Bernard Middleton, MBE (1986), was a self-employed book restorer and designer bookbinder from 1953-2016.
He was the son of Regent Marcus Geoffrey Middleton, bookbinder, and Doris Hilda Middleton (nee Webster). In 1951 he married Dora Mary Davies, an accountant, formerly in the WRAF, who died in 1997.
Bernard was educated at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, and apprenticed to the British Museum Binder in 1940. In 1943 he was awarded the City and Guilds of London Institute’s Silver Medal (1st Prize)– an honour returned when he became the institute’s chief examiner in bookbinding from 1957-63. He served in the Home Guard from 1941-43 and in the Royal Navy from 1943-46.