Reginald John Berry (1 June 1926 – 16 September 1994), also listed as John James Berry, was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

. Berry joined Manchester United from

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

in 1951. Despite his diminutive stature, he was a natural right winger with technique and pace. One of the

Busby Babes The "Busby Babes" were the group of footballers, recruited and trained by Manchester United F.C. chief scout Joe Armstrong and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy, who progressed from the club's youth team into the first team under the management of ...

, the February 1958 Munich air disaster brought his career to an end.

Personal life

Berry was born in

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, the son of Mary (née O'Connor) and Reginald Berry, a Sergeant in the

Royal Horse Artillery The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was formed in 1793 as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (commonly termed Royal Artillery) to provide horse artillery support to the cavalry units of the British Army. (Although the cavalry link r ...

; he lived with his family on Crimea Road. As a boy, he played football for St Joseph's School in Aldershot and Aldershot YMCA, and on leaving school he worked as a projectionist for a local cinema. He tried to sign for

Aldershot F.C. Aldershot Football Club was a football club from Aldershot, Hampshire, England, that played in the English Football League club from 1926 to 1992. The club was nicknamed ''The Shots'' for both the last syllable of the town name and the military ...

but was told he was too short. During service with the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, he was brought to the attention of

and signed as a professional at St Andrews in 1944. Injuries sustained in the Munich air disaster brought his footballing career to an end at the age of 31. When he woke up he was totally unaware of the plane crash, his injuries having caused mild amnesia. A month after he regained consciousness, he found out about the crash from seeing a newspaper. He spent two months in hospital with a fractured skull, a broken jaw, a broken elbow, a broken pelvis, and a broken leg. All of his teeth had to be removed while treating his jaw injuries. He only found out which of his teammates had been killed some time after he returned to England. When still in hospital, he would complain to manager Matt Busby that his teammate

Tommy Taylor Thomas Taylor (29 January 1932 – 6 February 1958) was an English footballer, who was known for his aerial ability. He was one of the eight Manchester United players who died in the Munich air disaster. Career Taylor was born in Smithies, ...

was a poor friend for not visiting him, unaware that Taylor had been killed. Doctors treating Berry felt that he was not well enough to be told that any of his colleagues had died at the time. Berry died of cancer in a hospice in Farnham in Surrey at the age of 68 in September 1994 after a short illness and was buried in the Catholic section at

Aldershot Cemetery Aldershot Cemetery (officially the Redan Road Cemetery, also known as Aldershot Civic Cemetery) is the main public burial ground for the town of Aldershot in Hampshire. Although most military burials take place in the nearby Aldershot Military C ...

. He was the first surviving player of the Munich air disaster to have died. He was survived by his wife Hilda Doreen née Reeves (1928–2016), whom he married at Aldershot in 1948 and his sons Neil (who was later the head teacher of Brampton Manor School), and twins Paul (born 1952) and Craig Andrew David (1952–1995).

Career

In 1951, Matt Busby paid Birmingham City £25,000 to bring Berry to Manchester United. Berry played 277 matches for Manchester United, scoring 44 goals along the way, including helping Manchester United win three league titles. He played regularly for the first six seasons, before losing his place in the starting XI to youngster

Kenny Morgans Kenneth Godfrey Morgans (16 March 1939 – 18 November 2012) was a Welsh footballer. Born in Swansea, he signed for Manchester United on leaving school in the summer of 1955 and played on the youth team's outside-right position. He turned profess ...

Berry was also capped four times by England while playing for Manchester United, his chances of regular international action inevitably restricted by the form of

Stanley Matthews Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while sti ...

and

Tom Finney Sir Thomas Finney (5 April 1922 – 14 February 2014) was an English international footballer who played from 1946 to 1960 as a winger or centre forward for Preston North End and England. He is widely acknowledged to have been one of the s ...

on the wing. His first job after retiring from football was with

Massey Ferguson Massey Ferguson Limited is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company was established in 1953 through the merger of farm equipment makers Massey-Harris of Canada and the Ferguson Company of the United Kingdom. It was based in ...

Trafford Park Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, opposite Salford Quays on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, southwest of Manchester city centre and north of Stretford. Until the l ...

, but in 1960 he was asked to leave the Manchester United-owned house to accommodate new signing

Maurice Setters Maurice Edgar Setters (16 December 1936 – 22 November 2020) was an English football player and manager. As a player, he made more than 400 appearances in the Football League for Exeter City, West Bromwich Albion, Manchester United, Stoke City, ...

, and he left the Manchester area to return to

. He later ran a sports business with his younger brother

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

Cove A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...

, a village near Aldershot, until the 1980s. Peter was also a professional footballer, most notably with

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

. They also ran the sports shop Berry Brothers at Queensmead in Farnborough. Johnny Berry spent the final years of his working life as a storeman in a local television warehouse.

Depiction in media

Neil Berry published a book in 2007, ''The Forgotten Babe'', describing his father's years at Manchester United.

Honours

Manchester United * Football League First Division: 1951–52, 1955–56, 1956–57 * FA Charity Shield:

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

References

External links

Profile
at StretfordEnd.co.uk

at MUFCInfo.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Johnny 1926 births 1994 deaths Burials in Hampshire Military personnel from Aldershot Sportspeople from Aldershot Royal Artillery personnel British Army personnel of World War II English footballers Association football wingers Manchester United F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents England B international footballers England international footballers English Football League players English Football League representative players Footballers from Hampshire FA Cup Final players