Distinguished soldier who became a dedicated schoolmaster in Edinburgh for 51 years
Ian Balfour Paul was one of the last few survivors of Phantom, a small force formed in November 1939 to keep the RAF squadrons supporting the British Expeditionary Force in France—and later in Belgium—informed of where the Army’s forward locations lay. The purpose was to avoid the troops being mistakenly attacked by their own aircraft, but the tactical advantages of having enterprising officers reporting direct from the front soon became apparent. Originally an RAF unit, it became a joint-Service one entitled the GHQ Liaison Regiment and served with distinction in North Africa, the Italian campaign and in northwest Europe in 1944-45.
Balfour Paul served with the regiment’s B Squadron, which had been in support of the 1st Canadian Army during the approach to the Rhine in early 1945. For the actual river crossing, he was switched to the 6th Airborne Division and accompanied the glider-borne assault force. He was awarded the Military Cross for his reporting of tactical information from the forward edge of the battle area and subsequently regularly wore a silk scarf made from a parachute he found after his glider had landed safely beyond the far bank. He was modest about why he had received the award, even suggesting that the authorities might have minted more of these decorations than intended.
The third of the four sons of John William Balfour Paul and Muriel Monteith, Ian Valentine Balfour Paul was born in 1916 in Bournemouth and educated at Wellington College and Pembroke College, Cambridge. After a spell teaching in Mill Hill, he devoted 51 years to Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, first as a schoolmaster, then housemaster and always as a self-styled odd-job man.
He had the gift of making people think they had a friendship with him that was special, unique, perhaps even exclusive, and a love of words and wit. One report on a pupil read, “Neil works like a machinegun: in short bursts and only when pressed.”
He provided a lifeline to schoolboys who were a bit unconventional or rather slow, or those who might otherwise have felt a failure and needed help through the uncertainties of adolescence. Felling or planting trees was to his mind an ideal antidote to long summer afternoons on the cricket field. There are many boys whose best memories of Merchiston will be the annual Scout camp at Blakerstone in Berwickshire, the Christmas ski parties on the Continent or the birdwatching and ringing expeditions in Scotland, Denmark and Scandinavia.
A bachelor, he was the last surviving grandson of Sir James Balfour Paul, Lord Lyon King of Arms, who edited the eight volumes of Scots Peerage. He is survived by ten nephews and nieces.
Ian V. Balfour Paul, MC, soldier and schoolmaster, was born on February 14, 1916. He died on June 16, 2010, aged 94
