Portuguese restaurateur to be honoured by Queen

**Pedro Silva** Thu Jun 20, 2013 10:35 pm

My friends, this was taken from The Portugal News newspaper:

http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/portuguese-restaurateur-to-be-honoured-by-queen/28678

**bb1** Thu Jun 20, 2013 10:44 pm

A nice story, which makes a welcome change.

Portuguese restaurateur to be honoured by Queen
IN GENERAL · 20-06-2013 10:29:00 · 0 COMMENTS
An 80-year-old Portuguese restaurateur, who has lived in Priors Hardwick, Stratford (Warwickshire, UK) for the past forty years is to receive an honour from Queen Elizabeth II for charitable and community service.

Lino Pires will receive a British Empire Medal (BEM) but says it is a bitter-sweet achievement as he will not be able to share the moment with his wife of more than fifty years, who passed away in 2008 after battling cancer.
The medal, which was awarded by the Queen in her New Year’s honours list, will be presented to the emigrant by the Lord-Lieutenant of Warwick, who represents the Queen in the county of Warwickshire.
Originally from Vinha, Castelo Branco, Lino Pires moved to the UK over four decades ago where he and his wife Augusta opened a restaurant – the Butcher’s Arms – in an old public house.
When he is given the medal the Portuguese national says he will be thinking of his wife, because “she did more to deserve it than I did”, he told Lusa News Agency.
Speaking to Portugal’s national news agency, Lino Pires paid touching tribute to his late wife, saying she had a “generous heart” and was always available to help local institutions like the church, schools and sports groups.
They would also organise fund-raising events in their restaurant for institutions such as children’s charity the NSPCC, the Red Cross, and the cancer research unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital.
It is reported that the couple raised in excess of €316,000 for the Royal Marsden Hospital, from the sale of homemade honey and Lino Pires’ autobiography entitled ‘Fantastic’.
Pires credits the hospital with having saved his son Peter’s life.
After moving to the small town, approximately 140 kilometres north of London, the couple bought the restaurant which Lino Pires still runs to this day.
Pires recalled how he bought the pub from a client in a bar in 1973 at 2am and sealed the deal with a handshake before even knowing where it was.

“It wasn’t a restaurant it was a tavern, from ten to twelve clients. There were even individuals who would bring their horse in for a drink, it had a big door for that”, he recalls.
After adding more than 20 extensions to the original building and establishing a pretty garden that the couple made a point of tending themselves, the Butcher’s Arms is now a renowned eatery in the UK.
Offering traditional UK pub grub as well as Portuguese specialties, like oven-baked codfish and regional wines, visitors to the restaurant have included British personalities of the auto industry, aristocrats, artists and politicians.
Among his memorabilia, Lino Pires has photographs with Prime Minister David Cameron, his predecessor John Major, a letter of condolences from actress Julie Andrews, sent when his wife passed away, and a rose bush given to the couple by John Profumo , Secretary of State for War, who in 1963 resigned after falling into disgrace due to a political scandal.
He attributes the restaurant’s success to his wife’s passion of serving people young and old. The British and Portuguese flags fly side-by-side over the restaurant’s logo in a nod to what is considered the world’s oldest alliance, sealed in 1373.

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Very well deserved, and the restaurant sounds wonderful. Such a shame his wife has passed away.

**Pedro Silva** Thu Jun 20, 2013 11:16 pm

yes bb1, your words are mine.

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