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Christopher Chataway | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Chataway in 1972 | |
| Minister of Posts and Telecommunications | |
| In office 24 June 1970 – 7 April 1972 | |
| Prime Minister | Edward Heath |
| Preceded by | John Stonehouse |
| Succeeded by | John Eden |
| Member of Parliament forLewisham North | |
| In office 8 October 1959 – 10 March 1966 | |
| Preceded by | Niall MacDermot |
| Succeeded by | Roland Moyle |
| Member of Parliament forChichester | |
| In office 22 May 1969 – 20 September 1974 | |
| Preceded by | Walter Loveys |
| Succeeded by | Anthony Nelson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1931-01-31)31 January 1931 |
| Died | 19 January 2014(2014-01-19) (aged 82) St John's Wood, London, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Education | Sherborne School |
| Alma mater | Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Profession | Politician, athlete, broadcaster |
| Sports career | |
| Height | 175 cm (5 ft 9 in) |
| Weight | 69 kg (152 lb) |
| Sport | Athletics |
Event | middle/long-distance |
| Club | Walton AC Achilles Club |
Medal record | |
Sir Christopher John Chataway (31 January 1931 – 19 January 2014) was a Britishmiddle- andlong-distance runner, television news broadcaster andConservative politician.
Chataway was born inChelsea, London, the son of James Denys Percival Chataway (died 1953) and Margaret Pritchard, née Smith (died 1988).[1][2] He spent his childhood in theAnglo-Egyptian Sudan as his father was a district commissioner in theSudan Political Service.[3][4][5] He was educated atSherborne School — where he excelled at rugby, boxing and gymnastics but did not win a race until he was 16.[4] — andMagdalen College,Oxford, where he gained aphilosophy, politics and economics degree,[6] His studies were outshone by his success on the athletics track as a long-distance runner.
Chataway had a short but distinguished athletics career. At theHelsinkiOlympic Games of 1952, in the5000 metres final, after being passed on the last bend by theCzech long-distance runner,Emil Zátopek, France'sAlain Mimoun, andWest Germany'sHerbert Schade, Chataway's foot brushed the curb and he crashed headlong to the ground. Chataway managed to finish the race in fifth place. On leaving university he took an executive job withGuinness. When SirHugh Beaver of Guinness came up with the idea for theGuinness Book of Records, it was Chataway who suggested his old university friendsNorris andRoss McWhirter as editors, knowing of their liking for facts.[7]
Chataway continued with his running. WhenRoger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile on 6 May 1954 at Oxford University'sIffley Road Track, Chataway andChris Brasher were his pacemakers.
He represented theEnglish team at the1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Vancouver, Canada,[8] where he won the gold medal in the3 miles event.[9] He then finished in second place in the 5000m at theEuropean Athletics Championship of 1954, 12.2 seconds behind the winnerVladimir Kuts, but two weeks later turned the tables at a London v. Moscow athletics competition atWhite City, setting aworld record time of 13 minutes 51.6 seconds. The contest was televised via the Eurovision network and made Chataway a sporting celebrity: that December he won the firstBBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
After competing in the1956 Olympics, Chataway retired from international athletics, though he continued to race for Thames Hare and Hounds.[citation needed]
Soon after leaving Oxford with a degree in politics, philosophy and economics, he decided to aim for a political career. He thought a suitable job in the rapidly expanding world of television might help.[citation needed] He refused offers in sports TV and with panel and quiz shows but secured a job in August 1955 withITN. He,Robin Day, andBarbara Mandell, were its first newscasters. After six months, when loss-making ITV cut back on its news output, Chataway switched to theBBC and was for three and a half years one ofPanorama's team of reporters with a different assignment each week, sometimes at home but usually abroad. By this time, he was also considering another career, this time in politics. He had been narrowly elected as aConservative to theLondon County Council in 1958 inLewisham North, and was then selected to stand for Parliament in the same seat. Lewisham North was a highly marginal seat won byLabour in a by-election in 1957, but Chataway won the seat with a majority bigger than it had been in the previous general election.
