JOHN Plank, one of the most famous and best loved names in the Dorset travel business has died at the age of 89.

Mr Plank was in the travel trade for nearly six decades.

He started up John Plank Travel in 1969 and built its success largely on the force of his personality and a reputation for unfailing courtesy.

He passed away on Tuesday at his home in Ringwood after a short illness.

Stephen Bath, the boss of Bath Travel which was sold in 2013 said:

Mr Plank was born in wartime Rome and sent to school in Sussex - at that point he did not speak a word of English.

He Italian roots never left him. He often referred to himself, as did others, as 'Giovanni.'

As a young man he moved to Bournemouth to work for Thomas Cook and by the age of 25, was the youngest manager in the country for Allens Travel.

He decided to branch out in his own and John Plank Travel flourished, with six branches at one stage including Westbourne, Broadstone and Poole.

He sold the business in 1990 (it ceased trading under the owners three years later) and intended to spend more time on the golf course and his beloved wife Marion.

But in 1993 he was hired by Bath Travel chairman, Peter Bath, to head up his own company's new business travel division.

It was an offer he could not refuse and he built it into a crucial part of the Bath Travel portfolio.

The two men had been friends, but also business rivals for years.

Mr Plank retired for good in 2009 just as things became exceptionally tough in the travel sector in the wake of the 2008 financial crash.

He lamented the loss of the personal touch in the modern travel world - something that helped build such a successful business in the first place.

Mr Plank's funeral takes place on Wednesday January 30 at the Harbour View Burial Ground, Lytchett Minster at 11am with a wake at Parkstone Golf Club.

Donations to the British Heart Foundation or Dementia Awareness UK.

Full obituary in next Friday's Echo.