American sculptor. A native of Baltimore, Henry Berge was born into a family with a tradition of stonework and sculpture that is represented throughout his city in public monuments. He was the son of Edward Henry Berge, also a sculptor, and the grandson of Henry Berge, an architect and marble cutter. In 1949, his Memorial to the USAAF 34th Bombardment Group – a bronze relief set into the centre of a free-standing brick wall – was unveiled by the side of the Norwich to Ipswich road, close to the site of Mendlesham Airfield in Suffolk. The relief, which showed a pilot in flying gear leaning from his open cockpit window to present an olive branch, was stolen on 20 April 2010. (A replica, carved in stone by Mark Bury, was unveiled and dedicated on 9 November 2014 in the churchyard of the local church, St Mary’s.)
Bibliography: D. Boorman, For Your Tomorrow, York, 1995, p. 103; R. Cocke, Public Sculpture of Norfolk and Suffolk, Liverpool, 2013, pp. xv, 280–81; Dick Johnson’s Databank: ‘Berge, Henry (1908–1998) sculptor, medalist’; War Memorials Online: USAAF 34th Bombardment Group.
Richard Cocke, 2013; revised, Terry Cavanagh, April 2025