Chris Patten

Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, CH

Graduate of Balliol College, University Oxford (1965).

Among his services, appointments, and honors, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath (1979-1992), Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1986-1989), Secretary of State for the Environment (1989-1992), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1990-1992), Chairman of the Conservative Party (1990-1992), the last Governor of Hong Kong (1992-1997), appointed a Companion of Honour (CH) by Queen Elizabeth II (1998), Chairman of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland (1998-1999), Chancellor of Newcastle University (1999-2009), 1999, appointed as one of the UK’s two members to the European Commission (1999) and served as Commissioner for External Relations, appointed the European Union’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (2000-2004), received an honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Bath (2003), Chancellor of the University of Oxford (2003- ), elected a Distinguished Honorary Fellow of Massey College, University of Toronto (2005), received an honorary D.S.Litt. degree from the University of Trinity College, University of Toronto (2005), Toronto, an honorary D.Litt. degree from the University of Ulster (2005), and in 2005 he was also honored with a life peerage as Baron Patten of Barnes, of Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, as a Roman Catholic he played a vital role overseeing the visit of Pope Benedict XVI’s to the UK (2010), and served as Chairman of the BBC Trust (2011-2014).

Books in order of publication:

The Tory Case – 1983

East and West: The Last Governor of Hong Kong on Power, Freedom and the Future – 1998

Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths About World Affairs – 2005

Cousins and strangers : America, Britain, and Europe in a new century – 2006

What Next? – 2008

First Confession: A Sort of Memoir – 2017

The Hong Kong Diaries – 2022