Sir Bernard Henry Bourdillon GCMG KBE (1883–1948) was a British colonial administrator who was Governor of Uganda (1932–1935) and of Nigeria (1935–1943).

Bernard Godwin Bourdillon, Assistant Chief Secretary to Palestine, was later killed in the King David Hotel bombing in 1946.

[2] During the First World War, Bourdillon joined the army as a temporary Second Lieutenant in 1917 and was posted to Iraq in 1918.

[6] He was also invited to the Maldives in 1931 to advise Sultan Muhammad Shamsuddeen III on the drafting of the country's first written constitution.

[8] In Uganda, Bourdillon was said to have "gotten lucky" in that several issues arose while he was governor where he was able to make decisions that were popular with the African majority.

On one occasion, there was conflict between Arab merchants in Kampala (themselves immigrants from Britain's territory of Aden) and African storekeepers in the same community.

Bourdillon examined the evidence and felt it was objectively true that the Arab storekeepers had engaged in abusive practices, some of which ran counter to the laws of the Uganda Protectorate.

The entire meeting lasted only two hours, and the return of the DC and the Lango leaders to the Lango-majority region in the center of the protectorate was "triumphant.

[2] Sir Bernard Bourdillon was aligned with the reforming trend in colonial policy, and rapidly gained the respect and friendship of the educated elite of Nigeria.

On 1 February 1938, he met with the Nigerian Youth Movement to hear their complaints about the way in which the European Cocoa Pool agreement was limiting competition.

He once wrote that he "wholeheartedly rejected the foolish notion that some races are inherently superior to others" saying "such claims have no basis in either science or Christianity."

After describing how little had been spent on development and giving the reasons, he asked that the British government "should accept responsibility for financing the operations of the agricultural, forestry, geological survey, veterinary and co-operative departments" under a ten-year programme.

There was perhaps a subconscious view that the feudal society was not ready for the full impact of modern civilization.

However, he saw these councils as strictly advisory in nature, saying "a benevolent autocracy is the form of government best suited to a people who are educationally backward and whose religion inculcates a blind obedience to authority".

[citation needed] After retirement, Bourdillon continued to serve on the Colonial Economic and Development Council.

In 1946, his son, Bernard, who was working in Palestine, was killed in the King David Hotel bombing.