Chris Bland

    Brief Biography

Christopher Bland was born 1936 and brought up in Walton-on-Thames, but early life was interrupted by the outbreak of war. He was evacuated to America until 1943  when he returned with his mother and went to Sandroyd School , Salisbury, and then to Clayesmore School in Blandford Forum. National Service was in 1955. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of No 1 Railway Group in the Royal Engineers.

After National Service he served an apprenticeship at Rolls Royce in Crewe. “I was sent to the Isle of Wight, where I endeavoured, successfully, to persuade Britten Norman in Bembridge to buy Rolls Royce engines for their CC2 Hovercraft.” In return, Britten Norman persuaded Christopher to come and work for them. That was in 1962, and now on the then-generous wage of £29 a week, he married wis wife Judith.

In July 1965 Britten Norman, with others, started Hovertravel: it was the first truly commercial Hovercraft service. “Eight hundred people crossed the Solent on that first day,” explains Christopher. “Ryde has no water at low tide – so you couldn’t get a boat in there anyway. If Queen Victoria had had a Hovercraft, they would not have built Ryde Pier in 1865!” The Hovercraft now carries about 800,000 people a year.

In addition to Hovertravel a subsidiary company was formed ‘Hoverwork Ltd’, which carried out engineering and support for the craft operated by Hovertravel and in addition supplied hovercraft and crews for charters in many parts of the world. One example of this was an SR.N6 passenger service with two craft at the 1967 World Expo in Montreal, Canada between April and October that year carrying passengers from the city centre to the exhibition site on two islands in the St Lawrence. Another was  in 1968 when a single Hoverwork SR.N6 traversed a 2,400 km route through riverine tropical terrain, between Manaus, Brazil and Port of Spain, Trinidad, for a National Geographic scientific expedition. Between Hoverwork and Hovertravel, a fleet of up to nine SR.N6s was employed on both scheduled and chartered operations around the world.

Christopher became Managing Director of Hovertravel, which in 1976 took over the British Rail Hovercraft Southampton-Cowes service. However, the firm came up against Red Funnel in Cowes. “They won the day because they were better situated. We finally closed the service, Solent Seaspeed, on Christmas Eve 1980.”

In 1985 Christopher crossed the floor to become a director of Red Funnel. “It was an interesting time, during which all the present fleet was built.” It was then that he was sought for other, public, roles: he was on the Albany Prisons Board, was Chairman of the Health Authority, and was made High Sheriff in 1988: “I really couldn’t have done any of that without the great support from my colleagues at Hovertravel,” he says.

When Christopher Bland was approached to be Lord Lieutenant in 1995 it was a complete bolt from the blue. It was, he says, an honour and a privilege to represent the Queen for 11 years. A visit by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh together in May 2004, was one of the other highlights of his tenure. While the Duke was taken to look at boats and businesses, Christopher looked after the Queen on the Havenstreet railway. “We had a very special lunch at Osborne House, where the Queen was able to discuss her gardening problems with Alan Titchmarsh.”

Christopher retired as Lord Lieutenant after 11 years, aged 70, and as chairman of Hovertravel in 2008. As he remains a non-executive director he has effectively been with the company for 45 years.

Recognition for his dedication to the life of the Island came in 2008 when he was made one of just two Freeman of the Isle of Wight – Dame Ellen MacArthur is the other.

Chris has been President of The Hovercraft Society since 2000, succeeding Sir Christopher Cockerell.