Bernard Sunley
Bernard Sunley | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 November 1910 Catford, London, England |
| Died | 20 November 1964 (aged 54) Hampstead, London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | property developer |
| Known for | founder, Bernard Sunley & Sons |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Richard Tice (grandson) |
Bernard Sunley (4 November 1910 – 20 November 1964) was a British property developer, and the founder of Bernard Sunley & Sons.
Born at Catford in south-east London, he was educated at St Ann's School in Hanwell.[1] After leaving school aged 14 he hired a horse and cart to move earth, and then moved into the landscape gardening business.[2] One of his first major contracts was re-laying the pitch at Highbury for Arsenal FC.[3]
From earth-moving Sunley moved into the open-cast mining business. In 1940, he founded Bernard Sunley & Sons.[4] During the Second World War he built over 100 airfields, and in 1942 he purchased the business of Blackwood Hodge, then a supplier of agricultural machinery and later a successful plant hire and sale business.[5] He subsequently "ranked alongside the most successful property developers of the 1950s property boom".[4]
Sunley campaigned as Conservative party candidate for Ealing West in 1945, but was unsuccessful.
Sunley established the Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation in 1960 with a pledge of £300,000-worth of shares. As of 2011, it had made grants of more than £92 million.[3]
He died in 1964. His son, John Sunley (died 2011) was a property developer and philanthropist.[3] His grandson is Richard Tice, a businessman and Brexit Party politician.
Bernard Sunley Hall, named after him, was an eponymous hall of residence for Imperial College London students on Evelyn Gardens Square.[6]
See also
- City Tower, Manchester (formerly Sunley House)
References
- ^ ‘SUNLEY, Bernard’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016
- ^ "Bernard Sunley, builder, is dead". Retrieved 15 October 2017.
- ^ a b c John Sunley , The Daily Telegraph, 22 March 2011
- ^ a b "Sunley, Bernard (1910–1964)". ODNB. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
- ^ "Blackwood Hodge Memories". Retrieved 15 October 2017.
- ^ "Evelyn Gardens". Imperial College London. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
 | This United Kingdom business-related biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |