Christopher Charles "Chris" Pond is a historian, librarian, and politician, was born in 1949 in Walthamstow, Essex (now part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest), and grew up in Chingford, moving to Loughton, Essex in 1981. He married Caroline Copeman in 1973. He attended Sir George Monoux Grammar School and Queens' College, Cambridge. His PhD (faculty of geography and geology) was obtained in 1981 under Sir Clifford Darby. During the years 1997 to 2005, he was often confused with Chris Pond, then MP for Gravesham, because of the unusual coincidence of the shared name and age.