Christopher Tugendhat, Baron Tugendhat

The Right Honourable
The Lord Tugendhat
Official portrait, 2020
Chancellor of the University of Bath
In office
1998–2013
Vice-ChancellorDavid VandeLinde
Glynis Breakwell
Preceded bySir Denys Henderson
Succeeded byPrince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh
First Vice-President of the European Commission
In office
6 January 1981 – 5 January 1985
PresidentGaston Thorn
Preceded byFrançois-Xavier Ortoli
Succeeded byFrans Andriessen
European Commissioner for Budget & Financial Control and Financial Institutions
In office
1977–1985
PresidentRoy Jenkins
Gaston Thorn
Preceded byWilhelm Haferkamp
Succeeded byHenning Christophersen
Member of Parliament
for City of London and Westminster South
In office
18 June 1970 – 24 February 1977
Preceded byJohn Smith
Succeeded byPeter Brooke
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
15 October 1993
Life Peerage
Personal details
Born
Christopher Samuel Tugendhat

(1937-02-23) 23 February 1937 (age 87)
Marylebone, England
Political partyConservative
SpouseJulia Lissant née Dobson
Children2
Relatives
EducationKCS Cambridge;
Ampleforth
Alma materGonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Occupation
Profession
  • Business
  • journalism
AwardsKnight Bachelor (1990)
Life Peer (1993)

Christopher Samuel Tugendhat, Baron Tugendhat (born 23 February 1937),[1] is a British politician, businessman, journalist and author. A member of the Conservative Party, he first served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1977, when he was appointed to the European Commission, of which he served from 1981 until 1985 as its First Vice-President. Lord Tugendhat entered the House of Lords in 1993, where he sits as a life peer.[2]

Family background

Tugendhat was born at Marylebone, Middlesex. His father, Dr Georg Tugendhat (1898–1973), who was born in Vienna, came to Britain after the First World War to pursue a doctorate at the London School of Economics,[3] marrying Marie Littledale in 1934.

Dr Georg Tugendhat traced his paternal origins to the town of Bielitz in Silesia, which until 1918 was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, becoming part of Poland in 1920.[4] His father hailed from a prosperous Jewish family, and converted to Catholicism.[5][6]

Career

Tugendhat in 1980

Tugendhat was educated at King's College School, Cambridge,[7] and Ampleforth College, before going up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. After university, he took up a career in journalism, becoming a features editor and leader writer for the Financial Times from 1960 to 1970. In 1970 he was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for the Cities of London and Westminster, remaining in the House of Commons until 1977, when he resigned after being appointed a Member of the European Commission. He was first appointed to the EC by a Labour Government over the head of the nominee of the Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher, but four years later, as Prime Minister, Thatcher reappointed him, and he served as Vice-President of the European Commission from 1981 until 1985.

On 3 December 1980, when leaving his home in Brussels, two bullets were fired at Tugendhat from a car, narrowly missing him; he recalled the attack "closer than I would have liked".[8] The Provisional IRA claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt.[9]

Following his role at the European Commission, Tugendhat was Chairman of the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House) from 1986 to 1995, and of the Civil Aviation Authority from 1986 to 1991, when he was succeeded by Sir Christopher Chataway. In 1993 he was created a Life Peer on the nomination of Prime Minister John Major.

Lord Tugendhat later went on to become the Chairman of Abbey National, Blue Circle Industries, the European Advisory Board of Lehman Brothers, and the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He also served as a director of Rio Tinto and Eurotunnel, among other companies.

Other work

Tugendhat is a member of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) advisory board, an independent financial think tank which serves as a neutral, non-lobbying platform for exchanges among official institutions and private sector counter-parties worldwide.[10]

Personal life

He married Julia Lissant Dobson;[11] they have two sons, James (born 1971) and Angus (born 1974).[12]

His younger brother, Sir Michael Tugendhat, was a Judge of the High Court of England and Wales, and his nephew Tom Tugendhat has served as the Conservative MP for Tonbridge and Malling since May 2015.

Honours

Knighted in the 1990 Birthday Honours,[13] he was elevated on 15 October 1993 to the peerage for life as Baron Tugendhat, of Widdington in the County of Essex.[14]

In 1998 he became the Chancellor of the University of Bath, standing down in 2013 to be succeeded by Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh.[15] In 1998 Lord Tugendhat was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Bath,[16] becoming Chairman of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, the UK's first academic health science centre, from 2007 until December 2011.

Coat of arms of Christopher Tugendhat, Baron Tugendhat
Crest
A cock reguardant Azure beaked and legged Argent combed and wattled Gules in the beak a chain of twelve benzene rings conjoined Or.
Escutcheon
Per bend sinister indented acute of six points downwards the chief bendy en pointe Azure and Gules thre base bendy en pointe Sable and Or the whole parted and separated Argent.[17]
Supporters
On either side a bear statant erect reguardant Sable murally crowned Or.

See also

Publications

  • Oil: The Biggest Business (1968) London. Eyre and Spottiswoode
  • Multinationals (1971) London. Eyre and Spottiswoode
  • Making Sense of Europe (1986) London. Viking
  • Options for British Foreign Policy in the 1990s (Chatham House Papers) by Christopher Tugendhat and William Wallace (Nov 1988)
  • Roy Jenkins, a Retrospective (2004); contributor, wrote Chapter 12.
  • A History of Britain through Books 1900-1964 (2019) London. Whitefox
  • The Worm in the Apple (2022) London. Haus Publishing.

References

  1. ^ "Mr Christopher Tugendhat". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 13 May 2021.
  2. ^ www.parliament.uk
  3. ^ www.jisc.ac.uk
  4. ^ Klaus-Dieter Alicke. "Bielitz (Oberschlesien), Winsen (Aller)". Geschichte der jüdischen Gemeinden im deutschen Sprachraum (in German). Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  5. ^ "My name teaches me old hate is still alive". blogs.timesofisrael.com. 20 May 2020. Archived from the original on 10 June 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  6. ^ May, Luke (13 December 2019). "Conservative Tom Tugendhat suffered antisemitism during Tonbridge and Malling General Election 2019 campaign". Kent Online. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  7. ^ Henderson, RJ (1981). A History of King's College Choir School Cambridge. ISBN 978-0950752808.
  8. ^ Michael Hornsby (3 December 1980). "Tugendhat Escape in Brussells [sic?] shooting". The Times. p. 1.
  9. ^ Christopher Andrew (2009). The Defence of the Realm. Penguin. p. 696. ISBN 978-0-14-102330-4.
  10. ^ "Christopher Tugendhat : Political Economy : OMFIF". www.omfif.org. Archived from the original on 27 May 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  11. ^ www.debretts.com
  12. ^ www.burkespeerage.com
  13. ^ "No. 52173". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 June 1990. p. 2.
  14. ^ "No. 53462". The London Gazette. 20 October 1993. p. 16835.
  15. ^ Profile Archived 2 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine, bath.ac.uk; accessed 19 April 2016.
  16. ^ "Honorary Graduates 1989 to present". bath.ac.uk. University of Bath. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  17. ^ Debrett's Peerage. 2015. p. 1235.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Cities of London and Westminster
1970 – Feb 1974 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for City of London and Westminster South
Feb 1974 – 1977 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by European Commissioner for Budget & Financial Control and Financial Institutions
1977–1985 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Vice-President of the European Commission
1981–1985 		Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by Chancellor of the University of Bath
1998–2013 		Succeeded by
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gentlemen
Baron Tugendhat 		Followed by