Sir Christopher John Rome Meyer (22 February 1944 – 27 July 2022) was a British diplomat who served as the

Ambassador to the United States The following table lists ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident repre ...

(1997–2003), Ambassador to Germany (1997), and the chairman of the

Press Complaints Commission The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) was a voluntary Regulation, regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers. The PCC closed on Monday 8 September 2014, and was replaced ...

(2003–2009). He was married to

Catherine Meyer, Baroness Meyer Catherine Irene Jacqueline Meyer, Baroness Meyer, (née Laylle; born 26 January 1953) is a British Life Peer and a former business woman. She is the widow of Christopher Meyer, Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British List of Ambassadors from ...

, founder of the charity Parents & Abducted Children Together, and an active board member of th
Transatlantic Forum for Education and Diplomacy

Early life and education

Meyer was born in

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, west-northwest of central London and south-southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High W ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

, in 1944 to Reginald Henry Rome Meyer and his wife Eve on 22 February 1944. Reginald was a

flight lieutenant Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in air forces that use the Royal Air Force (RAF) system of ranks, especially in Commonwealth countries. It has a NATO rank code of OF-2. Flight lieutenant is abbreviated as Flt Lt in the Indi ...

in Coastal Command of the RAF who was killed in action over the Greek island of

Icaria Icaria, also spelled Ikaria ( el, Ικαρία), is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, 10 nautical miles (19 km) southwest of Samos. According to tradition, it derives its name from Icarus, the son of Daedalus in Greek mythology, who was be ...

13 days before his son was born; in 2011, Meyer visited the island and met witnesses of the shooting-down and burial of his father. Meyer was educated at

Lancing College Lancing College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in southern England, UK. The school is located in West Sussex, east of Worthing near the village of Lancing, on the south coast of Engl ...

, a boarding independent school for boys (now co-educational), near the town of Lancing in West Sussex, the

Lycée Henri-IV The Lycée Henri-IV is a public secondary school located in Paris. Along with the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and demanding sixth-form colleges ('' lycées'') in France. The school educates more th ...

in Paris and Peterhouse at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, where he graduated in History (he was an honorary fellow of Peterhouse from 2002 on). After graduating, he attended the

Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

Diplomatic career

Meyer began his career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1966 in the West and Central African Department as desk officer for French-speaking African countries. Following a year's training in the Russian language, his first posting, at the age of 24, was as third secretary to the British embassy in Moscow in 1968, where for his first year he was the ambassador's private secretary. From 1970 to 1973 he was second secretary at the British embassy in Madrid. This was followed by five years in London: firstly, as the head of the Soviet section in the East European and Soviet Department, and, secondly, as speech-writer to Foreign Secretaries James Callaghan,

Anthony Crosland Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 191819 February 1977) was a British Labour Party politician and author. A social democrat on the right wing of the Labour Party, he was a prominent socialist intellectual. His influential book '' The ...

and

David Owen David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, (born 2 July 1938) is a British politician and physician who served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as a Labour Party MP under James Callaghan from 1977 to 1979, and later ...

. Meyer was then sent from 1978 to 1982 to the UK permanent representation to the European Communities in Brussels, followed by two years as political counsellor in the British embassy in Moscow. He returned to London in 1984 to become

press secretary A press secretary or press officer is a senior advisor who provides advice on how to deal with the news media and, using news management techniques, helps their employer to maintain a positive public image and avoid negative media coverage. Dut ...

to the Foreign Secretary, Sir

Geoffrey Howe Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, (20 December 1926 – 9 October 2015) was a British Conservative politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1989 to 1990. Howe was Margaret Thatcher ...

, a position which he occupied until 1988, when he went for a year to Harvard University's Centre for International Affairs as a visiting fellow. This was followed by five years at the British embassy in Washington, D.C., as minister-commercial and deputy head of mission. He returned to London in 1994 to become Prime Minister

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon, formerly Hunting ...

's press secretary and government spokesman. He was posted briefly to Germany as

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

in 1997, but was transferred in the same year to Washington as Britain's ambassador to the United States.

HM Ambassador to the United States

His final posting was as British Ambassador to the United States from 1997 until his retirement in 2003. He underwent emergency heart surgery just before the

invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

in March 2003. Meyer gave evidence about his time in the role to the

Iraq Inquiry The Iraq Inquiry (also referred to as the Chilcot Inquiry after its chairman, Sir John Chilcot)

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC)

Meyer was appointed chairman of the

, the UK press's self-regulating body, in March 2003. During his tenure from 2003 to 2009, Meyer introduced a number of reforms to enhance the profile, independence and credibility of the Commission. These included increasing the majority of independent Commissioners, introducing independent scrutiny of the PCC's internal processes and decision-making, instituting PCC "away-days" twice a year in the cities and towns of the UK and extending the PCC's remit to online editions of newspapers, including audio-visual material. This led to a significant increase in public use of the PCC, with complaints about the press rising from 2,630 in 2002 to 4,698 by the time Meyer retired as chairman. He was also responsible for developing the PCC's pre-publication activity, including its anti-harassment service, which proved highly effective in protecting people from the unwanted attention of media scrums. Meyer's tenure coincided with the gaoling in 2007 of the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...

'' reporter,

Clive Goodman Clive Goodman (born 17 September 1957, in Hammersmith, London) is an English journalist, former royal editor and reporter for the ''News of the World''. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messa ...

, and the enquiry agent, Glenn Mulcaire, for phone hacking offences under the

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 ( c.23) (RIP or RIPA) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, regulating the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation, and covering the interception of comm ...

. This prompted the resignation of

Andy Coulson Andrew Edward Coulson (born 21 January 1968) is an English journalist and political strategist. Coulson was the editor of the ''News of the World'' from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's repo ...

