Giles Chichester

Giles Bryan Chichester was born in London on 29 July 1946 to Francis Chichester and the former Sheila Craven. His father, a pioneering aviator, navigator and yachtsman, would become world famous in 1967 as the first person to sail single-handed around the world by the clipper route.

Giles was educated at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he read geography. He was at Oxford when his father set out from Plymouth in the ketch Gipsy Moth IV on 27 August 1966, and throughout the voyage he filed reports on its progress to The Daily Telegraph. Sir Francis returned on 28 May 1967 after 226 days at sea, having stopped only once, in Sydney.

From 1969 Chichester worked in the family business, Francis Chichester Ltd, which his father had founded to publish maps, guides and educational wallcharts. He went on to run the firm for around 30 years. He was also involved in Conservative Party organisation and chaired the Carlton Club's political committee.

In 1994 he was elected Member of the European Parliament for Devon and East Plymouth. When the United Kingdom moved to regional lists in 1999 he was elected for South West England, a constituency that took in Gibraltar from 2004, and he held the seat until 2014. On 23 July 2004 he was elected chairman of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, and over the years he sat on committees covering research, fisheries, safety at sea, climate change and petitions, and chaired the Parliament's delegation for relations with Australia and New Zealand. He described himself as a climate change sceptic.

Chichester became leader of the Conservative MEPs in 2007. On 5 June 2008 he stepped down voluntarily to clear his name, after it was alleged that since 1996 European Parliament funds for secretarial and office services had been paid through his family company, of which he was a paid director. He said he had understood the contract to have been accepted by the Parliament and that it was simply an easier way of paying his political staff; the Parliament suggested that a 2003 change to its financial rules meant the arrangement could be a conflict of interest, and he cancelled it once he was told it was not in order. He was succeeded as leader by Philip Bushill-Matthews.

He was re-elected in 2009, and on 6 July 2011 he was elected a Vice-President of the European Parliament, replacing Silvana Koch-Mehrin, serving until January 2012. He retired at the 2014 European election and was succeeded by Clare Moody.

Chichester was married to Virginia, and they had three children, George, Jessica and Charlie, and a granddaughter, Isla. He lived for many years in the family home at 9 St James's Place in London and kept close ties to Devon, where his father had been born and where his funeral was later held.

Giles Chichester died peacefully on 12 August 2026, at the age of 80. The cause of death was not made public. His death was announced in The Telegraph by his family, and The Telegraph published an obituary on 31 August 2026 recalling his two decades in the European Parliament and his years at the helm of the family map business.

A funeral service was held at the Church of the Blessed Mary, Aylesbeare, in Devon on 15 September 2026, followed by a service of committal at St Peter's Church, Shirwell, near Barnstaple, on 16 September.

Chichester is remembered as one of the longest-serving British Conservatives in the European Parliament, where he spent 20 years and became an authority on industry, research and energy policy, chairing the committee responsible for them. He combined his political career with stewardship of the publishing business that carried his father's name, and he kept alive the story of Sir Francis Chichester's record-breaking voyage, which he had followed and reported on as a young man.