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Sir Christopher (John Howard) Chancellor (29 March 1904 – 9 September 1989), a British journalist and administrator, was general manager of the news agency Reuters from 1944 to 1959. The Daily Telegraph credited him for keeping the company running under extremely difficult wartime circumstances, noting that "It was largely thanks to Chancellor that Reuters had survived the war intact, despite the loss for several years of the greatest part of its world market."^[1] By 1951, at the firm's 100th anniversary, Chancellor was credited with tripling the agency's correspondents and revenues.^[2]

Biography

Chancellor was son of Lt. Col. Sir John Robert Chancellor, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO (1870–1952), a colonial administrator. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. Chancellor joined Reuters in 1930 and remained with the agency for 29 years.

Based in Shanghai from 1931 to 1939 with his young family, he kept the agency's China service operating after the Japanese invasion in 1932.^[1] He returned to London during World War II, and worked with William Moloney and William Haley in reorganising Reuters' news and business operations, succeeding Sir Roderic Jones as the general manager of Reuters in 1944.

Chancellor was knighted in 1951. He died at Wincanton in southwest England, aged 85 years old, and was survived by his widow, his two sons and two daughters (the eldest having died young).

Family

He was married in 1926 to Sylvia Mary Paget (1 July 1901 London – 26 October 1996 Shellingford, Oxfordshire), eldest daughter of Sir Richard Arthur Surtees Paget, 2nd Bt by his wife Lady Muriel Finch-Hatton, only surviving child of granddaughter maternally of the 12th Earl of Nottingham & Winchilsea, who was himself descended from a sibling of Jane Austen. His wife Lady Chancellor was made OBE 1976 for her philanthropic activities.

Children:^[3]

1. John Paget Chancellor (1 July 1927 – 31 December 2014), author, publisher and editor of Knowledge encyclopædia,^[4] md 1959 (div 1968) Hon (Mary) Alice Jolliffe (d. 2009), only daughter of William Jolliffe, 4th Baron Hylton and his wife Lady Perdita Asquith, herself daughter of Raymond Asquith, eldest son of H.H. Asquith), British Prime Minister in the early 20th century. They had issue, one son and three daughters. (Mary Jolliffe remarried Hon. Richard Windsor-Clive, by whom she had a daughter, but they divorced after 25 years of marriage).^[5]
   1. Isabel Rose Chancellor (b. 1959) married 1982 (John) Joseph Boothby (b. 1947),^[6] eldest and elder surviving son of Basil Boothby CMG, sometime Ambassador to Iceland, of the Boothby baronets, by his wife Susan Penelope Asquith, third daughter of Brigadier Arthur Melland Asquith, third son of H.H. Asquith. They have issue, two sons and a daughter.^[7] Isabel's sister-in-law Emily Boothby is wife of author Piers Paul Read.
   
   
   2. Katherine Sylvia Anthony Chancellor (b. 1961) married 1stly 1989 (div 1997) Will Self (William Woodard Self) (b. 1961) the novelist, by whom she has issue, one son and one daughter. She married 2ndly 1992 the chef Rowley Leigh.^[7]
   
   
   3. (John) Edward Chancellor, "Eddy" (b. 1962),^[7] formerly a banker with Lazard Brothers in London, now an investment manager. He is the author of Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation (1999).^[8] In February 2009 he married Antonia Phillips, former wife of Martin Amis.^[9]
   
   
   4. 
      Anna Chancellor (born 27 April 1965), actress, best known as the Sloaney "Duckface" in Four Weddings and a Funeral. She md 1993 (div 1998).^[10] Nigel Willoughby, by whom she had no issue. Anna also has a daughter Poppy (b. 1988) by a prior relationship.^[5]
   
   


2. a daughter, died young of spinal meningitis in China.


3. Teresa Chancellor (b. 1933) md 1stly 1953 (div 1977) Edward Victor Gatacre; they had issue two sons and three daughters.^[11] She married 2ndly 1982 John Campbell Wells, artist (d. 1998), and had further issue one daughter.^[11]


4. Susanna Maria Chancellor (b. 1935) md 1958 Nicholas Johnston; they had issue, one son and three daughters, of whom the eldest daughter married Percy Weatherall and the youngest daughter married his younger brother.^[12]


5. 
   Alexander Surtees Chancellor (b. 4 January 1940) md 2 June1964 Susanna Elisabeth Debenham;,^[13] only daughter of Martin Ridley Debenham (younger brother of Sir Piers Debenham, 2nd Bt. (d.1964), who married Lady Chancellor's younger sister, and of Sir Gilbert Debenham, 3rd Bt.). They had issue, including
   
   1. Elizabeth Beatrice (Eliza) Chancellor (b. 22 December 1964);^[13] married 3 November 1990^[14]Alexander Waugh, elder son of Auberon Waugh (himself eldest son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh and his wife Lady Teresa Onslow, eldest daughter of Earl Onslow. They have issue.
   
   
   2. 
      Cecilia Mary Chancellor (b. 1 September 1966),^[15] model;^[16] she has issue.^[17] In late 2005, she was reported to be engaged to John Powlett "Jo" Colman (b 1962),^[18] publisher and CEO of Psychology Today and other formerly defunct magazines. Colman is the younger son of Sir Michael Colman, 3rd Bt.^[19][20]
   
   

Chancellor's sister Rosemary married Air Chief Marshal Sir William Elliot, and was the mother of Simon John Elliot^[21] who is married to (Sonia) Annabel Shand, sister of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.

Notes

References

• 
  pandp2 AT rcn.com (24 October 2007), Chancellor interviews News clippings of
  
  • 
    "Lady Chancellor: A philanthropist of wit and charm who remained unbowed by war in Shanghai or the Blitz in London", The Daily Telegraph, 30 October 1996
    
  
  
  • 
    Johnson, Syrie (8 July 1999), "The traders who turn to novels", Evening Standard
    
  
  
  • 
    Ostler, Catherine (10 December 2001), "After surviving 'five weddings' and a divorce, Duckface finds life hard as a single mother; Four Weddings star Anna Chancellor on the legacy of that ill-fated screen liaison", Daily Mail
    
  
  


• 
  nndb staff (8 August 2012), Martin Amis profile, nndb.com
  

Further reading

• Sir Christopher John Robert Chancellor (1904–1989) Oxford DNB entry


• New York Times obituary, 1989


• 
  Christopher Chancellor's work at Reuters as viewed by Time magazine, "100 for Reuters", 23 July 1951.