Berry was one of Nelson’s closest professional friends, and a key member of the original Nile ‘Band of Brothers’. As well as serving with Nelson at Cape St Vincent, the Nile and Trafalgar, he took part in six other fleet battles and a large number of smaller actions. A slight, rather delicate man with fair hair and piercing blue eyes, Berry was quick-witted, impulsive and aggressive to the point of recklessness. When he joined the fleet off Cadiz in hms Agamemnon, on 13 October 1805, just prior to Trafalgar, Nelson is supposed to have said, ‘Here comes that fool, Berry. Now we shall have a fight!’

He was born in 1768, the son of a London merchant. His father died young, leaving his large family with little means of support, and so the boy entered the Navy in 1777 at the very early age of eleven as a midshipman in the Burford. Promoted lieutenant in 1794 for bravery in boarding a French man of war, while serving in the West Indies, his conduct came to the attention of the commander-in-chief, Admiral Sir John Jervis. So when later, in 1796, Commodore Horatio Nelson was looking for a new first lieutenant for his ship hms Agamemnon, Jervis (by then commanding in the Mediterranean) recommended Berry. The two took an instant liking to each other and formed a close partnership. When Nelson transferred to the Captain in 1796, Berry went with him.

Jervis continued to support Berry and obtained his promotion to commander in early 1797. But there was no ship ready for him and so he remained in the Captain as a passenger. He was thus with Nelson at the Battle of Cape St Vincent (14 February 1797) and fought alongside him in the boarding party that captured two Spanish ships. Running out along the Captain’s bowsprit, he led one division onto the poop of the San Nicolas while Nelson led another through her stern windows.

In March 1798, Berry was made a post captain and Nelson (at that time in England recovering from the loss of his arm) immediately asked him to be his flag captain in the Vanguard. He fought with distinction at the Battle of the Nile (1 August 1798) and it was into his arms that Nelson reeled when he was hit on the forehead by a piece of flying shrapnel, with the words, ‘I am killed. Remember me to my wife.’ Given the honour of carrying Nelson’s dispatches home in hms Leander, Berry was captured by one of the French battleships that had escaped from the Nile, The Généreux, and was badly wounded in the arm. He was exchanged and finally reached England in December, where he was knighted and presented with the freedom of the City of London.

He was then given command of the Third Rate battleship Foudroyant and sent out in her to the Mediterranean in June 1799, to replace Nelson’s battered flagship Vanguard. He commanded the Foudroyant during the capture of Malta from the French occupying force and also at the capture of his former captor, the Généreux, and her fellow-escapee from the Nile, the Guillaume Tell.

Nelson left the Mediterranean in the summer of 1800 and Berry took the Foudroyant home to England, where he remained until the summer of 1805, when he was appointed to hms Agamemnon and joined Nelson in time for Trafalgar. hms Agamemnon was towards the rear of Nelson’s line and so she did not get into action until nearly 2pm. She joined the Neptune and Conqueror in pounding the mighty four-decked Spanish battleship Santissima Trinidad until she was forced to surrender. In the closing stages, when the enemy van, under Dumanoir, threatened an attack on the badly-damaged British ships, hms Agamemnon formed part of the hastily-formed line of battle that drove them away. As the smoke of battle began to clear away, Berry felt a premonition that something was wrong on board the Victory and, calling for his boat, he had himself rowed across to the stricken flagship. But he arrived just too late to bid farewell to the dying Nelson.

The following year, Berry, still commanding the Agamemnon, took part in the Battle of San Domingo (6 February 1806) and was made a baronet. He remained in active service until 1813 when he was placed in command of one of the royal yachts, but his health was broken and, although he became a rear admiral in 1821, he never hoisted his flag. He died in Bath on 13 February 1831 and was buried in the graveyard of Walcot church.

CSW