Chris Patten

Christopher Francis Patten is a British Conservative politician who held ministerial office and served as chairman of the Conservative Party before becoming the twenty-eighth and final Governor of Hong Kong in 1992. His governorship covered the last five years of British administration before the territory’s return to Chinese sovereignty.

Patten promoted electoral reforms and expanded social programmes while negotiating an increasingly difficult relationship with Beijing. After leaving Hong Kong in 1997 he chaired the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, served as European Commissioner for External Relations and later became Chancellor of the University of Oxford.