1. Sir Christopher John Chataway was a British middle- and long-distance runner, television news broadcaster and Conservative politician.
22 Facts About Christopher Chataway
1. 2.
Christopher Chataway spent his childhood in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan as his father was a district commissioner in the Sudan Political Service.
3.
At the Helsinki Olympic Games of 1952, in the 5000 metres final, after being passed on the last bend by the Czech long-distance runner, Emil Zatopek, France's Alain Mimoun, and West Germany's Herbert Schade, Christopher Chataway's foot brushed the curb and he crashed headlong to the ground.
4.
When Sir Hugh Beaver of Guinness came up with the idea for the Guinness Book of Records, it was Christopher Chataway who suggested his old university friends Norris and Ross McWhirter as editors, knowing of their liking for facts.
5.
Christopher Chataway thought a suitable job in the rapidly expanding world of television might help.
6.
Christopher Chataway refused offers in sports TV and with panel and quiz shows but secured a job in August 1955 with ITN.
7.
Christopher Chataway had been narrowly elected as a Conservative to the London County Council in 1958 in Lewisham North, and was then selected to stand for Parliament in the same seat.
8.
Lewisham North was a highly marginal seat won by Labour in a by-election in 1957, but Christopher Chataway won the seat with a majority bigger than it had been in the previous general election.
9.
In Parliament, Christopher Chataway took up the issue of refugees, especially in Africa, and campaigned so hard during World Refugee Year that he was awarded a Nansen Medal.
10.
Christopher Chataway served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary before being appointed as a junior Education Minister in July 1962.
11.
Christopher Chataway was elected an alderman and appointed leader of the education committee.
12.
Christopher Chataway was keen to return to Parliament, and the opportunity came in a byelection in Chichester in May 1969.
13.
Christopher Chataway introduced to parliament the complete end to the restrictions on broadcasting hours on television and radio.
14.
Christopher Chataway then went into business becoming a managing director of Orion Bank, a consortium bank later acquired by one of its shareholders, the Royal Bank of Canada.
15.
Christopher Chataway stayed with Orion, later as vice chairman, for 15 years.
16.
Christopher Chataway held various non-executive directorships and was the first chairman of Groundwork, the environmental charity, and hon.
17.
Christopher Chataway supported his friend Chris Brasher when he established the London Marathon, and was President of the Commonwealth Games Council for England from 1990 to 2009.
18.
Christopher Chataway was knighted in the 1995 Birthday Honours for services to the aviation industry.
19.
Christopher Chataway was married twice; firstly, to Anna Lett, with whom he had two sons and a daughter; and secondly, to Carola Walker, with whom he had two further sons.
20.
Christopher Chataway's stepson is the Conservative MP Charles Walker and his brother-in-law the former Conservative MP Peter Hordern.
21.
Christopher Chataway suffered from cancer for the last two and a half years of his life.
22.
Christopher Chataway died at St John's Hospice in north west London on 19 January 2014, twelve days before his 83rd birthday.