Born Bernard John Manning on 13th August 1930, in the Ancoats district of Manchester, he was of Russian, Jewish and Irish descent. Years later this was something he would note when making later jokes about the Jews and the Irish, just to to emphasise he meant no ill will.
Bernard left school aged 14 and he joined his father’s greengrocery business and then worked in a Gallaher’s tobacco factory, before joining the British Army to serve his National Service.
In much the same way as other comedians of the time (including the cast of The Goon Show), Manning held little thought of entertainment as a career.
It was upon being posted to Germany, given the responsibility of Guarding Nazi war criminals (Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer and Karl Doenitz) at Spandau Prison, Berlin just post World War II.
To pass the leisure time, Manning began to sing popular standards to entertain his fellow soldiers. Manning’s ability to achieve this led him to put free shows on at the weekends: when he began to charge admission and audiences did not decrease, he realised that there was the possibility of making money from showbusiness.
In 1959 Bernard bought Harpurhey’s Temperance Billiard Hall in 1959 and set it up alongside his Father as The Embassy Club.
Despite his ability to make people laugh, life wasn’t always happy for Bernard, as early as 1944 he lost his Brother John, his wife Veronica, known as Vera died of a heart attack in November 1986, aged 57. Finding himself home alone he moved out of the family home to live with his Mother. Bernard was struck by triple tragedy when in 1995 his Mother and his two remaining brothers Jackie and Frank also died.
For much of his later life Bernard was tee-total and diabetic. In June 2007 Bernard Manning was admitted to North Manchester General Hospital for a kidney complaint, two weeks later on Monday, 18 June 2007 at the age of 76 Bernard Manning died.
