Christopher Meyer
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Sir Christopher Meyer KCMG |
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|---|---|
 |
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| British Ambassador to the United States | |
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In office 1997–2003 |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| President |
Bill Clinton George W Bush |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Sir John Kerr |
| Succeeded by | Sir David Manning |
| British Ambassador to Germany | |
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In office 1997–1997 |
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| Preceded by | Sir Nigel Broomfield |
| Succeeded by | Sir Paul Lever |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 February 1944 |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse(s) | Catherine Meyer (née Laylle) |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | Lancing College, West Sussex |
| Alma mater | Peterhouse, University of Cambridge |
Sir Christopher John Rome Meyer, KCMG (born 22 February 1944) is a former British Ambassador to the United States (1997–2003), former Ambassador to Germany (1997) and the former chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (2003–2009).
He is married to Catherine Meyer, founder of the charity Parents & Abducted Children Together.
Meyer was born in 1944 to Reginald Henry Rome Meyer and his wife Eve. Reginald was a flight lieutenant in Coastal Command of the RAF who was killed in action over the Greek island of Ikaria 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, a boarding independent school for boys (now coeducational), near the village of Lancing in Sussex (now West Sussex), the Lycee Henri IV in Paris and Peterhouse at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated in History (he has been an honorary fellow of Peterhouse since 2002). After graduating, he attended the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies at Bologna.
He 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 three successive Foreign Secretaries: James Callaghan, Anthony Crosland and David (now Lord) Owen. Meyer was then sent from 1978 to '82 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 to the Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey (now Lord) Howe, 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 as minister-commercial and deputy head of mission. He returned to London in 1994 to become Prime Minister John Major's press secretary and government spokesman. He was posted briefly to Germany as ambassador in 1997, but was transferred in the same year to Washington as Britain's ambassador to the United States.
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