Sir Christopher John Rome Meyer (22 February 1944 – 27 July 2022) was a British diplomat who served as the Ambassador to the United States (1997–2003), Ambassador to Germany (1997), and the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (2003–2009). He was married to Catherine Meyer, Baroness Meyer, founder of the charity Parents & Abducted Children Together, and an active board member of the Transatlantic Forum for Education and Diplomacy. Early life and education Meyer was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, on 22 February 1944, to Reginald Henry Rome Meyer and his wife, Eve. Reginald was a flight lieutenant in Coastal Command of the RAF who was killed in action over the Greek island of Icaria 13 days before his son was born; in 2011, Meyer visited the island and met witnesses of the shooting-down and burial of his father. Meyer was educated at Lancing College, a boarding independent school for boys (now co-educational), near the town of Lancing in West Sussex, the Lycée Henri-IV in Paris and Peterhouse at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated in History (he was an honorary fellow of Peterhouse from 2002 on). After graduating, he attended the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies at Bologna. Diplomatic career Meyer began his career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1966 in the West and Central African Department as desk officer for French-speaking African countries. Following a year's training in the Russian language, his first posting, at the age of 24, was as third secretary to the British embassy in Moscow in 1968, where for his first year he was the ambassador's private secretary. From 1970 to 1973 he was second secretary at the British embassy in Madrid. This was followed by five years in London: firstly, as the head of the Soviet section in the East European and Soviet Department, and, secondly, as speech-writer to Foreign Secretaries James Callaghan, Anthony Crosland and David Owen. Meyer was then sent from 1978 to 1982 to the UK permanent representation to the European Communities in Brussels, followed by two years as political counsellor in the British embassy in Moscow. He returned to London in 1984 to become press secretary to the Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, a position which he occupied until 1988, when he went for a year to Harvard University's Centre for International Affairs as a visiting fellow. This was followed by five years at the