Paul Hamlyn

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

Family

He was born Paul Bertrand Wolfgang Hamburger in Berlin in 1926 and moved to London with his Jewish émigré family in 1933. His father, Richard Hamburger, died when Paul was 14. Shortly afterwards he changed his surname to Hamlyn, which he picked out of the telephone directory. His brother Michael Hamburger (1924-2007) was a poet and translator.

He 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. [1]

He was awarded a CBE in the 1993 Birthday Honours[2] and made a British Life Peer on 23 February 1998 taking the title Baron Hamlyn, of Edgeworth in the County of Gloucestershire.[3]

Career

He began his publishing career in 1949. In 1965 he set up Music for Pleasure records as a joint venture with EMI. He formed Paul Hamlyn Group and Octopus Publishing Group, now owned by Hachette Livre, into major UK publishing houses.

Paul Hamlyn Foundation

He established the Paul Hamlyn Foundation 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".[4]

The reference library within the British Museum Reading Room is named Paul Hamlyn Library following funding by his foundation,[5] although the British Museum has now taken the decision to permanently close the Paul Hamlyn Library as of August 2011.

In May 2007 the Royal Opera House 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.[6]

See also

  • List of publishers
  • Other European émigrés who became British publishers include André Deutsch and George Weidenfeld.

Sources

  • Tim Rix, "Hamlyn, Paul Bertrand Wolfgang, Baron Hamlyn (1926–2001)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, January 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/76241, accessed 8 May 2007]

References

  1. ↑ "Helen Hamlyn". BBC. 
  2. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 53332. p. 8. 12 June 1993.
  3. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 55055. p. 2325. 27 February 1998.
  4. ↑ "About the Awards", Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
  5. ↑ The British Museum website
  6. ↑ BBC News: £10m pledged to Royal Opera House"

External links

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