Sir Bernard Rawdon Reilly (1882–1966) was a senior British
diplomat and colonial governor, active in the government of
Aden between 1908 and 1940, and the first
Governor of Aden
This is a list of British Empire, British colonial administrators of Aden from the 1839 Aden Expedition to the 1967 withdrawal from Aden. They were appointed from British Raj, British India until 1937 when the Chief Commissioner's Province of ...
between 1937 and 1940.
Biography
Born on 25 March 1882 in
Durrington, Wiltshire
Durrington is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies about north of the town of Amesbury, north-northeast of the city of Salisbury, and northeast of the Stonehenge monument. It is on the eastern part of Salisbury ...
, Sir Bernard Reilly was educated at
Bedford School and entered the
British Indian Army in 1902. He transferred to the political department in 1908 and was sent to
Aden, then controlled by the
Bombay Presidency.
![Aden Centennial 1939](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Aden_Centennial_1939.jpg)
Reilly was appointed
Resident in Aden between 1931 and 1932, Chief Commissioner of Aden (after the administration of Aden was transferred to the Government of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...
) between 1932 and 1937, and Governor of Aden (after Aden became a British colony under the control of the
Colonial Office
The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of c ...
in London) between 1937 and 1940. In 1940, Reilly left Aden to join the Colonial Office, and spent the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
in London.
Sir Bernard Reilly died in London on 28 October 1966 and was buried at
Winchester.
[Obituary, '']The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'', 31 October 1966, p.12
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reilly, Bernard Rawdon
British diplomats
1882 births
1966 deaths
People educated at Bedford School
Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Aden in World War II
Colony of Aden people