Sir Christopher Walter France, GCB (2 April 1934 – 21 October 2014) was an English

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. Educated at East Ham Grammar School and

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, he completed his National Service in the

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

. After a short spell teaching, he entered HM Treasury in 1959. He was the principal private secretary to the

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...

from 1973 to 1976. After a year's secondment at the Electricity Council, he moved to the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

in 1981 as a deputy secretary and then the Department of Health and Social Security in 1984; he was the DHSS's Second

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day ...

from 1986 to 1987 and then Permanent Secretary from 1987 to 1988, when the department was split and France became Permanent Secretary of the new Department of Health, serving until 1992 and overseeing major NHS reforms, the government response to the

HIV/AIDS crisis AIDS is caused by a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which originated in non-human primates in Central and West Africa. While various sub-groups of the virus acquired human infectivity at different times, the present pandemic had its origins i ...

and the

Salmonella ''Salmonella'' is a genus of rod-shaped (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two species of ''Salmonella'' are ''Salmonella enterica'' and ''Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' is the type species and is fur ...

crisis of 1988. He was then

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence The Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Defence, also called the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, is the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence. The office holder is the government's principal civilian adviser on Defence ...

from 1992 to 1995, which coincided with the restructuring of the British military following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In retirement, he was chairman of Queen Mary College from 1995 to 2003. His wife Valerie Edith Larman was head of the

City of London School for Girls (''O Lord Direct us'') , established = 1894 , closed = , type = Independent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmistress , head = Jenny Brown , r_head_label = ...

from 1986 to 1995.Michael Partridge
"France, Sir Christopher Walter [Chris]"
''

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' (online ed., Oxford University Press, 2018). Retrieved 16 September 2021."Sir Christopher France", '' The Daily Telegraph'', 10 December 2014, p. 31. .

References

1934 births 2014 deaths English civil servants Alumni of New College, Oxford Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Defence Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for Health {{UK-gov-bio-stub