He was born in Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, the son of Lt Col William Francis (Frank) Christian, RA and his wife Marguerite (née Hornby).
[1] He attended prep school at the Grange School, Shorncliffe Road, Folkestone and hoped to follow his brother Charles to Marlborough College, but eventually in 1924 he went on to Dover College which was more local,[2] despite the fact the family moved in 1919 to Bron Dirion in North Wales.
They attempted to stay there for a year but having missed the expected herd of migrating caribou, they lacked sufficient food to survive the winter, and all died of starvation in a log hut near the Thelon River barren lands.
An edition of the diary kept by him detailing this misadventure, which was found placed in the stove of the cabin, was published (with portions omitted) in 1937 under the title "Unflinching".
[3] A fuller edition of the diary by George Whalley, including Christian's letters to his father and mother, was published in 1980 as Death in the Barren Ground.