Our Mayor
The Worshipful Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames – 2008/09.
Councillor David M Berry
Party
Liberal DemocratWard: Alexandra
Early years
Born and bred in Timperley, Altrincham, Cheshire. Brought up in the Methodist faith and was a “Life Boy” and then a member of the “Boys Brigade”.Educated at Altrincham Grammar school leaving at the age of 16 with a School Certificate to Matriculation standard.
Royal Navy
Trained as an Electrical Artificer then later on spent a year training on radio and radar. Only spent 3.5 years at sea in 11.5 years as 5 years were spent in training and the last year as an instructor on gunnery radar. Travelled as far north as the Artic Circle and as far south as New Zealand, with Japan as the furthest east but Londonderry was the furthest westerly point. Purchased discharge in Feb 62 to join Ferranti and train as a computer engineer along with the attraction of a 50% increase in salary. Also used free correspondence service to gain City and Guilds qualifications in both electrical engineering and radio & telecomms.
Later years
Following training, ended up in Norway at the Norwegian Defence research establishment looking after the “Mercury” computer. When Ferranti sold out to ICT, I left and became a Sales Engineer.
I was a sales engineer for over 30 years involved with leading edge technologies in computers, communications and electronics. Mainly dealt with scientific research departments and universities. One person who purchased a data logging system from me was David Bellamy the now well-known botanist. This was when he was at Durham University.
When selling computer disc drives, I got the contract to supply Floppy disc drives for The EMI brain scanner display station, and subsequently, when selling mini computers, I was also involved with providing medical imaging systems for Gamma Cameras. Some other areas of technology included; Local area networks, Telephone call management systems, fibre optic links and specialist “structured cabling systems”. In later years I was involved with bid management for tenders that could be up to several million pounds in value.
I am still trying to keep fit by playing tennis at Surbiton Raquets and Fitness club.
Charities
I believe that the Government has failed the armed services in the provision of the right equipment, care of the injured, and care of the families when a parent is killed in action.
My first charity is the “ Forces Children’s Trust” which aims to support dependant children left behind when a parent is killed in action or severely injured. This is a small charity which deserves greater recognition and support.
My second charity is “Combat Stress” which looks after ex service personnel suffering from debilitating mental problems such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Mental Health section of the NHS is far too under resourced to be able to provide the rapid response treatments these people need.
Vision for Mayoral Year 2008/09
I see this year as an opportunity to work with all sections of society to bring them together as a truly diverse but unified community within the Royal Borough.