Denis Bernard

Lieutenant-General Sir Denis John Charles Kirwan Bernard, (22 October 1882 – 25 August 1956) was a British Army officer who commanded the 3rd Infantry Division shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. He was also Governor of Bermuda and General Officer Commanding the Bermuda Garrison.

Early life and education Bernard was born in London, the son of Percy Bernard MP. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and commissioned into the British Army as a second lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) on 22 October 1902.

Career Governor and General Officer Commanding, Lieutenant-General Sir Denis Bernard, inspects the First Contingent of the BVRC to the Lincolnshire Regiment at Prospect Camp on 22 June 1940. He fought in World War I as a River Transport Officer with the British Expeditionary Force and then served in France, Gallipoli, Salonika and Egypt. and succeeded Brigadier General John Duncan as a GSO1 in April 1916.

He was appointed Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles in 1927, Brigadier-General of the General Staff at Northern Command in India in 1930. He relinquished this position on 15 March 1934 and became Director of Recruiting and Organisation at the War Office in 1934. While serving as Governor he had to consider proposals for American military bases there: these proposals were bitterly opposed by the local people at the time despite the war-time needs of the American military and he resigned at the request of the British Government in 1941 "to make way for a civilian". Bernard Park in Hamilton, Bermuda is named after him. His family home was Castlehacket House in Galway, where he died in 1956, aged 73.