Bernard ‘Ben’ Sullivan
Senior toastmaster who worked at the Bank of England by day
BERNARD ‘BEN’ SULLIVAN, who has died aged 96, was senior toastmaster of the Society of London Toastmasters, the leading society in its field.
In his long career Sullivan officiated at 27 Lord Mayor’s Banquets and at more than 200 state banquets. He deemed it a special honour to serve the Royal family at celebrations which included various wedding anniversaries and birthdays of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
He officiated at many visits by other heads of state and at some 240 semi-state banquets, a confidential friend who got on equally well with bishops, judges, actors, actresses and entrepreneurs. Sophia Loren, whom he met at Variety Club International in Monaco and at the launch of the P& O cruise liner Crown Princess, was one of his favourites and a fan.
As an amateur boxer in his youth Sullivan was delighted when in 1964 he was asked, when toastmastering the Boxing Writers’ Dinner, if he would be master of ceremonies at the National Sporting Club. He subsequently oversaw 58 title contests, including 15 world championship bouts, at Wembley and the Royal Albert Hall. Sullivan started toastmastering not to make money but to meet interesting people, and he gave his services free to various charities, his favourite being the Royal Society for the Blind, whose New Year’s Eve Limelight Ball he ran for 30 years.
Bernard “Ben” James Sullivan was born in Islington on April 3 1920 and brought up in Hoxton, where he won a scholarship to the Smithfield Meat Trade Institute, became school captain and excelled at swimming.
His first job was in the accounts office of Smithfield Market, but on the outbreak of war he volunteered for the Navy. He served as a seaman in trawlers on minesweeping and patrol duties, was selected for officer-training, came top in his passing-out examination, was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant, and served in landing craft.
On D-Day he commanded a flotilla of assault landing craft in which the 1st Battalion, the Dorsetshire Regiment, were embarked. Others were carried some distance eastward by wind and tide, but Sullivan, appreciating the conditions, executed a 90-degree turn to starboard and landed his passengers accurately on their designated part of Sword Beach.
On demobilisation in 1946 he joined the Bank of England where he served for 34 years, mainly in exchange control. In the war, however, Sullivan had compèred many events to keep “his boys” out of trouble, an experience which proved useful when in 1955 he joined the Society of London Toastmasters. He would work by day at the Bank and then several evenings a week go straight on to his toastmastering duties, until in 1980 he became a full-time toastmaster.
He possessed a great memory for people and places and wrote Sullivan’s Stories, a collection of short stories about his life at sea in the war and his experiences of toastmastering.
He remembered the precise moment when he met WRNS Rosie Ross, at 11.03 on April 12 1943, and turning to a friend exclaimed: “I’ve just met the girl I’m going to marry!” They were married on Trafalgar Day 1944 at St Bartholomew-the-Great in Smithfield. His wife became his business manager for his toastmaster duties, making his bookings, washing and ironing a clean shirt and waistcoat, and starching his collar for each occasion. She would meet him, however late the event, to drive him home.
In 1990 Sullivan was appointed MBE for services to the Lord Mayors and the City of London Corporation. As Registrar of Protocol of the Society of London Toastmasters he wrote the society’s bible of etiquette and was twice president and later honorary life president.
His wife survives him with their son and a daughter. Another son predeceased him.
Ben Sullivan, born April 3 1920, died February 3 2017