, the editor of the ''News of the World''. Later, as the phone hacking scandal spread, the PCC, and Meyer himself, were criticised for not having done more to punish those responsible. However, Meyer's powers as chair were relatively limited in this respect; Baron Ivor Judge, the then

Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ...

, said in a 2011 lecture to the Human Rights Law Conference, "To criticise the PCC for failing to exercise powers it does not have is rather like criticising a judge who passes what appears to be a lenient sentence, when his power to pass a longer sentence is curtailed." Meyer had himself reminded the Leveson Inquiry in his witness statement, submitted on 14 September 2011, and at his appearance before the Inquiry on 31 January 2012 that phone hacking was a crime under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and that it was not in the remit of the PCC either to apply the criminal law or to carry out investigations that rightfully belonged to the police.

Honours

In 1998, he was appointed Knight Commander of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in hono ...

(KCMG). Meyer was a non-executive director of the Arbuthnot Banking Group. He was also chairman of the Advisory Board of Pagefield and an honorary fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge University. He was a Liveryman of the

Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (until 1937 the Worshipful Company of Stationers), usually known as the Stationers' Company, is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was formed in ...

and a Freeman of the City of London and, on 3 April 2012, he was appointed Court Assistant ''honoris causa'' by the Company. From 2013 Meyer was a Senior Associate Fellow of the

Royal United Services Institute The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, Rusi), registered as Royal United Service Institute for Defence and Security Studies and formerly the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, is a British defence and security think tank. ...

. Meyer was named in 2010 the Morehead-Cain Alumni Distinguished Visiting Professor at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sys ...

Writing

Meyer published his memoirs, ''DC Confidential'', in November 2005, with extracts serialised in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' and the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

''. The book gave rise to considerable controversy. It was attacked by members of the Labour government (Deputy Prime Minister

John Prescott John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (born 31 May 1938) is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he w ...

called Meyer a "red-socked fop"), while a group of MPs urged him to "publish and be damned". Meyer gave a detailed rebuttal of his critics in written evidence submitted to the House of Commons Select Committee on Public Administration. In 2005, the memoirs were included in his books of the year by Jim Hoagland, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

''s commentator on foreign affairs, who described them as "thorough" and "credible". In 2009 he published a second book, ''Getting Our Way'', a 500-year history of British diplomacy that accompanied a

BBC 4 BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

television series of the same name. He was again in the news with this book, serialised this time in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, wh ...

'' and ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', and again openly critical of the Labour Government under which he served. In November 2013 Meyer published a third book, the

Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Stor ...

single, ''Only Child'', a personal memoir of his childhood interwoven with the story of how his father was shot down and killed in the Second World War. It includes interviews with still surviving witnesses of his father's crash and burial. Meyer was also a writer and speaker on international affairs.

Broadcasting

Meyer presented several television and radio documentaries on diplomacy for the BBC, including ''Mortgaged to the Yanks'' (

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

2006), ''Corridors of Power'', ''How to Succeed at Summits'', and ''Lying Abroad'', all for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

in 2006 and 2007. These were followed in 2009 by a BBC Radio 4 documentary series on the press called ''The Watchdog and the Feral Beast''. 2009 also saw him present a BBC television series ''Getting Our Way'', which chronicled episodes from British diplomatic history over the last 500 years and was later turned into a book. In 2012 he fronted a six-part international documentary series for Sky Atlantic called "Networks of Power", which examined the power-brokers of Mumbai, Rome, Moscow, New York, Los Angeles and London. ''The Guardian'' found the series "immensely watchable" and described Meyer as "Paxmanesque – quizzical, authoritative, faintly mischievous". He frequently appeared on news and current affairs programmes, for example, providing analysis for the BBC's coverage of President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

's state visit to Britain in May 2011. Meyer, when asked (in an interview with the BBC) "Which foreign government has the most influence on Washington?", unequivocally responded: "Israel." When he was then asked "And then?", he said, "Well, in the hit parade I think Israel is in a class of its own..."

Personal life

Meyer married Francine Winskill in 1976; they had two sons and later divorced. In 1997, he married Catherine Laylle Volkman. He sat on the board of the charity his wife founded,

PACT A pact, from Latin ''pactum'' ("something agreed upon"), is a formal agreement between two or more parties. In international relations, pacts are usually between two or more sovereign states. In domestic politics, pacts are usually between two or ...

(Parents and Abducted Children Together). Meyer was admitted to hospital on the afternoon of 11 July 2018 after an alleged attack by two youths at

London Victoria station Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the ...

. He was 74 at the time, and had been doing a significant amount of television work regarding U.S. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of ...

's UK visit. A 15-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy were arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm, but were released under investigation while enquiries into the incident continued. However a witness later came forward to claim that Meyer was not attacked and that he was injured after accidentally falling over. The boy pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm without intent to Meyer on 11 July 2018. Meyer died on 27 July 2022, aged 78, at his holiday home in

Megève Megève (; frp, Megéva) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France with a population of more than 3,000 residents. The town is well known as a ski resort near Mont Blanc in the Fren ...

, in the

French Alps The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such a ...

. His cause of death was variously reported as either heart failure or a stroke.

Books

* Christopher Meyer (2005), ''DC Confidential'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson. () * Christopher Meyer (2009), ''Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure and Intrigue: the Inside Story of British Diplomacy'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson () *

References

External links

*''The Guardian''
Sir Christopher Meyer's memoirsJLA, speaker profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Christopher 1944 births 2022 deaths 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British non-fiction writers Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Germany Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the United States British memoirists Harvard Fellows Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Lycée Henri-IV alumni Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni People educated at Lancing College People from Beaconsfield Press secretaries Spouses of life peers