Sir Patrick Dalmahoy Nairne, GCB MC PC (15 August 1921 – 4 June 2013) was a senior British civil servant. His career started in the Admiralty. He eventually became Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Security and Master of St Catherine's College, Oxford (1981–88). Nairne was a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, appointed in 1982 when he became a member of Lord Franks' official inquiry into the Falklands War, and a governor of the Ditchley Foundation. He was Chancellor of the University of Essex from 1982 to 1997. He was an Honorary Fellow of University College, Oxford. Nairne was the first Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics from 1991 to 1996.