29.10.2010
On Tuesday 2 November 2010, the Chancellor, Dr Maurice Manning will confer the degree of Doctor of Laws on the Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes CH, Chancellor of the University of Oxford. Following the conferring, Lord Patten will present an address Leadership and Conscience: from Cardinal Newman to the Papal Visit.
The Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes CH Chris Patten was born in 1944 and educated at St Benedict’s School, Ealing and Balliol College, Oxford. He was Director of the Conservative Research Department from 1974 to 1979, and was a Member of Parliament from 1979 to 1992. He was a Minister in the Northern Ireland Office and Department of Education and became Minister for Overseas Development in 1986. He became Secretary of State for the Environment in 1989 and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party in 1990. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1989 and a Companion of Honour in 1998. In April 1992, Lord Patten was appointed Governor of Hong Kong, a position he held until 1997, overseeing the return of Hong Kong to China.
He was Chairman of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland set up under the Good Friday Peace Agreement which reported in 1999. In September 1999 he became European Commissioner for External Relations, a post he held until November 2004. On leaving office in Brussels he was made a Life Peer and took his seat in the House of Lords in January 2005. He was Chancellor of Newcastle University from 1998 to 2008 and was elected Chancellor of Oxford University in 2003.
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