Background
Christopher was born on February 15, 1904, at Newark, England.
Christopher was born on February 15, 1904, at Newark, England.
He was educated at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1917 and spent the next 16 years in the Royal Navy, leaving as a commander in 1933.
After turning to aviation as pilot, navigator and instructor, he was commandant of Jersey Airport from 1937 to 1939 and director of civil aviation, East Africa, from 1945 to 1947. He settled in Rhodesia in 1948.
A successful farmer, he became a member of the Rhodesian Front. He was appointed deputy chairman in 1965 but resigned from the party on April 12, 378 1968, because the new constitution did not, in his view, guarantee white rule indefinitely. Contesting Gatooma at a by-election in September 1968 as Rhodesian National Party candidate, he gained only 65 votes. Next he turned to the Republican Alliance and when it was dissolved he founded the Democratic Party on one overriding principle: “That the white man and his civilisation in Rhodesia shall be preserved.”
