Arthur Massey Berry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arthur Massey "Matt" Berry
Born	19 June 1888(1888-06-19) March, Ontario, Canada
Died	May 12, 1970 (aged 81) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Occupation	Bush pilot

Arthur Massey "Matt" Berry (June 19, 1888 - May 12, 1970) was a pioneering Canadian bush pilot.

1 Early years
2 First World War
3 Inter-war years
4 Second World War
5 Post-Second World War
6 Honours and legacy
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Early years

Arthur Massey (Matt) Berry was born on June 19, 1888 on a farm at March, Ontario, near Ottawa, where he was educated.

[edit] First World War

At the outbreak of the First World War he was commissioned in the 30th Wellington Rifles and proceeded overseas with the 153rd Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a Captain. In England he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, graduated as a pilot and was returned almost immediately to Canada as a flying instructor with the 189th Training Squadron at Deseronto, Ontario.

[edit] Inter-war years

In 1919, after leaving the service, he gained a Canadian pilot's certificate, worked for the Soldier's Settlement Board at Ottawa for two years, and then turned to ranching near Rimbey, Alberta. In 1924 he returned to Ottawa to engage in the brokerage business. After completing a pilot refresher course with the RCAF at Camp Borden, Ontario in 1928, he gained his commercial licence and was hired by Northern Aerial Mineral Exploration Ltd. at Hudson, Ontario under the supervision of Doc Oaks. For the next five years he flew from bases in northern Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta into the Hudson Bay area and throughout the Northwest Territories.

He became the first pilot to land at Baker Lake, Northwest Territories and then in 1929 completed a flying instructors course at Camp Borden. He used these skills to upgrade the company's junior pilots. In 1931, before joining Canadian Airways Limited (CAL), he completed the first return flight during the same day between Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories and Edmonton, Alberta.

His first assignment with CAL was to ferry two Junkers aircraft from Montreal, Quebec to Winnipeg, Manitoba after which he flew charter work from the base at Tashota, Ontario. In 1932 when the Prairie Airmail Service was cancelled by government order, he was laid off for some months until employed by General Airways, flying out of Chapleau, Ontario. Later that year he joined Mackenzie Air Services at Edmonton until crash injuries caused a short retirement. After convalescence he graduated with honors from a RCAF course at Camp Borden in instrument flying and radio beam work. He then returned to flying with CAL at Edmonton.

During 1935, after an exhausting eleven day aerial search of the Barren Lands for missing CAL pilot Con Farrel and engineer F. Hartley, whose aircraft had been forced down in a blizzard, he located the missing men and flew them to safety.

Among his many notable achievements for which he won the McKee Trophy in 1936, was his rescue in September of that year of Flight Lieutenant S. Coleman and Leading Aircraftsman J. Fortey of the RCAF, who were lost for 30 days in the Barren Lands north of Great Slave Lake. This was one of the largest and most publicized searches in Canadian history.

In December of the same year, he captained one of the most difficult of all recorded northern rescue flights when he and engineer Rex Terpening flew to Hornaday River on the Arctic Ocean during a period of near darkness. They battled gale force winds and blizzard conditions to locate and land at the isolated Roman Catholic mission and rescue Bishop Falaise and his party. After completing another short but difficult flight to bring them food, he attempted the 350 mile return to Aklavik , Northwest Territories but encountered blizzard conditions which necessitated a ten day wait before he could fly them to safety. This flight established a new aviation record as the farthest north an aircraft had been flown during the winter.

The following year he retired from professional flying to become Manager of Northern Transportation Ltd. at Edmonton, operators of freighting vessels on the Mackenzie River.

[edit] Second World War

During the Second World War, Berry served as second-in-command of No. 7 Air Observer's School at Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. His outstanding grasp of northern transportation problems and their solutions caused the United States government to seek his services in 1942 to oversee construction of airfields in the Northwest Territories and in the building of the CANOL Project, a pipeline construction project^[1].

[edit] Post-Second World War

At war's end he founded Territories Air Services Ltd. at Fort Smith and became involved with Max Ward in Yellowknife Airways Ltd.. He disposed of his interests in both companies to Associated Airways Ltd. in 1951 and concentrated his efforts on various mining ventures in northern Canada until his retirement in 1969 due to ill health. He died at Edmonton, Alberta on May 12, 1970.