Chris Patten

The Right Honourable The Lord Patten of Barnes KG CH PC
Official portrait, 2019
Chancellor of the University of Oxford
In office 20 September 2003 – 31 July 2024
Vice-Chancellor	Sir Colin Lucas Sir John Hood Andrew D. Hamilton Louise Richardson Irene Tracey
Preceded by	The Lord Jenkins of Hillhead
European Commissioner for External Relations
In office 16 September 1999 – 22 November 2004
Nominated by	Tony Blair
President	Romano Prodi José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Leon Brittan
Succeeded by	Benita Ferrero-Waldner
28th Governor of Hong Kong
In office 9 July 1992 [1] – 30 June 1997
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Chief Secretary	Sir David Ford Anson Chan
Preceded by	David Wilson
Succeeded by	Tung Chee-hwa (as Chief Executive)
Chairman of the Conservative Party
In office 28 November 1990 – 11 May 1992
Leader	John Major
Preceded by	Kenneth Baker
Succeeded by	Norman Fowler
Ministerial offices Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster In office 28 November 1990 – 10 April 1992 Prime Minister John Major Preceded by Kenneth Baker Succeeded by William Waldegrave Secretary of State for the Environment In office 24 July 1989 – 28 November 1990 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Preceded by Nicholas Ridley Succeeded by Michael Heseltine Minister for Overseas Development In office 10 September 1986 – 24 July 1989 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Preceded by Timothy Raison Succeeded by Lynda Chalker
Parliamentary offices Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Incumbent Assumed office 11 January 2005 Life peerage President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong In office 9 July 1992 – 19 February 1993 Monarch Elizabeth II Deputy Sir John Joseph Swaine Preceded by David Wilson Succeeded by Sir John Joseph Swaine Member of Parliament for Bath In office 3 May 1979 – 16 March 1992 Preceded by Edward Brown Succeeded by Don Foster
Academic positions Chancellor of Newcastle University In office 5 October 1999 – 5 October 2009 Vice Chancellor James Wright Christopher Edwards Chris Brink Preceded by Matthew White Ridley Succeeded by Liam Donaldson
Chairman of the BBC Trust
In office 1 May 2011 – 6 May 2014
Preceded by	Sir Michael Lyons
Succeeded by	Diane Coyle (Acting) Rona Fairhead, Baroness Fairhead
Personal details
Born	Christopher Francis Patten (1944-05-12) 12 May 1944 (age 80) Cleveleys, Lancashire, England[2]
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Lavender Thornton ​ (m. 1971)​
Children	3, including Alice
Education	St Benedict's School, Ealing
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford (BA)
Awards	Order of the Companions of Honour (1998) Commander of the Legion of Honour (2016) Order of the Garter (2023)
Chinese name
Chinese	彭定康
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Péng Dìngkāng Yue: Cantonese Jyutping paang4 ding6 hong1

Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, KG, CH, PC (Chinese: 彭定康;^[3] born 12 May 1944), is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. 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 subsequently raised in west London. He studied history at Balliol College, Oxford, and, after graduating in 1965, he began working for the Conservative Party.

Patten was elected Member of Parliament for Bath in 1979. He was appointed Secretary of State for the Environment by Margaret Thatcher in 1989 as part of her third ministry, becoming responsible for implementation of the unpopular poll tax. On John Major's succession as Prime Minister in 1990, Patten became Chairman of the Conservative Party and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. As party chairman, he successfully orchestrated a surprise Conservative electoral victory in 1992, but lost his own seat.

Patten was then appointed the last governor of Hong Kong, to oversee the final years of British administration in the colony and prepare for its transfer to China in 1997. During his tenure, his government significantly expanded the territory's social welfare programmes and introduced democratic reforms to the electoral system.^[4]

Following his governorship, Patten led the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, a major implementation step of the Northern Ireland peace process pursuant to the Good Friday Agreement from 1998 to 1999. He was European Commissioner for External Relations from 1999 to 2004 and Chairman of the BBC Trust from 2011 to 2014.

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.^[5] Patten's father, Frank, dropped out^[6] of university to become a jazz-drummer, later, a popular-music publisher. Frank and his mother Joan sent him to a Catholic primary school, Our Lady of the Visitation, in Greenford, and later awarded a scholarship^[6][7] to the independent St Benedict's School in Ealing, west London, where he won an exhibition^[2][8] to read Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford.

After graduating with a second-class honours degree in 1965 and winning a William Coolidge Pathfinder Award^[9][10][11] travelling scholarship to the US,^{[12][13][14][15]} Patten worked for the campaign of then-Republican New York Mayor John Lindsay, where he reported on the television performance of rival William F. Buckley Jr.^[16] He worked for the Conservative Party from 1966,^{[citation needed]} first as desk officer and then director (from 1974 to 1979) of the Conservative Research Department.^[6]

Patten was the Conservative Party candidate for Lambeth Central at the February 1974 general election, but lost to the Labour Party candidate, Marcus Lipton. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Bath in 1979, and served until he was unseated in 1992.

Patten was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Northern Ireland Office in June 1983. He was promoted to be a Minister of State in the Department of Education and Science in September 1985, and was named Minister for Overseas Development at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in September 1986.

In 1989, he was promoted to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for the Environment and became responsible for the unpopular Community Charge (or so-called "Poll Tax"). Though he robustly 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 claims to have 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 1990.

In 1990, John Major made Patten