Latchford, who left the online electricals retailer due to ill health in 2006, was the ‘L’ in AO.com’s parent company DRL.

He famously made a £1 bet with chief executive John Roberts on Christmas Eve in 1999 that he couldn’t change the way people buy white goods by using the internet.

Roberts hadn’t even heard of the internet at that point, but joined forces with Latchford, who had experience in building websites, and created what would become AO.com.

The business floated in February 2014, with a valuation of £1.6bn.