Neil Cameron Bernard, Church of Scotland missionary in Nigeria and Malawi and Foreign Mission Secretary, was born in Edinburgh on 10 January 1909. After leaving school in 1924, Bernard worked as an accountant for the local stationers, Waterston and Sons, until in 1930 he was appointed a lay missionary to Calabar, Nigeria. He spent four years working in the Calabar book store returning in 1934 to train for the ministry. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and New College from where he received an MA in 1938. He was also student assistant at Dunfermline St John's between 1934 and 1936 and in 1938 spent some time at the University of Tübingen.
Bernard was ordained for foreign mission service in Calabar in 1939, then from 1947 to 1949 he was Men Candidates' Secretary for the Foreign Mission Department of the Church of Scotland. He returned to the field in 1950, being appointed Regional Secretary for Central Africa based at Blantyre, Nyasaland (Malawi) and was also Secretary of the Nyasaland Christian Council between 1952 and 1959. Back in Edinburgh Bernard was Secretary for the Foreign Mission Committee Africa Area from 1960. He retired in 1976 and died on 15 January 1991.
From the guide to the Neil Bernard Papers, 1884-1985, (Centre for the Study of World Christianity)
