Lord Matthews; Ex-Head of Cunard Line, Express Newspapers

Lord Matthews, 76, former head of Cunard Line and London’s Express Newspapers. The former Victor Collin Matthews delivered newspapers as a youth and, after service in the Royal Navy during World War II, began his long business career at a then-small firm called Trafalgar House. Over two decades, he helped turn it into a multimillion-dollar shipping, property, construction and leisure group. Trafalgar eventually took over Cunard, which owns the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II, and the Express Newspapers chain, which owns the Daily Express and the Sunday Express. Matthews was managing director and later chief executive of Trafalgar House from 1968 to 1983 and deputy chairman until 1985. He was chairman of Cunard Line from 1978 to 1983 and chairman of Express Newspapers from 1977 to 1985. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher granted him peerage in 1980. On Tuesday on the island of Jersey, England, of cancer.