Born 9 June 1879 at Bronteville, Southsea, Hants, the eldest son of Arthur Barris, cork merchant, and Caroline Bridget Davis, his wife. He was educated privately and at Caius College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1898 and graduated 1901 with second-class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos Part I. He distinguished himself at boxing and other sports. At St Bartholomew's he was a prominent football player, and in later life was president of the hospital rugby football club for 12 years and of the students' union; his house surgeons were usually the best football men. He was elected Shuter scholar 1903, qualified 1905, and was awarded the Luther Holden pathological research studentship 1908. He served as house surgeon to William Bruce Clarke, and midwifery assistant to Sir Francis Champneys, FRCP (1848-1930) and W S A Griffith, FRCS, who, though twenty-five years older, outlived him by three days. At the City of London lying-in hospital he was pathologist, registrar, resident medical officer, and assistant physician. He was demonstrator of midwifery at St Bartholomew's and tutor in the midwifery department 1909-13, when he was elected to the honorary staff. He was also consulting gynaecologist to the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Women. In 1913 he made a tour of inspection of hospitals at Berlin, Dresden, Freiburg, Munich, and Vienna. During the war of 1914-18 he served in France with the rank of captain, RAMC, gazetted 2 October 1916, and then came back to St Bartholomew's. He had taken the FRCS in 1909, and was elected FRCP in 1925 and FRCOG on the foundation of the third College in 1929. He was promoted senior physician accoucheur at St Bartholomew's and head of his department 1925, and on his retirement in 1939 was elected consulting physician accoucheur and a governor of the hospital. As war broke out again in the autumn of that year, he returned to duty and worked for six years at the hospital's branch at Hill End Hospital, St Albans, and at the St Albans and Mid-Herts Hospital, thus missing the leisure he had earned. Barris was a born teacher, a worthy successor at St Bartholomew's to Herbert Williamson, FRCP (1872-1924). He contributed to the two famous textbooks by "Ten Teachers", and examined in obstetrics and gynaecology at Cambridge, the Conjoint board, and London University. He was nominated for presidency of the section of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Royal Society of Medicine in 1938, but declined the honour on account of his health. Barris married in 1909 Margaret Morris, who survived him with three daughters. They lived at 36 Fairacres, Roehampton Lane, SW15, and he practised at 50 Welbeck Street, W1 and 10 Cornwall Terrace, NW1. Barris died after a short, acute illness in St Bartholomew's Hospital on 23 February 1946, aged 66. The funeral service was held at St Bartholomew the Less on 28 February, followed by private cremation. Barris was slow and dignified in manner; he laid much stress in his teaching on the personal aspect of clinical practice, and on the great traditions of the hospital. He was devoted to animals, especially dogs; and was a keen golf player. He was a man of firm loyalties, and put his heart into whatever he undertook. Publications:- *Contributor to Midwifery* by Ten teachers, 1st to 6th editions, 1917-38; and to *Diseases of women* by Ten teachers, 1st to 6th editions, 1919-38. Tumours of the ovary, with Herbert Williamson, in T W Eden and C Lockyer *System of gynaecology*, 1917, 2, 769.