Patten, Chris

Patten, Chris (b. 12 May 1944), Governor of Hong Kong, 1992–7. EU Commissioner for External Relations, 1999–  Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Modern History, Pattern joined the Conservative Party and in 1966 joined its research department. During the Prime Ministership of Edward Heath, he joined the Cabinet Office, and in 1972 he became a political advisor in the home office. He became a Member of Parliament in 1979, and during the Thatcher years he rose only gradually through a succession of junior ministerial posts, since he was in the moderate wing of the party. As Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990, he confounded all expectation by engineering a narrow win for John Major in 1992. Ironically, however, he was one of the few sitting MPs to be unseated, whereupon Major made him the last governor of Hong Kong. Before the Crown Colony's handover to China, Patten tried to strengthen its fledgling democratic institutions. As Commissioner for External Relations, he became highly regarded despite – or perhaps because of – his penchant for speaking his mind in careful, but clear language. He established a close partnership with his EU-counterpart, Solana, and in this way contributed greatly to the Commission's prestige internationally, and among the EC member states themselves.