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Sir Dallas Gerald Mercer Bernard, 1st Baronet (22 March 1888 – 26 November 1975) was the deputy governor of the Bank of England from 1949 to 1954.
Biography
Bernard was born on 22 March 1888. He was the son of Edmund Bowen Bernard and Arabella Margaret Piercy. He sutided at Stubbington House School in Fareham, Hampshire, England. He subsequently joined the Royal Navy and gained the rank of midshipman in 1903. After that he went to Thames Nautical Training College in Foots Cray Place, Kent.
He arrived in the Far East and joined the Jardine Matheson & Co., in which he became the managing director from 1928 to 1942. He was also director of other companies such as the Chinese Central Railways between 1928 and 1942 and the Alliance Assurance between 1931 and 1942. He was also the chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. 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 became the director of the Bank of England from 1936 to 1949 and the High Sheriff of the County of London 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 in 1954 when he left the bank.
After leaving the Bank of England he joined the 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. He held the post until 1957 and continued as the chairman of the British Bank of the Middle East from 1954 until 1965.
He was created 1st Baronet Bernard, of Snakemoor, in the County of Southampton on 27 January 1954.
He married Betty Addis, daughter of Sir Charles Stewart Addis and Elizabeth Jane McIsaac on 16 November 1922. He died on 26 November 1975 at age 87 and had three children:
- Elizabeth Piercy Bernard (10 April 1924 – 29 November 1981)
- Sir Dallas Bernard, 2nd Bt. (born 14 Dec 1926)
- Margaret Anne Bernard (6 June 1929 – 7 Oct 2010)