Paul was born into a background of privilege. His father was a successful businessman whose family came from Chios, Greece, the island where Homer was said to have been born. Paul’s mother was English, the daughter of a baronet.
He attended boarding school in Harrow from the age of eight and then went to Harrow public school. It was not a happy time for Paul, and both of his parents died while he was there.
He entered Oxford University, where he did as little work as possible – at least until he encountered the Oxford Group and found new purpose in his life.
Towards the end of his life, he wrote a lengthy personal memoir which his friend Harry Addison condensed into a pamphlet called, ‘A man of many loves’. This is an apt title as Paul was passionate about many things – birds, music (he composed piano music in the Baroque genre), the weather, Greece, the works of the writer PG Wodehouse, his wife, Madeleine, and above all, God.
He devoted his entire life, post-Oxford to MRA, including some time in Cyprus where he befriended people of both the Greek and Turkish communities. For many years he and Maddie used their large country house near London, Aston Bury, as an unofficial centre for MRA work. The film, Happy Deathday was filmed there.
Paul and Maddie spent their last years at Tirley Garth, the Cheshire centre for MRA, where he engaged with the many visitors and passed on something of his passions. Many will remember him reading Wodehouse stories about Jeeves and Worcester and almost choking with laughter as he did so.
He also published two short works on the Sermon on the Mount and St Luke’s Gospel, as well as three volumes of his best piano compositions and a long-playing record of some of that music being played by the concert pianist, Penelope Thwaites.
