Michael Bernacchi

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Michael Bernacchi
Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands
In office
5 Aug 1952 – Oct 1961
Preceded byJohn Peel
Succeeded byVal Andersen
Personal details
Born1911 (1911)
Died1983 (aged 71–72)
NationalityBritish
OccupationColonial Service

Michael Louis Bernacchi CMG OBE (1911–1983) was a British colonial administrator, who was the Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands from 1952 to 1961.[1]

Bernacchi also served as a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy, and as a district officer in the Colonial Office in British Malaya during the Malayan Emergency.[2]

He was the eldest son of Louis Bernacchi, an Australian physicist and astronomer best known for his role in several Antarctic expeditions.[3] He married Elaine Chapman from Navua, Fiji. Chapman was the granddaughter of Sir John Maynard Hedstrom, founder of Morris Hedstrom and Company, the largest trading corporation in Fiji.[4]

Between 1966 and 1983 he lived in Christchurch, New Zealand. He donated many of his father's Antarctic collection to the Canterbury Museum,[3] that related to the Carstens Borchgrevink's Southern Cross expedition (1898–1900) and the Discovery expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott (1901–1904).

References[]

  1. ^ Walsh, Michael Ravell (2020). A History of Kiribati: From the Earliest Times to the 40th Anniversary of the Republic. ISBN 9-79869535-895-7.
  2. ^ "Recounting memories of a colonial past". The Star Asia News Network. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Heritage Assessment – Statement of Significance - Heritage Item Number 328" (PDF). Christchurch City Council. 23 March 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  4. ^ Grappling with the Bomb: Britain's Pacific H-bomb tests, by Nic Maclellan, published 2017 by ANU Press, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
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