Bernard Waley-Cohen

Sir Bernard Nathaniel Waley-Cohen, 1st Baronet (29 May 1914 – 3 July 1991) was a British businessman. He was the 633rd Lord Mayor of London, elected in 1960.

Biography

The son of Sir Robert Waley Cohen and Alice (née Beddington), Waley-Cohen was educated at Clifton College where he was a member of Polack's House. He was an Alderman City of London for Portsoken Ward, 1949–84; Sheriff of London, 1955–56; Lord Mayor of London, 1960–61; one of the Lieutenants, City of London, 1949–1991. He was a director of the Palestine Corporation, founded in 1922 by a number British businessmen to promote economic development in the British mandate of Palestine. Waley-Cohen was a member of the College Committee of University College London, 1953–80. He was Treasurer 1962–70, Vice-Chairman 1970 and Chairman, 1971–80. In former times, as Alderman, he sometimes sat as sole Justice in the Mansion House Justice Room.

He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1957 and made a Baronet of Honeymead in the County of Somerset, in 1961.

Waley-Cohen married the Hon. Joyce Constance Ina, daughter of Harry Nathan, 1st Baron Nathan (1920–2013). They had four children:

• Rosalind Burdon (married to businessman and former New Zealand politician and Cabinet Minister, Hon Philip Burdon)
• Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen
• Joanna Waley-Cohen
• Robert Waley-Cohen

Their grandson (son of Robert) is the amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen who won the 2022 Grand National riding Noble Yeats. A 50/1 odds outsider, it was described as a fairytale win.

Arms