Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, KG, CH, PC. He was born on 12 May 1944, is a British politician who was the Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992, and the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997. He was made a life peer in 2005 and served as Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 2003 to 2024. He is one of two living former governors of Hong Kong, alongside David Wilson. Patten was born in Thornton-Cleveleys in Lancashire and later brought up in west London. He graduated in history at Balliol College, Oxford, and, following his graduation in 1965, he went to work for the Conservative Party.
Early Life and Education
Patten was born in Thornton-Cleveleys in Lancashire, where his mother had fled to from Exeter, which had recently been significantly damaged by the Baedeker raids. Patten grew up in an Irish Catholic family in west London, the son of an unsuccessful music publisher whose ancestors had come to England from County Roscommon, Ireland. Patten’s father, Frank, dropped out[6] of the university to become a jazz-drummer, later, a popular music publisher. Frank and his mother, Joan, were sent to Our Lady of the Visitation Roman Catholic primary school in Greenford and won a scholarship to St Benedict’s School, an independent school in Ealing, West London, at which he later won an exhibition for reading Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford.
Member of Parliament: 1979-1992
Patten stood as the Conservative Party candidate for Lambeth Central in the February 1974 general election. However, Patten lost against Marcus Lipton, of the Labour Party. In the general elections, Patten served as a member of parliament of the Bath area between 1979 and until his loss of a seat in the 1992 election.
In June 1983, Patten was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Northern Ireland Office. He became a Minister of State in the Department of Education and Science in September 1985, and Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in September 1986.
In 1989, he was promoted into the Cabinet and became Secretary of State for the Environment, also taking responsibility for the unpopular Community Charge, nicknamed the “Poll Tax”. Though he stoutly defended the policy at the time, in his 2006 book Not Quite the Diplomat (published in the United States as Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain and Europe in the New Century) he says he thought it was a mistake on Margaret Thatcher’s part. He also introduced, and steered through Parliament, the major legislation that became the Environmental Protection Act of 1990.
Who Was the First British Governor of Hong Kong?
If Patten had been re-elected in 1992, sections of the media thought he would have been rewarded by appointment as Foreign Secretary, although in his autobiography John Major said that he would have made Patten Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Patten turned down offers of a new post and instead, in July 1992, he became the 28th and the last governor of Hong Kong until its transfer of sovereignty to China on 30 June 1997. He was given an official Chinese name, Pang Ding-hong a name with an etymology based on the words “stability” and “calm; joyous; healthy”. Unlike most previous Hong Kong governors, he was not a career diplomat from the UK Foreign Office although he was not the first former MP to become a governor of Hong Kong.
Patten’s tenure faced several different challenges, as many in Hong Kong were still reeling from the Tiananmen Square massacre a few years earlier. However, the general public regarded him positively. He made efforts to reach out to the people of the colony and was famous for his habit of walking around Hong Kong as well as in the media spotlight. Hongkongers called him Fat Pang making him the only governor to have a widely recognized Chinese nickname
European Commissioner: 1999–2004
He served as one of the two United Kingdom members appointed to the European Commission in 1999 to serve as the Commissioner for External Relations where he was in charge of the development and cooperation programs of the Union as well as liaised with Javier Solana, who was the then High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy. He served in this role for the Prodi Commission from 23 January 2000 to 22 November 2004.
Patten managed several crises related to European foreign policy, most famously when the European Union was unable to devise a collective unified policy before the Iraq War in 2003. He was nominated for the office of President for the next Commission in 2004 but was unable to muster the support of France and Germany.
WikiLeaks states that Patten had been in Moscow in April 2004, and he had just finished holding EU–Russia ministerial consultations in Brussels. He thought the EU was being too dependent on Russian energy supplies, and needed to get closer to the Caucasus and Central Asia so it could diversify its supplies. Patten was the greatest advocate in the commission for Turkey’s accession to the European Union.
In February 2010, Patten was appointed President of Medical Aid for Palestinians, but he resigned in June 2011. In 2014 Pope Francis made Patten head a body advising the Vatican on a media strategy as well as on how to handle the press, which he continued through until 2016.
Is Chris Patten married?
In 1971, Patten married Lavender Thornton, a barrister, on 11 September. They have three daughters, including the actress Alice Patten. On 29 September 2005, he published his memoirs, Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths About World Affairs. In October 2009, Patten was Chief Guest at The Doon School, a boarding school in Dehradun, India, which is a member of the United Kingdom’s Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference.
Is Chris Patten Catholic?
Patten is a Catholic and managed the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom in September 2010. In 2010, The Tablet named him as one of Britain’s most influential Catholics.