Berry Arthur Image 2 Liverpool 1912

Description

Liverpool born outside right Arthur Berry was an amateur footballer who started playing football while at Denstone College. He was the school’s cricket captain and tremendously athletic. The school magazine reported: “Arthur Berry incited the rest of team to greater keenness by his splendid fielding; as a batsman he seemed able to his anything and rarely failed to make runs. As a bowler he met with great success, being fast with a deadly swerve. A magnificent field, and won the bat offered for this department.” He then went up to Wadham College, Oxford University, where he earned two Blues in 1907 and 1908. He first played as an amateur for Birmingham and District League club Wrexham in 1906 and in September of that year he joined First Division Liverpool as an amateur on their books, making his Football League debut at Newcastle United in April 1908. The match programme commented that amateur Berry “did sufficient to show that if he cares to take to the game seriously he will be an excellent forward,” suggesting he should become a professional. His father was Edwin Berry, who was Liverpool’s Chairman from 1904 to 1909.

The previous month had Berry made his debut for the England Amateur international team, scoring in a 12-0 victory over France at The Park Royal Ground, London, and he played in 3 further internationals, scoring 4 goals in England’s 6-1 win over Sweden in Stockholm in September 1908. He then represented Great Britain in all 3 matches the next month at The Olympic Games in London which saw Great Britain claim the Gold Medal by beating Denmark 2-0 in the Final at White City Stadium, Shepherd’s Bush, Berry having scored in the first match, another win over Sweden. In the 1908 tournament he played alongside Rev. Kenneth Hunt, who had been his team mate in the 1907 Varsity football match and who had recently won the FA Cup with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Berry continued to appear regularly for England Amateurs and won 25 caps through to February 1913, scoring 10 goals and captaining England Amateurs twice against France and Germany in March and April 1911. He again played for Great Britain in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, although he missed the semi final win over Finland before returning for the Final when the Gold Medal was won with another win over Denmark, Berry scoring in their 4-2 victory.

Berry continued his club career with Second Division Fulham making 12 appearances between September 1909 and January 1910, and he then transferred to Everton, playing 6 times between February and the end of the season, scoring twice in a 3-3 draw against Manchester United in April 1910. The following season he scored a further 5 times in 23 appearances for Everton as The Toffees finished fourth in the League Championship. In 1911 he returned to play for Wrexham and he played for Isthmian League club Oxford City in 1912, playing in the 1913 FA Amateur Cup Final for Oxford City which they lost to South Bank in a replay at Kingsway, Bishop Auckland after a drawn match at Elm Park Reading, before returning to Liverpool in June 1912, where he made one further appearance for The Reds at Sheffield United that October. He played for Northern Nomads and returned to Wrexham in 1913 before he ended his playing career in October 1914 when he became a barrister. During the First World War Berry served as Adjutant of the Lancashire Fusiliers.

NB although published while with Liverpool, the photograph probably shows Berry in a Fulham shirt, albeit it could be an England Amateur shirt, so probably taken in 1909 but unconfirmed.