KEITH Cullup, former president and treasurer of the Slough Rotary Club, has died, aged 84.

He was well known in banking circles, and was a former Lloyds manager in Slough High Street West.

Friends and Rotary Club members paid tribute to him this week, describing him as a ‘one-off character and a real gentleman’ He also had a great sense of humour and was an admirer of Winston Churchill. Friends say he had somehow acquired Churchill’s wit, wisdom, eloquence and obstinacy, as well as the great man’s cantankerous traits.

When a guest speaker at a lunchtime meeting asked: “How long have I got?” Keith replied: “Speak as long as you like, but we all pack up at 2pm to return to work.”

He was a keen Freemason and an accomplished church organist, and travelled the country to play at various churches.

Former colleagues, particularly those who were dismissed from employment, remember him with affection for fighting their cases at tribunals.

Ex-colleagues say he was a representative of the Banking Federation, sat at Reading industrial tribunals, and never lost a case.

Slough Rotary Club member David Gould said: “He was a gentleman in every sense of the word and was a very popular man. He will be a great loss to Rotary and we will miss him.”

Mr Cullup, born in Peterborough, lived with his wife, Shirley, at Burghfield Common, near Reading.

He leaves two children from his first marriage.

Slough Rotary Club secretary, Robin Weathersbee, said Mr Cullup had been a Rotarian for almost 32 years.

He said that Mr Cullup had dedicated most of his life to helping others, particularly those who had been unfairly dismissed.

Mr Cullup jokingly told new friends that he and Shirley were married on February 29, which meant they could only celebrate their anniversary every four years.

He was president of Slough Rotary Club in 1996. His colleagues awarded him the prestigious Paul Harris Fellowship. After he retired he settled in Tetsworth, near Thame, Oxon and joined the Haddenham and District Rotary Club.

He was a great friend of Michael Parkinson’s Bray musician pal Laurie Holloway and his songstress wife, the late Marian Montgomery, and was chairman of the Montgomery Holloway Trust charity.

He enjoyed many managerial appointments during his lengthy banking career, and worked in a variety of towns, including Aylesbury, High Wycombe, and Slough.

He frequently joined his former Slough Rotary friends on their trips to the US and France.