William Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose

Who was William Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose?

William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose, was a British newspaper publisher.

The second of three brothers born in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, Berry started his working life as a journalist and established his own paper, Advertising World, in 1901. Berry made his fortune with the publication of the World War I magazine The War Illustrated, which at its peak had a circulation of 750,000. In partnership with his younger brother, Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley, he purchased The Sunday Times in 1915 and was its editor-in-chief until 1937. In 1919 the pair also purchased the Financial Times.

In 1924 the Berry brothers and Sir Edward Iliffe set up Allied Newspapers and purchased the Daily Dispatch, the Manchester Evening Chronicle, the Sunday Chronicle, the Sunday News, and the Sunday Graphic, as well as a string of other newspapers across the country. In Cardiff they merged four newspapers into the Western Mail. In 1927 they purchased The Daily Telegraph from the 2nd Baron Burnham, with William Berry becoming its editor-in-chief. In 1937 they purchased its rival, The Morning Post.

Berry bought out his partners in 1937 and amalgamated The Morning Post with The Daily Telegraph, with himself as chairman and editor-in-chief. His sons Seymour, the 2nd Viscount, and subsequently Michael, continued to run the newspaper until 1986.