Subject

The Ascension

Text

Their name liveth for evermore

Inscription

The Great War 1914-1918 To the Glorious Memory of G. Berry G.M. Berry E.J. Bice M.C. C.W. Daly D.S.O. W.C. Harvey M.C. S.R. Hebblewhite G.E. Howard A. Johnston B.J. Lindsay W. Lindsay C.L. McAdam D.K. McIlwraith E.F. Renwick J.H. Roche C.L. Spinks J.G. Strangman A. Wood

Description & History

The window was granted a Faculty in October and unveiled by Canon Selwyn Hughes on 14 November 1920. According to the church archivist, the lower section of the panel was replaced after a break-in (n.d.), which accounts for the treatment of the inscription which differs from Brooks, Robinson & Co.'s usual Gothic script. From the honour roll included on the window it is clear that several families lost more than one of their number, including the Berry family.

Guy Marten Berry and his younger brother Geoffrey were sons of Guy and Kate Berry of Wentworth Avenue, Canterbury. Despite being previously rejected on medical grounds, Guy enlisted on 30 October 1916, aged 21 years, and later embarked on the AV Medic for England where he undertook training as a sapper. He landed in France with 2 Division Signal Corps in September 1917. Only a few weeks later, on 4 October 1917 he died of gunshot wounds to the knee and chest received in action in Belgium. He was buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium.

Guy's younger brother Geoffrey was 19 when he enlisted on 11 August 1917. He left Melbourne on HMAT Ulysses on 22 December 1917 as a private with 38 Battalion. After further training in England he proceeded to France in May but received shrapnel wounds to his right arm and chest in action on 11 August 1918 and died the same day. He was buried at Adelaide Cemetery, Villers-Bretonneux, France.

References & Acknowledgements

AWM Roll of Honour; NAA: B2455, Berry, G; NAA: B2455, Berry GM; Brooks, Robinson & Co., Job Books 1923-c.1966; Church of England Messenger, 1 October 1920, p.466; 29 October 1920, p.517; 26 November 1920, p.559; Patricia Gray, 'The Stained Glass of St. Barnabas' Anglican Church, Balwyn, Victoria, Australia, Balwyn', n.d., p.12; Dianne Morrison, 'The Stained Glass of St. Barnabas' Anglican Church, Balwyn', unpublished report, 2007.