According to the Daily Mail, the former diplomat suffered a stroke while on holiday with his wife Catherine in the French Alps. Confirming his death on Twitter, current Ambassador Karen Pearce wrote: “Very sad to see former British Ambassador to the US, Christopher Meyer, has passed away. “He was one of my predecessors but I first met him 30 years ago when we were serving under Robin Renwick. “He was a great diplomat and a great character. All our thoughts are with Catherine and his family.” Sir Christopher served as ambassador to the US for six years from 1997, having previously been press secretary to then Conservative Prime Minister John Major between 1994 and 1996. His memoir, DC Confidential, published in 2005, focused on his time in Washington and was highly critical of Tony Blair over his handling of the run-up to the Iraq war. This conflict was to be the dominant feature of George W. Bush’s presidency, but when Sir Christopher first met him he said he was dealing with a politician with a narrow worldview. He wrote: “Bush admitted that, apart from Mexico, he did not know much about international affairs and that he would do well to broaden his experience.” Image: George W. Bush (R) smiles after receiving a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from British Ambassador to the US Christopher Meyer in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington in 2001 After retiring from the diplomatic service, Sir Christopher served as chairman of the Press Complaints Commission between 2003 and 2009, his time there coinciding with the phone hacking scandal and the 2007 jailing of News of the World journalist Clive Goodman , and the investigating agent. , Glenn Mulcaire. As the scale of the scandal grew, he was criticized for not bringing more people to account, despite not having the powers to do so. In 2018 he was hospitalized after being attacked by a teenager at Victoria Station.
