{{Short description|British colonial administrator (1911–1983)}} {{about||the United States Navy admiral|Michael D. Bernacchi}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Use British English|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Michael Bernacchi | full_name = | image = | caption = | order = Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands | lieutenant = | term_start = 5 August 1952 | term_end = October 1961 | predecessor = John Peel | successor = Val Andersen | birth_date = {{birth date|1911|5|5|df=y}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|1983|8|20|1911|5|5|df=y}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Colonial Service | party = | spouse = | children = | alma_mater = }}
'''Michael Louis Bernacchi''' {{post-nominals|CMG|OBE}} (5 May 1911 – 20 August 1983) was a British colonial administrator, who was the Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands from 1952 to 1961.<ref> {{cite book |last= Walsh |first= Michael Ravell |author-link= |date= 2020 |title= A History of Kiribati: From the Earliest Times to the 40th Anniversary of the Republic |url= |location= |publisher= |page= <!-- or pages= --> |isbn=9-79869535-895-7 }}</ref>
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.<ref name="EB">{{cite web|first= |last= |title = Recounting memories of a colonial past| date =23 September 2014|url= https://www.nationthailand.com/international/30243958|publisher= The Star Asia News Network|access-date=12 December 2021}}</ref>
He was the eldest son of Louis Bernacchi, an Australian physicist and astronomer best known for his role in several Antarctic expeditions.<ref name="MB">{{cite web|first= |last= |title = Heritage Assessment – Statement of Significance - Heritage Item Number 328| date =23 March 2015|url= https://districtplan.ccc.govt.nz/Images/DistrictPlanImages/Statement%20of%20Significance/Christchurch/HID%20328.pdf |publisher= Christchurch City Council|access-date=12 December 2021}}</ref> 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.<ref>''Grappling with the Bomb: Britain's Pacific H-bomb tests'', by Nic Maclellan, published 2017 by ANU Press, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.</ref>
Between 1966 and 1983 he lived in Christchurch, New Zealand. He donated many of his father's Antarctic collection to the Canterbury Museum,<ref name="MB"/> that related to the Carstens Borchgrevink's Southern Cross expedition (1898–1900) and the Discovery expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott (1901–1904).
Bernacchi died on 20 August 1983, at the age of 72.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bernacchi, Michael Louis |url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/display/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-161962?rskey=U2XgAq&result=1 |website=WHO WAS WHO 2024 |access-date=11 January 2024}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernacchi, Michael}} Category:1911 births Category:1983 deaths Category:Colonial Administrative Service officers Category:Governors of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Royal Navy officers