Hismaiden speech expressed the hope that theEngland cricket team would refuse to play a tour inapartheid South Africa, a highly unusual opinion for a Conservative. In Parliament, Chataway took up the issue of refugees, especially in Africa, and campaigned so hard during World Refugee Year that he was awarded aNansen Medal. He served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary before being appointed as a junior Education Minister in July 1962. In the 1964 election, his majority was slashed to 343 and the seat looked distinctly vulnerable; in 1966 he lost.
In 1967 the Conservatives unexpectedly won control of theInner London Education Authority and the party leadership was horrified to discover that their newly elected councillors were going to try to break up comprehensive schools and replace them with secondary modern and grammar schools. Chataway, with relevant ministerial experience, was persuaded to take over. He was elected an alderman and appointed leader of the education committee. Eventually cajoling his colleagues into a more moderate line, he avoided a head-on collision withEdward Short (the Labour Education Secretary) and proceeded with those schemes for secondary reorganisation that he regarded as well founded.[citation needed]
Chataway was keen to return to Parliament, and the opportunity came in abyelection inChichester in May 1969. He then resigned as ILEA Leader. With the return of a Conservative government in 1970, and after refusing the offer of sports minister, he was appointed by Edward Heath asMinister for Posts and Telecommunications and made a privy counsellor. In this post he took charge of introducing commercial radio for the first time, ending the BBC monopoly. He also introduced to parliament the complete end to the restrictions on broadcasting hours on television and radio. The restrictions on broadcasting hours were gradually eased from early 1971 and lifted fully in January 1972.[10] After a reshuffle in April 1972 he was Minister for Industrial Development.
When the Conservatives were defeated in the February 1974 election, Chataway announced his retirement from politics (at the age of 43) and did not seek re-election in October 1974. He then went into business becoming a managing director of Orion Bank,[11] a consortium bank later acquired by one of its shareholders, theRoyal Bank of Canada. He stayed with Orion, later as vice chairman, for 15 years. He held various non-executive directorships and was also the first chairman of Groundwork, the environmental charity, and hon. treasurer of the National Campaign for Electoral Reform.
His principal outside interest wasActionAid, a small overseas development charity, of which he became treasurer in 1974 and later chairman. By the time he left the board of trustees in 1999 ActionAid's annual turnover had grown to nearly £100 million. When Chataway's son Adam decided to launch a water project in Ethiopia in memory of his fiancée killed in a road traffic accident he chose to do it in partnership with ActionAid. Vicky's Water Project, opened in 2010, has transformed the lives of 20,000 people.
In 1991 Chataway was appointed chairman of theCivil Aviation Authority – a job he relished not least because his father had been one of the early aviators. He supported his friendChris Brasher when he established theLondon Marathon, and was President of theCommonwealth Games Council for England from 1990 to 2009. He wasknighted in the1995 Birthday Honours for services to the aviation industry.[12]
In the2005 general election his stepsonCharles Walker was elected as Conservative MP forBroxbourne.
He was married twice; firstly, to Anna Lett (1959; divorced 1975), with whom he had two sons and a daughter; and secondly, to Carola Walker (1976 to his death), with whom he had two further sons.
His stepson is the Conservative MPCharles Walker and his brother-in-law the former Conservative MPPeter Hordern.
Chataway suffered from cancer for the last two and a half years of his life. He died atSt John's Hospice in north west London on 19 January 2014, twelve days before his 83rd birthday.[13]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLewisham North 1959 –1966 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forChichester 1969 –October 1974 | Succeeded by |
| Educational offices | ||
| Preceded by Ashley Bramall as Chair | Leader of theInner London Education Authority 1967 – 1969 | Succeeded by |
Commonwealth Games champions in men's5000 metres | |
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| 3 miles (1930–1966) | |
| 5000 metres (1970–present) |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
