Lord Charles Forte

(November 26, 1908 - February 28, 2007)

Lord Charles Forte was born in 1908 in the village of Monforte Casalaticco, Italy. In 1913, he and his mother joined his father in Scotland where the family opened a successful restaurant and ice cream parlor. After completing his education in Scotland and Italy, Lord Forte managed a large family foodservice business at the age of 21. However, his vision was to have his own restaurant. Within five years he opened the Meadow Milk Bar at an exceptional location in central London. In spite of the economic conditions in Britain after World War II, the milk bar's success enabled Lord Forte to expand his company to include nine additional restaurants, as well as numerous government catering contracts and all of the airline catering for Heathrow Airport. He even received the contract to cater all of the food served at the 1951 Festival of Britain, an exhibition on the South Bank, London, that had nearly 8? million visitors in four months.

Lord Forte purchased his first hotel, London's Waldorf in 1958, and in 1962, his company entered the London Stock Exchange. His was the first company to recognize the importance of highway travelers by opening the first motorway service area in Britain. Three prestigious hotels in Paris made up the company's first major international hotel acquisition in 1968: the George V, the Plaza Athenee and the Tremoille. Ahead of his time in recognizing the future importance of tourism, Lord Forte became "founder member" of the London Tourist Board. The 1970 merger with Trust Houses PLC and the 1973 purchase of the US-based Travelodge properties helped to establish Forte PLC as a major force in the hotel and food service industry of Great Britain and around the world. In 1995, Forte PLC had 940 hotels with 97,000 rooms and more than 600 restaurants, including the original Meadow Milk Bar.

Lord Forte received his knighthood in 1970 and became a life peer in 1982. He is a Knight of the Grand Cross of the Italian Republic and was personally presented with a special Papal Medal by Pope Pious XII.

Lord Forte worked throughout his career to raise the status and establish the importance of the hospitality industry and tourism as a whole. As Margaret Thatcher once said, "Charles Forte is a man whose vision has never dimmed. . . When he founded his business he was equipped with two vital strengths, a clear sense of right and wrong inherited from his parents and a sound education from his childhood in Scotland. By adding to these his own enterprise, determination and leadership, he has built a company which has provided billions of pounds in foreign earnings for our country and jobs for tens of thousands of people across the world."

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