Peter de Savary, the real estate entrepreneur, hotelier and yachtsman, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday 30 October, following a buccaneering career that spanned six decades and four continents.

Known as PdeS, he became well known in the 1980s as both a keen yachtsman leading the British challenge for the America’s Cup in 1983, and as an entrepreneur who at one point owned both the most southern and northern points of the UK, Land’s End and John O’Groats.

Born in 1944, the cigar-smoking aficionado invested in an eclectic range of businesses and industries.

His business interests included the development of the worldwide St James’ Clubs and The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle, which hosted Madonna's wedding to Guy Ritchie, through to shipyards and the regeneration of industrial wasteland in the US and UK. He developed over 60 hotels, resorts and hospitality projects, including seven championship golf courses and three world-class marinas.

His family explained in a statement: "Having started out with nothing when he left school at 16, his entrepreneurial spirit, creative vision and the wonderful friendships he made throughout his career helped the many successes he had. He forged partnerships based on friendship across the world, working with local partners from the offset of his career, starting in the 1960s when he established an import/export business in Nigeria, then in the Middle East in the 1970s where he collaborated on projects ranging from oil contracts with the national oil company, to the creation of a royal camel milking parlour for the King of Saudi Arabia."

He will be remembered for his philanthropy, particularly focused on initiatives that supported animals and disadvantaged children. He was committed to his work as a Patron and board member of the British Teenage Cancer Trust.

In recent years, he spent his time developing a portfolio of boutique hotels with his wife Lana, who will remain as chairman, alongside the existing management team.

He was known for reinventing historic British spaces into luxury places to stay, including his beach huts at The Cary Arms, potting shed rooms at the Eastbury Hotel and shepherds huts at The Dittersham Hideaway.

His family added in a statement: "He was a man of tremendous vision with boundless energy, enthusiasm and attention to detail and he inspired tremendous loyalty from all those who worked with him. He was at his happiest smoking a large Cuban cigar, on a vintage sailboat with his trusty chihuahua by his side, and despite all his many achievements and successes, he always maintained the most important thing in life was family."

His wife Lana de Savary said: “Peter was extraordinary, not just as a businessman but as a wonderful mentor, loving husband and devoted father of his five daughters. He was a remarkable man and an enormous gap will be left in our lives without him.”