Notes
Robert Hamilton Bernays was born at Stanmore in Middlesex on 6 May 1902, the youngest son of the Reverend Prebendary Stewart Bernays OBE, and Lilian (née Stephenson). He was educated at Rossall School from 1916 and entered Worcester College on 14 October 1921.
While up at Worcester, Robert Bernays was a member of the College Boat Club, rowing in the 2nd Torpid in 1922 and 1923, the 2nd Eight in 1923, and the 1st Torpid in 1924. He was elected President of the Worcester College Junior Common Room and President of the Oxford Union. He graduated in 1925 with an aegrotat degree in Modern History, awarded because he was too ill to take Finals.
After leaving Oxford, Robert Bernays was a journalist of the Daily News until 1930 when the newspaper was taken over and he was made redundant. For the next year he travelled to Australia and India. In 1931 he stood as the Liberal candidate for Bristol North and was elected with a majority of 13,214. Following a visit to Germany in the autumn of 1932 he became something of an expert on the country and was a fierce critic of the Nazi Party. Following the general election of 1935, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health in the National Government, moving to Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport in 1939.
Robert Bernays married Nancy Britton in 1942 and they had two sons, born February 1943 and October 1944. He enlisted as a sapper in the Royal Engineers in 1942 before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Movement Control Section on 16 January 1943.
On 23 January 1945 Robert Bernays took off from Rome in a Beech 18 Expeditor, flown by an RAF pilot, bound for Brindisi where he was to be part of a parliamentary delegation visiting British troops. Also on board was John Dermot Campbell MP, Member of Parliament for Antrim. A second aircraft containing the rest of the delegation took off three minutes later but turned back when it ran into a violent and severe snow storm. The aircraft with Robert Bernays on board failed to arrive at its destination, and no trace was found following an extensive search of its route. Lieutenant Robert Bernays was subsequently determined to have been killed on active service on 23 January 1945. He was 42 years old.
Robert Bernays is commemorated on the Cassino Memorial in Italy, and on the war memorials of Rossall School and Worcester College, Oxford.