A WELL-known former Malvern hotelier has died after a six-and-a-half-year battle with cancer.

Tony Minshull founded the Priory Park hotel, in Avenue Road, in 1986, and ran it for more than 10 years.

Earlier in his career he held a management position at the Abbey Hotel in Great Malvern.

During the 1960s he ran a hotel in Derby that was frequented by a host of celebrities including legendary football manager Brian Clough, who became a good friend.

Mr Minshull’s daughter Daniela said establishing the Priory Park hotel was a lifelong dream for her father. The property had previously been his family home, as well as a dental surgery run by his parents.

Mr Minshull had a passion for genealogy and family research, and he wrote four books on the subject as well as tracing his own family back as far as 1066.

He also had lifelong associations with Great Malvern Priory, where he sang as a choirboy in his youth, married, and saw both Daniela and her twin sister Nicoletta christened.

He was a keen charity supporter, a former rotarian and a chairman of the Malvern Hills Hotels and Restaurants Association.

He was also a familiar face in the Foley Arms Hotel, where his wake will be held.

Daniela said: “He was very well known, and quite a character who will be sorely missed in Malvern. He was very much a people’s person, and also very much a family man. Everything he did was for his family.”

Mr Minshull, who lived in Geraldine Road, was 65 when he passed away on Friday, November 21.

His funeral service takes place in Great Malvern Priory at 2.15pm on Friday (December 5), followed by a private cremation.

Flowers are family only, but donations may be made towards maintaining the heritage of Malvern Priory, payable to Malvern Priory PCC, c/o The Priory Office, Lyttelton Rooms, Church Street, or to Cancer Research UK, c/o F W Spilsbury Funeral Director, 12 Upper Howsell Road, Malvern, WR14 1TL.