Fine art degree course at art school in the 1960s. Then trained as a paintings conservator/restorer at the Tate Gallery in London, leading to a 35 year full time career there. On retirement became involved in the anti-war movement - the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq and motivated to try and use art to make aware and communicate the truth about what was learnt as an anti-war activist from numerous differing sources. Essentially, the art became 'political'. This felt important and normal to do this, as in the 1960s was a time of significant change; - the cold war, nuclear weapons proliferation and testing, plus the Vietnam War, which politicised many of his generation. Also family background upbringing had an influence. They were quite radical and progressive, sympathetic to the Quakers. Chris was educated at an independent co-educational Quaker boarding school from the age of 12. Father was a ww2 conscientious objector & a grandmother who had been a suffragette in the early part of the 20th Century. An uncle who had been on the front line and gassed in ww1, spent the rest of his life helping children internationally affected by war. The activist art continues today engaging with the truth about serious issues; conflicts, environment and social/political. 'Political' art has often been devalued and marginalised.