In the last three months, he says, partly as a result of Britains generous visa scheme, there have been 100,000-plus people from Hong Kong, teachers, medics, lawyers, leaving to come here and lots of other places as well. and at Queens' College, Cambridge. Patten and his time in Hong Kong was the subject of the 5-part documentary series The Last Governor, which was filmed throughout his time in Hong Kong, including his arrival, key moments of his government such as the 1995 elections and his final day in office, ending as he departs Government House for the last time. Get involved in exciting, inspiring conversations. In October, he severely criticised the Hong Kong government for banning face masks. Patten submitted his letter of resignation as BBC Trust Chairman to the Secretary of State on 6 May 2014; citing health reasons following his heart bypass surgery on 28 April. Those were the days when HK people were proud of their identity, another said. I kept on saying the only bunkers in Hong Kong were on golf courses., Events of the last decade, not just in China, have shown how the liberal idea that market freedom goes hand in hand with political freedom has been disproved. He was Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 until 1997, Chairman for the Independent Commission on Policing after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 . In 1992, Chris Patten, former chairman of the Conservative Party, was appointed Hong Kong's last governor, and was the man to oversee the handover ceremony of this former British colony. Alice was only 12 when she arrived in Hong Kong, and while her sisters returned to Britain to school and university, she grew up amid the marble-corridored glory of Government House where men in white gloves picked her socks up off the floor and served her meals. He is portrayed by Noel Lester Rands.[30]. Chris Patten. In 1989, the then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made him the Secretary of State for the Environment. Many good people were driven out of the Conservative party by Brexit. The City of M. His second thought was metaphor. He was one of the United Kingdom's two members to the European Commission as Commissioner for External Relations from 1999 to 2004. What I should say, he said, is that we dont have a Conservative government at all, but an English nationalist party which is populist, but fatally without being popular.. It was politically and morally difficult both for them and for us. SELECT OPTIONS SAVE TO CART His role however is minor as the film depicts him being replaced with one month to go before the handover. Chris Patten trying to console his daughter Kate (left) on the evening of Hong Kong's handover as daughter Alice looks on. JACK HILL. Patten seems a consummately relaxed 78. The National Portrait Gallery will NOT use your information to contact you or store for any other purpose than to investigate or display your contribution. And I just think Johnson is terribly wrong. He considered that the EU had become overly dependent on Russian energy supplies, and should become more engaged with the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia in order to diversify supplies. RM G4CGKC - Former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten, with wife Lavender (2nd left) and daughters (l to r) Kate, Laura and Alice, after receiving his Order of the Companions of Honour from the Prince of Wales at today's (Friday) Buckingham Palace investiture. How I wonder, sitting on his plump sofa, does he envisage that? His job was to accumulate information on the television performance of rival William F. Buckley, Jr. "Kate makes documentaries now," says her mother, who trained as a barrister, but currently works as a mediator for couples whose marriages have broken down. He is also an actor and was recently embroiled in controversy when he opted to play Prince William in an American film about the young Royals. RM 2D332TK - Chris Patten, the EU Commissioner and last Governor of Hong Kong, after the installation ceremony as Chancellor at Oxford University in Oxford, with from left daughters Laura, Alice, wife Lavender and daughter Kate. Views expressed by opinion writers and advertisers are not necessarily shared by HKFP. [26] They have three daughters, including the actress Alice Patten. His father was a drummer in a jazz band who became a music publisher, before running a precarious business making jingles for TV. A practising Roman Catholic, he organized Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom in September 2010. Patten. For a decade between 1999 and 2009, he was the Chancellor of Newcastle University. Chris Patten. He is the 28th and final Governor of Hong Kong from 19 July 1992 until the end of British administration over the territory on 30 June 1997. He grew up in West London and attended a Catholic primary school, Our Lady of the Visitation, in Greenford, and later the independent St Benedict's School in Ealing, west London. Lord Patten married Lavender Thornton in 1971. A media frenzy greeted their exuberant, mini-skirted arrival in 1992, and their gulping tears when they left five years later came to symbolise the last days of the British Empire in