Constituency : Banbury 1859, 1865-95
Bernhard reclaimed the seat he had briefly won at a by-election prior to the 1859 election. He replaced fellow Liberal ( with Tory support ) Sir Charles Douglas.
Bernhard was born in Hamburg to a merchant who settled in Hull. He was in the business of exporting engineering machinery. In 1848 he bought a business selling agricultural equipment operating from Banbury. He was also responsible for building blast furnaces in Middlesbrough and Newport. He helped to develop the former town and was regarded as a good employer.
In 1865 Bernhard's Tory opponent Charles Bell tried to overturn the result on the grounds that Bernhard was an alien but was unsuccessful because Bernhard's grandfather had been born in London. Bernhard was an advanced Liberal. In 1867 he thought it disreputable to oppose Disraeli's Reform Bill after he had made concessions.
Bernhard brought his technical knowledge to bear in committees on scientific instruction, railways and patents and was a member of the Royal Commission on the 1878 Paris Exhibition. He was a great supporter of technical education and founded a technical institute in Banbury in 1884. He was made a baronet in the same year.
Bernhard stood down in 1895.
He died in 1905 aged 84.
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