Bernard Friedman

Bernard Friedman (1896 to 1984) was a South African ear surgeon who became a politician, author and businessman and co-founded the anti-apartheid Progressive Party. Educated at Pretoria Boys High School, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh as a gold medalist and specialised in aural surgery through study in London and Vienna. He practised in Johannesburg, headed the ear, nose and throat department at Johannesburg Hospital, lectured in otolaryngology at the University of the Witwatersrand and served as chief aural surgeon at the Military Hospital in Johannesburg in the Second World War. Elected to Parliament for Hillbrow in 1943, he resigned his seat in 1955 over the United Party refusal to restore Coloured voters to the common roll, then helped found the Progressive Party and led it in the Transvaal for ten years. He later became president of the South African Institute of Race Relations. His daughter is the writer Jillian Becker.