the territory. What the Chinese have done in Xinjiang is wicked. The EU and Moldova. Chris Patten East and West: China, Power, and the Future of Asia Hardcover - September 14, 1998 by Christopher Patten (Author) 21 ratings Hardcover $22.11 45 Used from $1.66 5 New from $18.85 2 Collectible from $17.00 Paperback $16.99 12 Used from $2.93 Chris Patten I think that what most surprises anybody who goes into politics from even a modestly cerebral background is the vulgarity of much of the cut and thrust of politics. They bought the. [22] BBC Trust Vice Chairman Diane Coyle took over as Acting Chairman until the appointment of a new chairman. Tory! The diaries of the last British Governor of Hong Kong, published on the 25th anniversary of the handoverIn June 1992 Chris Patten went to Hong Kong as the last British governor, to try to prepare it not (as other British colonies over the decades) for independence, but for handing back in 1997 to the Chinese, from whom most of its territory had been leased 99 years previously. St Mary's Barnes, United Kingdom, SW13 9HL. With wife, Lavender, and daughters (from left) Kate, Laura and Alice, after receiving the Order of the Companions of Honour at Buckingham Palace in 1998. ad things gone differently for him in 1992, it is quite possible to imagine that Patten could have been the first Catholic prime minister of Britain. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Bath in 1979, and served until he was unseated in 1992. [7], Patten's tenure faced several different challenges, as many in Hong Kong were still reeling from the Tiananmen Square massacre a few years earlier. help his daughter bypass airport security rules, I can finally breathe: Some celebrate the end of Hong Kongs Covid mask rule, but most remain cautious, US politicians call for sanctions on Hong Kong prosecutors in 47 democrats case; Beijing slams hypocritic political show, In Pictures: Hong Kong bids farewell to Pennys Bay Covid facility with giant padlock and Auld Lang Syne, Hong Kong 47: Prosecutors to seek witness anonymity order as trial adjourned over defendants injury, Covid-19: Medic urges Hong Kong students to remove face masks to improve learning, immunity, Artist Vaevae Chan spent years building a cave in a Hong Kong high rise. His background is decidedly unstarry: his mother is a housewife from Dominica, his father worked as a warehouseman. Now 28, she is a television producer at the BBC, making programmes for BBC Choice. Patten's defeat was attributed to factors such as the Poll Tax.[6]. When his spouse passed he lost his only source of income but claims to his daughters to still be retired. Its funny you should say that. In 1999, he was appointed as one of the United Kingdom's two members to the European Commission as Commissioner for External Relations where he was responsible for the Union's development and co-operation programmes, as well as liaison with Javier Solana, the High Representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. With her long hair and perfect features, the 22-year-old is possibly the prettiest of the Patten girls and made her TV debut this year as Imogen Dartie in The Forsyte Saga, and now spends her time flitting between rehearsals at the Royal National Theatre and her new boyfriend, Cambridge graduate Dan Rookwood, an internet sports journalist and sometime travel writer at The Guardian. His work has been featured in Washington Post, Public Radio International, Hong Kong Economic Times and others. To me, they're not a story, they're just my girls.". degree from the University of Trinity College, Toronto and an honorary D.Litt. Is he guilty of a kind of historical myopia? (1973-), Television producer; daughter of Chris Patten, Paul McCartney Photographs 196364: Eyes of the Storm, Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, Mary Lavender St Leger Patten (ne Thornton), / Person - Katharine Joan ('Kate') Patten. A picture of the family of last governor Chris Patten posted by her daughter Alice (left, front) on her Facebook turns viral on social media. degree from the University of Bath. Sign up for exclusive newsletters, comment on stories, enter competitions and attend events. He was made a life peer in 2005 and has been Chancellor of the University of Oxford since 2003. Perhaps because she was forced to play out her rebellious teenage years in the public view - a leader in The Independent in 1992 criticised her for failing to dress appropriately and sitting "in what could only be described as a slouch - legs askew and one arm dangled over the side of her chair," during a formal ceremony - Laura has cultivated a quiet domestic life out of the limelight and, after her sudden promotion to a pop-star level of fame in Hong Kong, now shuns publicity. Leung Chai-yan, the other daughter of the Chief Executive, claimed she was domestically abused by hermother and had beenlocked up. Christopher Patten. He put out his memoir, Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths About World Affairs, on September 29, 2005. If Patten places some of his faith in what comes next, however, he hasnt quite given up hope of redemption in the here and now. 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