Charles Carmine Forte, Baron Forte (26 November 1908 – 28 February 2007) was an Italian-born Scottish hotelier who founded the leisure and hotels conglomerate that ultimately became the

Forte Group Forte Group plc was a British hotel and restaurant company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, F ...

Early life

Charles Forte was born as Carmine Forte in Mortale, now Monforte, Casalattico, in the province of

Frosinone Frosinone (; local dialect: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lazio, administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is about southeast of Rome, close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of th ...

, Italy on 26 November 1908, eldest son of Rocco Giovanni Forte and Maria Luigia, daughter of Michelangelo Antonio Forte. His parents were distantly related.Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 1, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 1472Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2005-2008, ed. Lawrence Goldman, Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 387 He emigrated from Italy to Scotland at the age of four with his family. He attended

Alloa Academy Alloa Academy is a six-year state school, state-funded school, serving the town of Alloa in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. The pupil intake comes from four "feeder" primary schools, Redwell, Sunnyside, St. Mungo's and Park, and varies from a midd ...

and then St. Joseph's College, Dumfries, as a boarder, followed by two years of studies in Rome.

Early career

After Rome, Forte rejoined his family, who had moved to

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...

, where his father ran a café with two cousins. Charles' main training at the age of 21 came in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

, where he managed the Venetian. At 26, he set up his first "milk bar" in 1935, the Strand Milk Bar Ltd. Soon he began expanding into catering and hotel businesses. At the outbreak of World War II, Forte was

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

in the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

due to his Italian nationality, but he was released after only three months. After the war, his company became Forte Holdings Ltd and bought the Café Royal in 1954. In the 1950s, he also opened the first catering facility at

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...

and the first full motorway service station in the UK for cars at

Newport Pagnell Newport Pagnell is a town and civil parish in the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The Office for National Statistics records Newport Pagnell as part of the Milton Keynes urban area. The town is separated from the rest of the u ...

, Buckinghamshire, on the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

in 1959. He purchased the Hungaria Restaurant in Lower Regent St. in 1955.

Later career

Grave of Charles Forte in West Hampstead Cemetery

Trust Houses Group Ltd and Forte Holdings were merged in 1970 to become

Trust House Forte Forte Group plc was a British hotel and restaurant company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Granada in 1996. Its head office was in the London Borough of Camden. ...

or THF. Through mergers and expansion, Forte expanded the Forte Group into a multibillion-pound business. His empire included the

Little Chef Little Chef was a British chain of roadside restaurants; founded in 1958 by Sam Alper and Peter Merchant who were inspired by American Diner, diners. The chain was famous for the "Olympic Breakfast" – its version of a full English breakfast � ...

and

Happy Eater Happy Eater was a restaurant chain, chain of restaurants in England and Wales. Founded by Sir Michael Pickard in 1973, the chain wanted to compete against the British roadside restaurant category killer at the time, Little Chef. The chain was ac ...

roadside restaurants, Crest, Forte Grand,

Travelodge Travelodge or Travelodge by Wyndham (formerly branded ''TraveLodge'') refers to several hotel chains around the world. Current operations include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and several co ...

and Posthouse hotels, as well as the wine merchant Grierson-Blumenthal and a non-controlling majority stake in the

Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 1 ...

. The Grierson-Blumenthal stake became a legally "forced" acquisition by the group. It had been a personal holding of Charles Forte and fellow directors of the group, supplying liquor to Forte restaurants and hotels at substantial personal profit, until the prejudice to shareholders was realised in the late 1970s (including possible prosecution under the

Companies Act Companies Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Botswana, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom in relation to company law. The Bill for an Act with this short title w ...

