Bernard Sunley

Sunley was born on 4 November 1910, in Catford. He was the son of John Sunley, a florist and fruiterer, and was educated at St Ann's School in Hanwell in Ealing.^[1] After leaving school at the age of fourteen, he hired a horse and cart to move earth, and then went into the landscape gardening business.^[2] One of his first major contracts was re-laying the pitch at Highbury for Arsenal FC.^[3]

In November 1931, at Holy Trinity Church, Southall, Sunley married Mary Goddard, a daughter of William Goddard, a farmer, of Waxlow Farm, Southall.^[4] They had two daughters and a son.

From earth-moving, Sunley moved into the open-cast mining business. In 1940, he founded Bernard Sunley & Sons.^[5] 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.^[6] He subsequently "ranked alongside the most successful property developers of the 1950s property boom".^[5]

Sunley campaigned as a Conservative Party candidate for Ealing West in 1945, but was unsuccessful.^{[citation needed]}

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]

Sunley died in 1964. His son, John Sunley (died 2011) was a property developer and philanthropist.^[3] His grandson is Richard Tice, a businessman and deputy leader of Reform UK.

Bernard Sunley Hall, named after him, is a hall of residence for Imperial College London students at 40–44 Evelyn Gardens.^[7]

• City Tower, Manchester (formerly Sunley House)