Paul Hamlyn - Biography

Paul Hamlyn, Baron Hamlyn of Edgeworth, 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 firstly Eileen Watson, with whom he had two children, Michael and Jane, and secondly Helen Guest (in 1970), who survives him. He was awarded a CBE in 1993 and made a British Life Peer in 1998 (Baron Hamlyn of Edgeworth, in the County of Gloucestershire).

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 reference library within the British Museum Reading Room is named Paul Hamlyn Library following funding by his foundation, 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.

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 accessed 8 May 2007

External links

• Paul Hamlyn Foundation website
• Hamlyn imprint website
• Octopus Publishing Group website
• BBC News: "Lord Hamlyn leaves £200m to charity"
• "Obituary: Lord Hamlyn," The Independent (London), September 4, 2001 by Nicholas Faith
• "Lord Hamlyn obituary" Telegraph (London), November 22, 2001