27 Facts About Christopher Bland

Sir Francis Christopher Buchan Bland was a British businessman and politician.

Christopher Bland was deputy chairman of the Independent Television Authority, which was renamed the Independent Broadcasting Authority in the same year, and chairman of London Weekend Television and of the Board of Governors of the BBC, when he took up a position as chairman of British Telecommunications plc.

Christopher Bland left his position with BT in September 2007.

Christopher Bland had a long-standing interest in the cultivation of wine, and in 1995 bought a 19th-century house with a large wine cellar containing numbered alcoves to accommodate 1,000 bottles of Bordeaux, 100 bottles of Champagne, and 120 bins of white Burgundy.

Christopher Bland was chairman of Leiths School of Food and Wine, which he bought jointly with Caroline Waldegrave in 1994.

Christopher Bland was born in Yokohama, Japan, where he lived for his first two years.

Christopher Bland's father worked for Shell and moved around the world; Bland and his younger brother were largely brought up by relatives in Northern Ireland.

Christopher Bland was educated at Sedbergh School, a boarding independent school for boys in Cumbria in North West England and The Queen's College at the University of Oxford.

Christopher Bland spent his National Service with the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards and afterwards became involved in Conservative Party politics.

Christopher Bland worked as a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton.

Christopher Bland was elected as a member of the Greater London Council for Lewisham from 1967, and later became Chairman of the Schools committee of the ILEA.

Christopher Bland was elected chairman of the Bow Group think tank on 10 April 1969 to 1970 and edited its magazine Crossbow.

Christopher Bland retained his involvement in politics and was critical of changes made by Margaret Thatcher to Conservative Central Office staff shortly after her election as Leader in 1975.

Christopher Bland was given a second four-year term at the IBA from 1976 to 1980.

In 1981, Christopher Bland married Jennifer Mary Denise May, now known as Lady Christopher Bland, and the daughter of William May, the former Ulster Unionist Party MP for the Ards constituency in County Down, and Minister for Education for Northern Ireland in the 1950s.

From 1 January 1982, Christopher Bland joined the board of LWT and on 1 January 1984 succeeded John Freeman as chairman of the main board of LWT.

Christopher Bland was a director of ITN and GMTV, and Chairman of Century Hutchinson, then an LWT subsidiary.

When, after the 1993 franchise renewal, LWT was taken over by Granada in a hotly contested hostile bid, Christopher Bland became a millionaire.

From 1982 to 1994, Christopher Bland was chairman of the Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte's Hospitals NHS special health authority, subsequently chairing Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, including Charing Cross Hospital, from 1994 to February 1997.

Christopher Bland was knighted for his work in the National Health Service in 1993.

Christopher Bland was chairman of the BBC's board of governors between 1996 and 2001.

Christopher Bland held other public sector roles: as chairman of the Private Finance Panel from 1995 to 1996, and as a member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Panel on the Citizen's Charter.

Christopher Bland was chairman of the BT Board from 1 May 2001 and until September 2007.

Christopher Bland was a former senior adviser at Warburg Pincus, chairman and a substantial shareholder in Canongate Press and Leiths School of Food and Wine, and was appointed chairman of the Royal Shakespeare Company in April 2004.

Christopher Bland set about "his greatest extravagance: Buying books and anything by Eric Gill, the 20th-century British painter and sculptor".

Christopher Bland wrote a play, The Easter Rising and Thereafter, which was staged at London's Jermyn Street Theatre in 2016.

Christopher Bland was the father of print journalist and former deputy editor of The Independent newspaper, Archie Christopher Bland, and from 1981 became stepfather to four children, who include the 9th Earl of Strafford, the author Lady Georgia Byng, and the managing director of the Edinburgh-based publishing house Canongate Books, Jamie Byng, following his wife's earlier marriage to Viscount Enfield.