Life
He was the eldest son of London Sephardic Spanish Jewish Parliamentarian Ralph Bernal, himself an MP, who died in 1854, and wife Ann Elizabeth (née White). The younger Bernal entered the military in 1831, as an Ensign of the 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot. He later served with the 7th (Royal Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot, and finally left the army in 1844 with the rank of Captain.
He had already been elected to Parliament in 1841 as a member for Chipping Wycombe, in the Liberal interest, and later sat for Middlesex (1847–57), Dover (1857–9), Liskeard (1859–65), Nottingham (1866–8), and Waterford City (1870–74).
In the Railway Times of 21 June 1845 he is the first person listed in the provisional committee for the Leicester, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Burton-upon-Trent and Stafford Junction Railway: Ralph R. Bernal Osborne, MP for Wycombe, address: Albemarle Street. The railway was never built.
Beside being a Parliamentarian, he was also Secretary of the Admiralty.
When he died, his house at Newtown Anner, Clonmel, County Tipperary, Munster, Ireland, was surrounded by more than 13,000 acres (53 km2) of land.
Read more about this topic: Ralph Bernal Osborne
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“We swim, day by day, on a river of delusions, and are effectually amused with houses and towns in the air, of which the men about us are dupes. But life is a sincerity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Well, on the official record you’re my son. But on this post you’re just another trooper. You heard me tell the recruits what I need from them. Twice that I will expect from you.... You’ve chosen my way of life. I hope you have the guts enough to endure it. But put outa your mind any romantic ideas that it’s a way to glory. It’s a life of suffering and of hardship and uncompromising devotion to your oath and your duty.”
—James Kevin McGuinness, and John Ford. Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke (John Wayne)
“Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth, that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning; that there is always another dawn risen on mid-noon, and under every deep a lower deep opens.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)