Leslie Allen Paul (1905, Dublin - 1985) was an Anglo-Irish writer and founder of the Woodcraft Folk. [1]
Born in Dublin in April 1905, Leslie Paul grew up in South East London. After the World War I he became deeply involved with scouting and related youth movements.
He left the Scouts to join the Kibbo Kift Kindred but after a dispute with the Kibbo Kift leader, John Hargrave in 1925, some south London co-operative groups challenged Hargrave's authoritarian tendencies. The dispute was over his refusal to recognise a local group called "The Brockleything". The result was a split, and a group, including Paul, broke away from the Kindred, to form the Woodcraft Folk which remains active in 2011. Paul was appinted leader of the Woodcraft Folk and later came to be identified as its' founder (although in fact the organisation was the work of a number of people, Paul was its most eloquent member and was usually called upon to represent it to outside bodies).
After the Second World War Paul became an active member of the Church of England (leading to his moving away from the radically orientated Woodcraft Folk) and later a professional clergyman. His most significant act within the Church was the production of the Paul Report into the payment of the clergy, which led to extensive modernisation of the Church's organisational structure.
"The Folk Trail" Woodcraft Folk leaders manual. ?1928
In 1951 he wrote an autobiography called "Angry Young Man". The title became the catch phrase angry young men subsequently used to describe a generation of British writers, including Kingsley Amis, Colin Wilson and (over-broadly) applied to authors of the "kitchen sink dramas".
"The Early Days of the Woodcraft Folk" historical panphlet (undated, believed written between 1975 and 1980)