Christopher Shale

Not to be confused with Chris Shays.

Christopher Shale (23 August 1954, in Northampton – 25 June 2011, in Pilton) was a British businessman and Conservative politician. He was Chairman of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, and a close associate of Prime Minister and local MP David Cameron, who praised him for his "massive contribution to the Conservative Party, both locally and nationally".

Shale was educated at Great Houghton Preparatory School and Oakham School in Rutland, he was then commissioned as a British Army officer in the 17th/21st Lancers. After leaving the army he joined Durdon Smith Communications and then became the chief executive of SGL Communications. In 1990 he then became the founder and managing director of Oxford Resources, a business supply consultancy. Shale was also a director of the Centre for Policy Studies between 2001 and 2005 and a sponsor of the eurosceptic thinktank Open Europe.

In June 2011 he was critical of the British Conservative Party in a strategy document that was leaked to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, saying that they came across as "graceless, voracious, crass, always on the take".

Shale, who was married to Nikki with whom he had three children (Natalia Yeomams, Edo Mapelli Mozzi and Alby Shale) lived in Over Worton, a village near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire.

Shale died of a heart attack at the Glastonbury Festival. Prior to the discovery of his body, in a portable toilet, he had been reported missing for 18 hours.