Hotel magnate Lord Charles Forte, a London milk bar owner who went on to build an international hotel and restaurant empire, has died at the age of 98.
He was interned during World War II because of his Italian nationality, but released after three months to becomean adviser to the Ministry of Food.
After the war he continued to expand his business, buying the former Lyons tea room off Piccadilly Circus and ending up with almost 250 hotels in Britain and Ireland, chains of hotels and motels in America, Canada, Mexico and Tahiti, motorway service stations, and catering at 24 airports in Europe.
The one jewel that eluded him was the Savoy Hotel Group, whose chairman, Sir Hugh Wontner, thwarted Forte's repeated attempts to acquire the chain. In 1981 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher gave him a peerage.
He remained the company's president until its eventual takeover by Granada in 1996.
