Former chairman of the BBC

Born: May 29, 1938;

Died: January 28, 2017

SIR Christopher Bland, who has died of prostate cancer aged 78, was a businessman who headed some of the greatest and sometimes most controversial institutions of British public life.

He was chairman of the BBC and London Weekend Television and was widely recognised for turning around the fortunes of the telecoms giant BT. He was also chairman of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Canongate, the Edinburgh-based publishing house, whose buy-out by his stepson Jamie Byng he helped fund.

Sir Christopher was appointed as chair of the BBC in 1996 by the then Prime Minister John Major and presided over a period of restructuring under the unpopular director general John Birt and then Greg Dyke. However, Sir Christopher was seen as a strong defender of the corporation's independence.

He then moved to BT in 2001, where he penned a 10-point plan for the company's recovery at a time when many were pushing for it to be broken up. He then moved to lead the RSC where he oversaw a major redevelopment of the main theatre - as well as managing to cram in performances of all of Shakespeare's works in a year.

He was born in India, the son of an oil businessman, and was educated at Sedburgh boarding school in Cumbria. After national service, he studied history at Queen's College, Oxford, before starting his business career with the electrical retailer Currys among others.

His move into television came when he was asked to serve as deputy chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, which led to his appointment at LWT in 1984.

Showing he had many strings to his bow, Sir Christopher was also chairman of Leith's School of Food and Wine in London. He fenced for Ireland at the 1960 Olympic Games, was an avid wine collector and after retiring, wrote his first novel, Ashes In The Wind, in his 70s. It received positive reviews, with Melvyn Bragg naming it his novel of the year, and was closely followed by a second book, Cathar, in 2016. He also wrote a play which was produced in London, Easter Rising And Thereafter.

Sir Christopher was knighted in 1993 for his work as chairman of the Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte's hospitals.

Paying tribute, BBC director general Tony Hall said: "Sir Christopher Bland was an outstanding chairman of the BBC. He was a great communicator who both understood the creativity of broadcasting as well as the business of it. He was hugely admired and will be greatly missed."

In a statement his family said: "Christopher died peacefully at home. He had defied cancer for three years and continued to live with his usual extraordinary warmth, generosity, energy and humour.

"He relished every day of his life, and to those that loved him he is irreplaceable.

"We're enormously proud of everything he achieved, from steering the BBC through tough times to his late flowering as a novelist, and we'll miss him more than we can say."

Sir Christopher was married to Jennie, who he met aged seven. He is survived by her, their son, Archie, and four step-children, William, Georgia, Tara, and Jamie.