Sir Dallas Gerald Mercer Bernard, 1st Baronet (22 March 188826 November 1975) was a banker in England, Hong Kong, and the Middle East.

Early life

Bernard was born on 22 March 1888. Bernards's parents were Edmund Bowen Bernard and Arabella Margaret Piercy. Bernard studied at

Stubbington House School Stubbington House School was founded in 1841 as a boys' preparatory school, originally located in the Hampshire village of Stubbington, around from the Solent. Stubbington House School was known by the sobriquet "the cradle of the Navy". The sc ...

Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufact ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. After Bernard held the rank of midshipman in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, he attended

Thames Nautical Training College {{Use British English, date=October 2017 The Thames Nautical Training College, as it is now called, was, for over a hundred years, situated aboard ships named HMS ''Worcester''. London shipowners, marine insurance underwriters and merchants ...

Foots Cray Place Foots Cray Place was one of the four country houses built in England in the 18th century to a design inspired by Palladio's Villa Capra near Vicenza. Built in 1754 near Sidcup, Kent, Foots Cray Place was demolished in 1950 after a fire in 1949. ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Career

Bernard arrived in the Far East and joined Jardine, Matheson & Co. by at least 1912, at which point he was working there as an assistant. He was chairman of the trustees of the Sailors' Home and on the Local General Committee of the Missions to Seamen in Hong Kong in the 1920s. He was the managing director of Jardine Matheson from 1928 to 1942. Bernard was also director of other companies such as the Chinese Central Railways between 1928 and 1942 and the

Alliance Assurance Company Sun Alliance Group plc was a large insurance business with its main offices in the City of London and later Horsham. It was created in 1959 by the merger of Sun Insurance, founded in 1710, and Alliance Assurance founded in 1824. In 1996 Sun Alli ...

between 1931 and 1942. Bernard was also the chairman of the

Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (), commonly known as HSBC (), was the parent entity of the multinational HSBC banking group until 1991, and is now its Hong Kong-based Asia-Pacific subsidiary. The largest bank in Hong K ...

. During his time in Hong Kong he was appointed Unofficial Member of the Executive Council in 1926 and 1927 and Legislative Council in 1926. He was on the Legislative Council's Standing Law Committee. Bernard became the director of the Bank of England from 1936 to 1949 and the

High Sheriff of the County of London Below is a list of sheriffs of the County of London, from the creation of the county in 1889 to its abolition in 1965: *1889–1890: Alfred de Rothschild, of Senmore Place *1890–1891: Sir James Whitehead, Bart, of Highlield House, Cat ...

from 1942 to 1943 and later on the Lieutenant of the City of London. After the war, he continued to serve the bank and rose to the deputy governor of the Bank of England in 1949 until 1954 when he left the bank. After leaving the Bank of England, Bernard joined the

Courtaulds Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals. It was established in 1794 and became the world's leading man-made fibre production company before being broken up in 1990 into Courtaulds ...

and became the director between 1954 and 1956 and between 1964 and 1965 and also the deputy-chairman from 1956 to 1962. He was also active in banking in the Middle East. In 1954, he was appointed chairman of the Jordan Currency Board, which became the sole authority entitled to issue

Jordanian dinar The Jordanian dinar ( ar, دينار أردني; ISO 4217, code: JOD; unofficially abbreviated as JD) has been the currency of Jordan since 1950. The dinar is divided into 10 dirhams, 100 qirsh (also called piastres) or 1000 fils (currency), fulu ...

. He held the post until 1957 and continued as the chairman of the

British Bank of the Middle East HSBC Bank Middle East Limited is the largest and most widely represented international bank in the Middle East. History The Imperial Bank of Persia (Persian: بانک شاهنشاهی ایران; Bank-e Šâhanšâhi-ye Irân) was a British ban ...

from 1954 until 1965. He was created 1st Baronet Bernard, of Snakemoor, in the

County of Southampton Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire is ...

on 27 January 1954.

Personal life

Bernard married Elizabeth "Betty" Addis, daughter of Sir

Charles Stewart Addis Sir Charles Stewart Addis KCMG (23 November 1861 – 14 December 1945) was a Scottish banker. Early life Addis was born on 23 November 1861 at Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the son of Robina Scott ( Thorburn) Addis and the Rev. Thomas Addis, a minis ...

and Elizabeth Jane McIsaac on 16 November 1922. Bernard died on 26 November 1975 at age 87. Bernard and his wife have three children: Elizabeth Piercy Bernard (10 April 192429 November 1981), Sir Dallas Bernard, 2nd Bt. (born 14 December 1926), and Margaret Anne Bernard (6 June 19297 October 2010).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard, Dallas Gerald Mercer 1888 births 1975 deaths Hong Kong bankers British bankers British expatriates in British Hong Kong British expatriates in China Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong Jardine Matheson Group Chairmen of HSBC People associated with the Bank of England Deputy Governors of the Bank of England High Sheriffs of the County of London Royal Navy officers Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom 20th-century English businesspeople