition he had been joined by his brother, Gomer, and the two were to forge a newspaper partnership that lasted for the next 35 years.

William and Gomer sold “Advertising World” in 1905 for a healthy profit and went onto found “Boxing” and other periodicals during the next few years, all of which they ran successfully.  The brothers clearly had an eye for an opportunity – as can be seen in the fact that a seemingly insatiable seven-day demand for news from the western front after the outbreak of the First World War convinced them that the moment was right to acquire the “Sunday Times”, which they bought for £80,000. At the time, sales of the paper had slumped to about 20,000 a week – less than a tenth of “The Observer’s” circulation. By 1937 the “Sunday Times” was outselling its historic rival by nearly 70,000 copies a week.

The purchase in 1919 of the St Clement’s Press, and its City flagship the “Financial Times”, further raised the William’s profile. Not surprisingly, therefore, he and Gomer were assiduously courted by the circle surrounding the then prime minister, David Lloyd-George. One consequence was that in 1921 William Berry became a baronet.

William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose. © National Portrait Gallery, London. Gratitude to them for allowing me to use the photograph.

Over the next few years William and Gomer established a vast and diverse media conglomerate; and yet it was not until 1927 that they finally acquired a major London-based daily newspaper. The “Daily Telegraph” and it was with this paper that William’s name was to become most firmly associated.  The “Daily Telegraph”  had been a great Victorian success story, setting high standards in its news reporting and attracting suburban middle-class readers.A commitment to solid Conservative values, plus a reputation for extensive coverage of both major sporting events and salacious court cases, ensured daily sales of nearly 300,000 by the early 1890s. By the late 1920s, however, sales had slipped to about 84,000, and the “Daily Telegraph” was in urgent need of modernization. Reluctant to invest, the paper’s chief proprietor, Lord Burnham, suggested a quick sale to Allied Newspapers, then owned by the Berry brothers.

Thus on 1 January 1928 William Berry at last assumed editorial responsibility for a ‘quality’ national newspaper with enormous potential. While retaining the “Telegraph”‘s unequivocal centre-right politics, William made key editorial and personnel changes, as well as updating the paper’s type and format.  Sales slowly grew, and then doubled to 200,000 after the price was halved to 1d. on 1 December 1930. Within seven years circulation had reached 637,000, and on the eve of the Second World War it had increased to 750,000 by which time William had placed news items onto the front page – a radical, if not pioneering, step.

William Berry with Winston Churchill

William was a supporter of Churchill during the late 30s and 40s and for a few weeks after the outbreak of war worked in the Ministry of Information as Chief Assistant to Lord MacMillan, then Minister and Controller of Press Relations. In 1941 Churchill made him Viscount Camrose, named for Camrose in Pembrokeshire where William’s father had been born. Such was the regard between Churchill and William that he was the only non-member of Churchill’s family to dine with him on V.E. Day in 1945.  William was also instrumental in organising a “whip round” to buy Churchill his home, Chartwell, for £43,600 (well over a million today) and donated it to the National Trust with the provision that Churchill should live in it for the rest of his life.

In turn, it was Churchill who suggested that William should have a memorial in St Paul’s Cathedral and it was he who unveiled it in May 1956.

William died in 1954 in Royal South Hampshire Hospital, just short of his 75th birthday, from a heart attack.  He left a widow, Mary Agnes, his wife of nearly 50 years, and 8 children.

William Berry’s Memorial Plaque at St Paul’s Cathedral

John Mathias Berry

Today marks the centenary of the death of one of Merthyr’s most prominent citizens – John Mathias Berry.

John Mathias Berry and Mrs Mary Ann Berry

Born on 2 May 1847 in Camrose in Pembrokeshire, John Mathias Berry was brought up in Haverfordwest in a strict non-conformist household, and as a young man he began working for the Great Western Railway as a clerk. On 24 May 1870 he married Mary Ann Rowe of Pembroke Dock, and in 1872 became a father to a daughter, Lucy Beatrice. In 1874, Berry secured a better position as a station-master with the Taff Vale Railway and the family moved to Merthyr Tydfil.

On 17 September 1877, Berry became a father for the second time when Mary gave birth to a son – Henry Seymour. As a sideline to his job at Merthyr Station and also to earn extra money, John Mathias Berry began selling tea in the town, and this led on to him becoming a commercial traveller. During this time his family grew and he became a father to two more sons – William Ewart in 1879, and James Gomer in 1883.

In 1894, at the age of 46, John Mathias decided on a career change and opened a new business as an auctioneer and estate agent in Victoria Street. Due to a combination of his remarkable personality, his energetic business acumen and the economic growth at the time, the business became a huge success, and Berry became a very prosperous and important person in Merthyr.

As a result of his success, John Mathias became very active in public life in Merthyr. In 1902 he was made a J.P. for the County of Glamorgan, and he also became a councillor for the Town Ward on the District Council and from 1905 Borough Council. In November 1908 he became an alderman and was elected as Mayor in November 1911, and as such was responsible for welcoming King George V and Queen Mary on the occasion of their visit to Merthyr and Dowlais on 27 June 1912.

John Mathias Berry reading the proclamation of the visit of King George V and Queen Mary on the steps of the Town Hall

Despite his business and public activities, John Mathias remained a staunch non-conformist, and became a member of Market Square Chapel soon after his arrival in Merthyr, and within time he was elected as a deacon of the chapel. It was in this capacity that he was instrumental in the founding of the Caedraw Mission Sunday School and also the Ragged School. When Market Square Chapel celebrated its centenary in 1938, William Ewert and James Gomer, the two surviving sons of James Mathias, paid for a magnificent pipe organ to be installed in the chapel in memory of their father.

The pipe organ installed in memory of John Mathias Berry in the old Market Square Chapel

Indeed, John Mathias Berry was known as much for his charitable work in the town as his business and public life. As early as 1875, during the great ‘Lock Out’, John Mathias was at the forefront of the movement to open soup kitchens for the relief of the poor, and throughout his life he gave unstintingly of his time and money to help the under-privileged of the town.

John Mathias Berry died on 9 January 1917 after a short illness.

Despite everything he did in his life, John Mathias Berry’s lasting legacy will be as a father to three sons who became hugely successful millionaires and peers of the realm:-

Henry Seymour Berry (1877-1928), 1st Baron Buckland

William Ewert Berry (1879-1954), 1st Viscount Camrose

James Gomer Berry (1883-1968), 1st Viscount Kemsley

There will be more about the remarkable Berry brothers in the future. In the meantime if you wish to read more about them, take a look at the link below.

http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s2-BERR-BUC-1847.html