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]
Tugendhat was born at Marylebone, Middlesex. His father, Dr Georg Tugendhat (1898–1973), who was born at 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]
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.
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]
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.
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.
