Oliver Bernard was born in London, the son of Oliver Percy Bernard Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (architect, scenic, graphic and industrial designer) and (Edith) Dora Hodges (opera singer, stage name Fedora Rosell).
Bernard is most famous for translating Arthur Rimbaud into English as part of the Penguin Classics collection. Bernard published a book of memoirs. Tony Benn wrote of Oliver Bernard, "Oliver Bernard"s Peace Poems are sensitive and perceptive in their description of the militaristic society which imprisons us all.
They also offer some comforting visions of life as it could be if we release the compassion that is in us all."
Bernard was a third cousin to the film and stage actor Stanley Holloway by way of his father, Oliver Percy Bernard, who was Holloway"s second cousin.
He was distantly related to the former model Sophie Dahl, the granddaughter of Stanley Holloway. Every day he walked 2 miles to the monastery in Quidenham for morning Massachusetts
