Harper was educated at Alleyn's School in Dulwich and King's College London and is married with one son. He enjoys flying, shooting, running, riding motorcycles and gastronomy.
Service career
Sir Christopher Harper was commissioned as an acting pilot officer after Initial Officer Training in 1976, and then regraded to pilot officer the following year. He was promoted to flying officer in 1978; and posted in 1979 to 41 Squadron for his first tour on the SEPECAT Jaguar. He was promoted to flight lieutenant in 1982 and served as a Qualified Weapons Instructor on the Jaguar with No. 31 and No. 14 Squadrons before an exchange tour with the Canadian Air Force flying the McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet. He was promoted to squadron leader in 1986, and gained a Master of Arts in Defence Studies from King's College London in 1993. Promoted to wing commander in 1993, he returned to command No. 41 Squadron between 1994 and 1997; he was actively involved in operations over Bosnia during this period. Having been promoted to group captain at the end of this tour, he maintained his connection with the Jaguar force by returning to RAF Coltishall from 1999 to 2001 as Station Commander and Jaguar Force Commander. Throughout this period the Jaguar Force was involved in operations over Iraq. Harper was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2002 New Year Honours List and later that year was Mentioned in Despatches for action while over Northern Iraq. Promoted to air commodore in 2002, Harper served as Air Commodore Typhoon at No. 1 Group, before becoming the Director of Joint Commitments at the Ministry of Defence in 2004. Following promotion to air vice marshal in 2005, he was appointed Chief of Staff Operations at what became RAF Air Command. In 2007 he returned to No. 1 Group as Air Officer Commanding, following which he was promoted to air marshal and appointed Deputy Commander, NATO Allied Joint Force Command, Brunssum in March 2009. Harper was appointed the UK Military Representative to NATO and the EU in March 2011 and promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in June 2011. He was elected to be the Director-General of the International Military Staff at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on 24 July 2013. As of 2015, Harper was paid a salary of between £155,000 and £159,999 by the department, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time. In July 2016, he handed over his command of Director-General of the International Military Staff to Lieutenant General Jan Broeks. Following his retirement from the RAF in 2017, Air Mshl Harper became the Honorary Air Commodore of No 2623 Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, based at RAF Marham. He was appointed in 2018 as a Trustee of the Air League and in 2019 as a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
