It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of Chris Willy on 6 July 2024. Chris spent two action-packed decades at BP, which he joined in 1960, initially in the Middle East and latterly North Africa and London. These are summarized below by Chris’s godson and fellow bp pensioner, David Pilcher, with contributions from Chris’s children Charles, Dee and Tessa.
Born in London in April 1929, Chris was educated at Malvern College, before going on to read law at Lincoln College, Oxford, and Cornell University in New York. He qualified as a barrister in London, but rather than follow a legal career, he joined the Foreign Office (FO) in 1955. After postings in Khartoum and Beirut (where he studied Arabic at the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies) Chris left the FO and joined BP in 1960, as an assistant in Middle East co-ordination.
He was posted to Das Island in 1962, and later that year became Chief Local Representative with Abu Dhabi Marine Areas Limited, where he was involved in negotiations on the future supply of oil with the Ruler of Abu Dhabi, the legendary Sheikh Shakhbut, in the royal palace. Amongst his other duties, he was, apparently, responsible for delivering the Sheikh’s royalties in rupees by jeep, as the Ruler distrusted banks!
Chris returned to London in 1964, where he joined Regional Co-ordination (Middle East) as an assistant regional coordinator. He was appointed manager, Lands and Concessions Branch, Exploration Department in 1967, where he stayed until he was posted to Benghazi in Libya as legal economic advisor in 1971. His last few weeks in Libya were spent in Tripoli as Company Representative until — out of the blue — Colonel Gaddafi nationalized BP and sent his troops to occupy forcibly the company’s offices. Chris played a vital part in negotiating with the Libyan government to ensure the safety of the remaining local staff, before returning to London in 1972, where he temporarily worked in the Middle East Regional Directorate.
In 1973 he was transferred to Iran, where he became Company Secretary and Head of Management Services of the Iranian Oil Consortium. But nationalization seemed to follow him around. On the day Chris arrived in Tehran, the Shah announced he was nationalizing the Consortium. Nevertheless, Chris and his family stayed on for another year, renting what was probably the safest house in Tehran — it turned out his landlord was the deputy head of the Savak, the Iranian secret service organization. Unlike in other expat houses, no burglaries took place!
Returning to London in 1974, Chris was appointed assistant commercial manager of the Exploration and Production Department. His final position in BP was as the manager responsible for BP’s extensive corporate sponsorship programme.
Chris left BP in 1982, joining the UK Offshore Operator’s Association — the trade association of the UK’s upstream petroleum industry — as Director of External Affairs, where he remained until his retirement in 1990.
Chris and Gilly, his wife of 52 years, settled in Wimbledon in the mid-1960s, remaining there until 2006, when they moved to Charlbury in Oxfordshire. Sadly, Gilly died in 2008, but Chris stayed in Charlbury for the rest of his life, where he became involved in many local activities.
Chris, who is survived by his three children Charles, Dee and Tessa, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, was a warm and charming man with a great sense of humour. He was immensely popular and made lasting friendships wherever he went. Truly his was a life well-lived.
Photo: Chris & his legendary ‘jeep’ (strictly speaking, a Land Rover LWB) in the early 1960s