Sir Charles Forte was born as Carmine Forte in Mortale, now Monforte, Casalattico, in the province of Frosinone, Italy in 1908. After Rome Forte rejoined his family, who had moved to Weston-super-Mare, where his father ran a café with two cousins.
He attended Alloa Academy and then Saint Joseph"s College, Dumfries as a boarder followed by two years in Rome.
He emigrated from Italy to Scotland at the age of four with his family. Charles"s main training at the age of 21 came in Brighton, where he managed the Venetian Lounge for a cousin. At 26, he set up his first "milk bar" in 1935, the Strand Milk Bar Limited, in Regent Street, London, having thoroughly researched the location.
Soon he began expanding into catering and hotel businesses.
At the outbreak of World World War II, Forte was interned in the Isle of Manitoba due to his Italian nationality, but he was released after only three months. After the war, his company became Forte Holdings Limited, and bought the Café Royal in 1954.
In the 1950s he also opened the first catering facility at Heathrow Airport and the first full British motorway service station for cars at Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire on the M1 motorway in 1959. He purchased the Hungaria Restaurant in Lower Regent Saint in 1955.
Forte was knighted by The Queen Mother in 1970 and created a life peer on 2 February 1982 as Baron Forte, of Ripley in the County of Surrey.
Trust Houses Group Limited and Forte Holdings were merged in 1970 to become Trust House Forte or THF. Through mergers and expansion, Forte expanded the Forte Group into a multibillion-pound business. His empire included the Little Chef and Happy Eater roadside restaurants, Crest, Forte Grand, Travelodge and Posthouse hotels, as well as the wine merchant Grierson-Blumenthal and a majority (although non-controlling) stake in the Savoy Hotel. The Grierson-Blumenthal stake was a "forced" acquisition by the group.
lieutenant had originally 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 concern in the late 1970s about prosecution under the Companies Acting obliged the directors to incorporate Grierson-Blumenthal as a subsidiary.
Happy Eater and the five Welcome Break service areas were bought from Hanson Trust Public Limited Company on 1 August 1986. In the 1990s, the company was renamed as Forte Group PLC
Lord Forte died in his sleep on 28 February 2007 at his home in London, aged 98.
He is buried in West Hampstead Cemetery. They worshipped at the Roman Catholic Saint Mary"s Church in nearby Holly Lane, Hampstead.
Together they had six children, five girls and a boy:
Sir Rocco Forte b.
1945 as Rocco John Vincent Forte
Honorary Olga Forte b. 1947, mother of the television hotel presenter Alexandra Polizzi. Honorary Marie Louise Forte b.
1950
Honorary
Irene Forte b. 1956
Honorary Giancarla Forte b. 1959
Honorary Portia Forte b.
1964
Lady Irene Forte died in 2010.
