F.S. Berning

Mr F.S. Berning (18*-18* ) is the author, "lately from Cape Town", of an article under the heading Amateur Theatre in the Pietermaritzburg newspaper De Natalier, mentioning the "excellent Collection of Plays" he had brought with him , most of them successfully performed, and his aim of helping young people to form a subscription theatrical company.

The article is cited by Sam Sly (Sam Sly's African Journal, 31 October, 1844), and Sly's version is quoted by F.C.L. Bosman (1928: p. 510), who then suggests that "Berning" may have been the pseudonym of Charles Etienne Boniface, lately arrived in Pietermaritzburg in 1844 and involved in setting up De Natalier.