Paul Hamlyn, Baron Hamlyn, (12 February 1926 – 31 August 2001) was a German-born British publisher and philanthropist, who established the

Paul Hamlyn Foundation Paul Hamlyn Foundation is a registered charity, and a company limited by guarantee which has been established in its current form since 2004, succeeding an earlier incarnation that was founded in 1987, which itself formalised established philanthr ...

in 1987.

Early life

He was born Paul Bertrand Wolfgang Hamburger in Berlin, Germany, in 1926. His parents were Richard Hamburger, a paediatrician at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, and his wife, Lili, a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

of Polish descent. When the National Socialists came to power and his father was forced out of his profession, the Hamburger family, who were

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, moved to London. Upon their arrival, the family lived in St. John's Wood and Paul was educated at St. Christopher's, a Quaker school in

Letchworth Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first garden city. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 33,249. Letchworth ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gover ...

. His father died in 1940 when Paul was 14. Shortly afterwards he changed his surname to Hamlyn, which he picked out of the telephone directory.

Career

He began his publishing career in 1949, selling books from a wheelbarrow in Camden, north-west London. In 1965 he set up Music for Pleasure records as a joint venture with

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

. He transformed Paul Hamlyn Group and

Octopus Publishing Group An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefi ...

, now owned by

Hachette Livre Hachette () is a French publisher. Founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as Brédif, the company later became L. Hachette et Compagnie, Librairie Hachette, Hachette SA and Hachette Livre in France. After acquiring an Australian publisher, Hachette ...

, into major UK publishing houses. His success was developed on the idea of publishing eye-catching, glossy books in colour that appealed to a non-literary retail market. In 1961, for example, he published

Marguerite Patten Hilda Elsie Marguerite Patten, (née Brown; 4 November 1915 – 4 June 2015), was a British home economist, food writer and broadcaster. She was one of the earliest celebrity chefs (a term that she disliked at first) who became known during Wo ...

's seminal domestic cookery book ''Everyday Cook Book in Colour'', a great success that established Hamlyn in the cookery retail market."Paul Hamlyn"
''Publishing Lives'',

BBC Radio Four BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

, 13 March 2014. The ''Everyday Cook Book in Colour'' had sold in excess of one million copies by 1969. Hamlyn used colour at a time when it was unusual and expensive for book publishers to do so, accessing printers and publishers in Czechoslovakia, such as Artia, for the purpose. It was one of several innovations that included selling his books in retail outlets such as supermarkets and hardware shops, in addition to the usual literary outlets.

Awards

In 1993 Hamlyn became the

University of West London The University of West London (UWL) is a public research university in the United Kingdom with campuses in Ealing, Brentford, and in Reading, Berkshire. The university has roots in 1860, when the Lady Byron School was founded, later Ealing Col ...

’s first Chancellor, and was also awarded a

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

medal."About the Library"
University of West London. He was appointed a

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the

1993 Birthday Honours The 1993 Queen's Birthday honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of the Queen's b ...

and made a British Life Peer on 23 February 1998, taking the title ''Baron Hamlyn'', of Edgeworth in the County of Gloucestershire.

Philanthropy and legacy

He established the

in 1987 as a focus for his charitable interests, and it is now one of the UK's largest independent grant-giving organisations. The foundation administers Awards for Artists, the objectives of which include to "encourage artists to continue to practice despite outside pressures, financial or otherwise". The reference library within the

British Museum Reading Room The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London, ...

was named the Paul Hamlyn Library in 2000, following funding by his foundation, although the British Museum took the decision to permanently close the Paul Hamlyn Library as of August 2011. The Paul Hamlyn Library that opened at the

in September 2015 is unconnected with the former British Museum Reading Room reference library of the same name. In May 2007 the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

announced that the Floral Hall atrium will be renamed Paul Hamlyn Hall in his honour, following a £10m endowment from his foundation to the Paul Hamlyn Education Fund that will be used by the Royal Opera House to support its education and community activities.

Personal life

Hamlyn married first Eileen Watson, with whom he had two children, Michael and Jane, and secondly Helen Guest (in 1970), who survives him. Helen Hamlyn is a designer and philanthropist, who heads the Helen Hamlyn Trust. Paul Hamlyn's brother

Michael Hamburger Michael Peter Leopold Hamburger (22 March 1924 – 7 June 2007) was a noted German-British translator, poet, critic, memoirist and academic. He was known in particular for his translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn an ...

(1924–2007) was a poet and translator.

Death

Hamlyn died aged 75 on 31 August 2001.

Arms

Sources

* Tim Rix, "Hamlyn, Paul Bertrand Wolfgang, Baron Hamlyn (1926–2001)", ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', online edition, Oxford University Press, January 200
accessed 8 May 2007

References

External links

Paul Hamlyn Foundation websiteHamlyn website (archive)
28 April 1999 at the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and se ...

Hamlyn website (archive)
12 February 2005 at the

Hamlyn website (archive)
9 April 2007 at the

Octopus Publishing Group website

''The Daily Telegraph'', 22 November 2001
"Lord Hamlyn leaves £200m to charity"
'' BBC News'', 24 November 2001 Two groups of WorldCat attributions to Paul Hamlyn both mix works published by Paul Hamlyn and works by a writer or illustrator Paul Hamlyn, evidently as of March 2020:
"Hamlyn, Paul 1926-2001"
at WorldCat
"Hamlyn, Paul"
at WorldCat {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamlyn, Paul 1926 births 2001 deaths English book publishers (people) English philanthropists Labour Party (UK) life peers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English Jews German emigrants to England Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom People educated at St Christopher School, Letchworth Bevin Boys Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Businesspeople from London 20th-century British philanthropists 20th-century English businesspeople Life peers created by Elizabeth II