Christopher Meyer

Sir Christopher Meyer was Britain’s Ambassador to the United States for five and a half years from 1997 to 2003. This is the longest period since the Second World War in Britain’s top diplomatic appointment. Sir Christopher has just published his memoirs – DC Confidential – in which his time in the U.S. and account of the run-up to war in Iraq feature prominently. The book has been a runaway best seller in Britain. After Washington, Sir Christopher retired from diplomacy, having completed 36 years of distinguished public service. He is now chairman of the United Kingdom Press Complaints Commission. As Ambassador in Washington Sir Christopher was deeply involved in a number of critical situations: the war in Kosovo, the Northern Ireland peace process, the response to 9/11, the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and the events leading to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Sir Christopher is credited with playing a key role in introducing Prime Minister Tony Blair to President George W. Bush, as a result of which relations between Britain and the United States have rarely been closer. As Ambassador he visited 44 states and over 100 cities. He holds America in great affection and admiration and was recently quoted as saying that “the world is a far better place for the existence of the United States.” In his diplomatic career, Sir Christopher occupied a number of key positions: British Ambassador to Germany; press secretary to Prime Minister John Major; press secretary to British Foreign Secretary Lord Howe; speech writer to three Foreign Secretaries in the 1970s; head of the political section of the British Embassy in Moscow. Sir Christopher started his career in the old Soviet Union and, besides Moscow (twice), saw service in Madrid; Spain; in Brussels, Belgium, at the European Union; and, in an earlier incarnation as Deputy Chief of Mission, in the United States of America. He speaks Russian, French, Spanish and German, with varying degrees of ability. In 1998, in recognition of his service, Her Majesty The Queen made Sir Christopher a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. Sir Christopher is married to Lady Catherine, who played a dynamic and prominent role in her own right when they were in Washington. She is Chief Executive of PACT (Parents and Abducted Children Together), a charity that she founded in Washington in 1999. Between them they have four sons.