Francis James Bernard (6 July 1796 – 19 Dec 1843) was the first police chief of the Police Force in Singapore and the founder of the ''

Singapore Chronicle Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

'', the first newspaper in Singapore.

background

Bernard was appointed as the first Master Attendant when Singapore became a trading port in February 1819. In addition to advising the governor on nautical matters, he was responsible for the control of shipping lying in the roadstead. He was succeed by

William Lawrence Flint William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

, the brother-in-law to Sir

Stamford Raffles Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British statesman who served as the Lieutenant-Governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816, and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. He is ...

, in April 1820. The Master Attendant designation would later renamed as Director of Marine in 1964. In May 1820, Bernard led the first police force in Singapore as the Police Assistant under the direction of his father-in-law Major

William Farquhar William Farquhar ( ; 26 February 1774 – 11 May 1839) was a Scottish colonial administrator employed by the East India Company, who served as the sixth Resident of Malacca between 1813 and 1818, and the first Resident of Singapore between ...

, who would only receive the official sanction from Raffles in August 1820. Bernard had no previous experience, and the police force, which consisted of just 12 men, had limited resources. He first worked out of his own residence, an attap house which was completed in December 1820 and in close proximity to Farquhar's residence (present day location of Old Supreme Court Building), before being relocated to a stone building in 1823, which was formerly one of an English merchant Captain Methven's godowns at Ferry Point (close to the lawn in front of the main entrance of present-day

Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall The Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall is a performing arts centre in the Central Area of Singapore, situated along Empress Place. It is a complex of two buildings and a clock tower joined together by a common corridor; the oldest part of the ...

). There were also lockups at the basement of this building. Bernard also founded the ''Singapore Chronicle'' newspaper in 1824. The police force was later put under command of the Resident Councillor John Prince, after Singapore became part of the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore for more than a century, it was originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Comp ...

in 1826.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard, Francis James 1797 births 1843 deaths Singaporean police officers