) which obliged its acquisition as a subsidiary. Forte was the CEO from 1971 and chairman from 1982 (when his son

Rocco Rocco or Rocko is both a given name and a surname. Rocco is a masculine name of Italian origin. It is thought to derive from the Old German word "hrok", which means to rest or repose. The name is associated with a fourteenth-century Catholic saint, ...

took over as CEO) of the Group. Happy Eater and the five Welcome Break major road service outlets were bought from Hanson Trust PLC on 1 August 1986. In the 1990s, the company increased its nominal capital and agreed to the public listed companies compliance regime to become Forte Group plc. Lord Forte passed full control to his son Rocco in 1993, but soon the plc was faced with a hostile takeover bid from

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

. Ultimately, Granada succeeded with a £3.9 billion

tender offer In corporate finance, a tender offer is a type of public takeover bid. The tender offer is a public, open offer or invitation (usually announced in a newspaper advertisement) by a prospective acquirer to all stockholders of a publicly traded corp ...

in January 1996, which left the family with about £350 million in cash. On 28 February 2007, Forte died in his sleep at his home in London, aged 98. He is buried in West Hampstead Cemetery.

Honours and awards

Forte was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was also ...

in 1970 and created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

on 2 February 1982 as Baron Forte, of Ripley in the County of

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. He was also a knight of the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious ...

Family

In January 1943, Forte married Irene Mary, daughter of Giovanni Chierico, of Venice; her family ran a delicatessen on

Wardour Street Wardour Street () is a street in Soho, City of Westminster, London. It is a one-way street that runs north from Leicester Square, through Chinatown, London, Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street. Throughout the 20th century th ...

Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

. Lady Forte had been apprenticed to a

Mayfair Mayfair is an area of Westminster, London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. It is between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and one of the most expensive districts ...

couturier, where she learned sewing and gained an appreciation of quality materials. After her father's death when she was 17, she ran the family shop for three months whilst her mother was in Italy; it was destroyed by a bomb during the Blitz in 1940. From the 1950s, Forte lived with an extended family including his parents and children at Greenway Gardens in

Frognal Frognal is a small area of Hampstead, North West London in the London Borough of Camden. Frognal is reinforced as the name of a minor road, which goes uphill from Finchley Road and at its upper end is in the west of Hampstead village. Histor ...

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, London. They attended services at the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

St. Mary's Church in nearby Holly Lane,

. Together, they had six children, five girls and a boy: * The Hon. Sir Rocco John Vincent Forte (b. 1945), who was knighted in 1995. On 15 February 1986, he married Aliai Giovanna Maria Ricci in Rome. They have three children. * The Hon. Olga Forte CBE (b. 1947), who was married firstly to the late Count Alessandro Polizzi and secondly, in 1993, to The Hon.

William Shawcross Sir William Hartley Hume Shawcross (born 28 May 1946) is a British journalist, writer, and broadcaster. He is the incumbent Commissioner for Public Appointments. From 2012 to 2018 he chaired the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Shawcr ...

. Olga had two children with Alessandro: ** Alexandra Polizzi, a hotelier and the presenter of Channel 5's '' The Hotel Inspector'' **Charlotte Polizzi (b.1973), who married TV celebrity Oliver Peyton * The Hon. Marie Louise Forte (b. 1950), who married Robert Alexander Burness and had two children. * The Hon. Irene Forte (b. 1956), who married US Ambassador John Danilovich and had three children. * The Hon. Giancarla Forte (b. 1959), who married Michael Ulic Anthony Alen-Buckley and had two children. Irene, Lady Forte died 12 September 2010,The Telegraph, 14 September 2010, "Notices" and she is buried with her husband. Lord Forte's family came from Mortale (later renamed Monforte in his honour), in the Lazio region of

Central Italy Central Italy ( or ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region with code ITI, and a European Parliament constituency. It has 11,704,312 inhabita ...

, where he retained the family home.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forte, Charles 1908 births 2007 deaths British hospitality businesspeople Forte, Baron Life peers created by Elizabeth II Knights Bachelor 20th-century Scottish businesspeople Scottish company founders Italian emigrants to the United Kingdom Italian Roman Catholics Scottish people of Italian descent Scottish Roman Catholics British hoteliers People educated at St Joseph's College, Dumfries People educated at Alloa Academy People interned in the Isle of Man during World War II Forte family