Christopher Geidt

Sir Christopher Edward Wollaston MacKenzie Geidt, KCVO, OBE (born 1961) is currently the Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II.

Geidt joined the Royal Household in 2002 after serving with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the United Nations in Sarajevo, Geneva, and Brussels. He was Private Secretary to Carl Bildt, the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Balkans, before taking a sabbatical year at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 2001. He was appointed Assistant Private Secretary to The Queen in 2002 in succession to Tim Hitchens who returned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office following his secondment.

Geidt is a graduate of King's College London and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1997 for service in Bosnia, Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in June 2007, and was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 2011 Birthday Honours.^[1] He was sworn of the Privy Council in July 2007.^[2] It is traditional that the Sovereign's Private Secretary is a Privy Counsellor, to assist him in supporting Her Majesty in relation to government papers which come before The Queen.

Geidt was Deputy Private Secretary to The Queen from 2005 until his promotion to Private Secretary on 8 September 2007 after the retirement of his predecessor, Lord Janvrin. Edward Young has succeeded Christopher Geidt as Deputy Private Secretary.

Geidt's wife is the youngest daughter of Patrick Neill, Baron Neill of Bladen.

References

1. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59808. p. 3. 11 June 2011.
2. ^ "Announcement of Christopher Geidt being sworn of the Privy Council". Number 10. http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page12593.asp. Retrieved 2007-09-21. 

Offices held