Berners went to Bromsgrove School after being at Newcastle Royal Grammar School. He then won an Exhibition to Worcester College Oxford, but he did not take up his place until after the war; he joined up before he should have. He was commissioned to a reserve of officers, finally joining the Grenadier Guards. Berners had a tough war, suffering from both gas and severe shell shock as many men did. He was very sick and continued to be ill after being invalided out from the war.
He went up to Worcester College with his Exhibition and read History. He then went to Cuddesdon College and was ordained. His first curacy was in Kidderminster where he lad a typical first curacy of learning. He then became Lecturer [senior curate] in Bolton in Lancashire.
He volunteered himself to SPG as Giles had done, only for missionary service, and was sent to a large SPG boys school, the Bishop Westcott Boys School as headmaster. It was in a poor diocese of Chota Nagpur at Nam Kum. He married Barbara Browning, a lady who had been on the same boat as him from England; she joined his staff after working in Bombay for a short while. Their two eldest children were born at Nam Kum, John and Julian. In 1935 he took his first leave back to England.
On his return to India hebecame Principal of the Lawrence Memorial Royal Military School in Lovedale, 1700 feet up in the Nilgiri Hills in South India, where his last three children, Tom, Tony and Joan, were born, and where he worked until his death. The Lawrence brothers and been generals at the time of the Indian Mutiny. After their death the nation wanted a memorial to them devoted to help their men. Schools were therefore established in healthy climates for children whose parents had served or were serving under the crown. Lovedale in South India was chosan for the Lawrence brothers' school. It was military based, and the boys all did drill and wore uniforms. Before Berners came to Lovedale, it was all a bit of a shambles - one man had stayed too long, and another had been too relaxed. Berners built it up to a first-class school, so much so that he established co-educational teaching instead of having two separate schools. On arriving a the school the Quartermaster or Bursar asked Berners what his cut was going to be on the school fees. Berners was absolutely furious and had to clear it up. This was an example of the shambles he had to cope with on arriving at the school.
Berners had been on the short list to become the Bishop of Madras. He withdrew his name because the incoming bishop would have had to handle the beginning of the Church of South India [the union of denominations in India]. As a result of the war, Berners was subject to nervous terror and nightmares and like man others he suffered a relapse when France fell in 1940. He was very shaken, so Barbara took him away on holiday where he recovered. When he returned he opened a branch at the school for boys who could not return home in the holiday during the Second World War.
Berners had always suffered from appendix problems and several times he had suspected appendicitis. As a result of his shell-shock he refused to have the operation for fear of the anaesthetic. He had been told he would continue to suffer from the effects of the war until he was about 45, when suddenly he would get over it. After spending a weekend with Faith at a missionary station, he told her that next time his appendix played up he would face the operation. It was the year he was going to be 45. He told the teachers at the beginning of the term he was going into hospital. Under the first breath of anaesthetic he died.
Berners was the tallest and most handsome of all the family, and he shared a colossal sense of humour, similar to his father. He was a very charming and sensitive man towards himself and others. He was apt to take things very hard. He took his job seriously, and was a very successful headmaster in both schools. Berners was a high churchman and a wonderful preacher. His sermons were simple direct and humorous, but not playing for laughs. There was always some thing to be taken out and learnt.

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