Sir Christopher Bland captained the fencing and modern pentathlon teams at Oxford University’s Queen’s College and competed in the épée at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games, where he and Tom Kearney had the distinction of defeating Christian D’Oriola – the reigning Olympic foil champion – in their respective bouts in the team épée event, one of the notable individual performances of the Irish fencing programme at those Games.

After a career in the 5th Royal Enniskillen Dragoon Guards, Bland entered politics, serving on the Greater London Council from 1967, as Deputy Chairman of the Inner London Education Authority and as Chairman of the Conservative Bow Group think tank, before stepping down in 1970 to pursue a business career in health and telecommunications.

He was knighted in 1993 for his contributions to the National Health Service, served as Chairman of the BBC’s Board of Governors from 1996 to 2001, and subsequently served as Chairman of British Telecommunications until 2007.