Bernard studied at King’s School, Kew and at the University
of London, where he graduated with an MA in English Literature in 1911. He
taught at Borough Road College, then Sir J. Williamson’s Mathematical School in
Rochester, and then Coopers Company’s School in Bow and, at the time of his
enlistment, also taught English Literature at an evening class at the Working
Men’s College in London.
Bernard married Florence Mary Miller in June 1906 and the
couple had four daughters.
When war
broke out in 1914, Bernard joined a volunteer corps and was then commissioned as
a 2nd Lieutenant into the 10th Battalion of the Border
Regiment in April 1915 and attached to 47 Trench Mortar Battery. He was sent to the Western Front where he
was put in command of a Mortar Battery in February 1916.
After he joined the Army, Bernard was greatly missed by those he taught and a pupil at his evening class described him as “a devoted teacher”.
Bernard was posted missing,
presumed killed at Arras on 30th April 1916 and is remembered on the
Arras Memorial in France.
Bernard’s WW1 poetry collection ‘Essays, poems, letters’ was
published in 1917 by Francis Edwards, Marylebone, London – with an Introduction
by Alfred J. Wyatt who took over Bernard’s English Literature class at the
Working Men’s College in London.
Some of Bernard’s poems were also published in “The
Westminster Gazette” and in the Cooper Company’s School Magazine.
Catherine W. Reilly ‘English Poetry of the First World War A
Bibliography’ (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978)
The full text of ‘Essays, poems, letters’ is available to
read free on Archive: https://archive.org/stream/essayspoemslette00pittiala/essayspoemslette00pittiala_djvu.txt
