Christopher Shale was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 businessman and Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 politician. He was Chairman of the West Oxfordshire

West Oxfordshire

West Oxfordshire is a local government district in north west Oxfordshire, England including towns such as Woodstock, Burford, Chipping Norton, Charlbury, and Witney ....

 Conservative Association, and a close associate of Prime Minister and local MP David Cameron

David Cameron

David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....

, who praised him for his "massive contribution to the Conservative Party, both locally and nationally".

Shale was educated at Great Houghton

Great Houghton, Northamptonshire

Great Houghton is an averaged sized village in the Borough of Northampton.It lays right on the edge of the large market town, on the Bedford Road .The village has two pubs, a large village hall...

 Preparatory School and Oakham School

Oakham School

Oakham School is a British co-educational independent school in the historic market town of Oakham in Rutland, accepting around 1,000 pupils, aged from 10 to 18, both male and female, as boarders and day pupils . The Good Schools Guide called the school "a privileged but unpretentious and...

 in Rutland

Rutland

Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....

, he was then commissioned as a British Army officer in the 17th/21st Lancers

17th/21st Lancers

The 17th/21st Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1922 to 1993.It was formed in 1922 in England by the amalgamation of the 17th Lancers and the 21st Lancers . From 1930 to 1939 it was deployed overseas; first in Egypt for two years, and then in India for seven...

. After leaving the army he joined Durdon Smith Communications and became the managing director of Oxford Resources, a business supply consultancy.
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, lived in Over Worton, a village near Chipping Norton

Chipping Norton

Chipping Norton is a market town in the Cotswold Hills in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about southwest of Banbury.-History until the 17th century:...

 in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

.

Shale died of a heart-attack while attending Glastonbury Festival

Glastonbury Festival 2011

The 2011 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts was held from 22–26 June 2011. Tickets for the festival went on sale from 9 am on Sunday 3 October 2010, over 37 weeks before the festival was set to begin, with a deposit of £50 being paid, while the whole cost of a ticket is £195...

. Prior to the discovery of his body, in a portable toilet, he had been reported missing for 18 hours.