LIFE
in Pictures
1937 - 1952
1937 Haifa, Palestine
Paul was born in November 1937. His mother Syvia’s family lived in Haifa and his father, Hugh Foot, was part of the British administration of Palestine and assistant district commissioner of Samaria, which stretched from north of Jerusalem to south of Nazareth, and from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea. It included about 300 Arab villages and a small but growing number of Jewish settlements. As the Arab revolt against their British rulers escalated Hugh’s life was under threat and he, Sylvia and baby Paul were evacuated back to England in 1938.
1938 the Foot family, Paul’s uncles, aunts and grandparents
Front row, from left, Dingle and his wife Dorothy, Eva and Isaac (Paul’s grandparents), Sylvia and Hugh, holding Paul; standing from left, Christopher, Sally, Michael, Anne (John’s wife), John holding Paul’s cousin Kate, Jenny
1942 Durban, South Africa
As soon as war broke out, Paul’s father was posted back to the Middle East, and his family soon followed, including Paul’s younger sister Sarah. They weren’t there for long before being evacuated again to Durban in South Africa, until the end of the war, when Hugh was posted to Cyprus.
1942 Middle East
Hugh Foot, seated right, with Bedouin chief Audeh Ibn Jad, standing. Hugh, who admired the Arabs and learned to speak their language, wrote of Britain’s role in Palestine: ‘The double sin had been committed of raising false hopes both with the Arabs and with the Jews. The hopes were false because they were conflicting … by the fundamental dishonesty or our original double-dealing we had made disaster certain.’
1944 Cyprus
Paul with his mother, father and sister Sarah. This was Hugh Foot’s first tour of Cyprus. He returned in 1957 as the last colonial Governor before Cyprus gained its independence in 1960.
1946 Jamaica
Paul with his cricket team. ‘Ever since, at the age of eight, I bowled four balls in a net off the Old Hope Road, Kingston, Jamaica, to George Headley (the greatest batsman in the history of the world) I have experience only one completely uncomplicated pleasure: watching West Indian batsmen in full flood.’
1947 Ludgrove School
Paul with the second eleven cricket team, standing third from right
When Paul’s father was posted to Nigeria in 1947, Paul stopped off in England for his first experience of boarding school. He was one of the bright boys selected for extra tuition in the classics. He discovered he could write and played a lot of cricket. He did much the same when he arrived at Shrewsbury School in 1952
1952 Shrewsbury School
Something to come
There were three boys at Shrewsbury who Paul got to know during his time there: Richard Ingrams, Christopher Booker and Willie Rushton. More of them later.
1955 - 1972
1955 back to Jamaica
Second Lieutenant Foot and the Jamaica regiment, on parade before the governor, Paul’s father. Back then, all young men had to complete two years National Service.
1958 University College, Oxford
Paul with Richard Ingrams and Brahms (not Marx)
On Paul’s first day at Oxford, he bumped into Richard, neither knowing the other would be there. They became firm friends. Richard studied classics and Paul studied law, but what they both wanted to do was have some fun. Their outlet was a collection of satirical magazines, starting with Parson’s Pleasure.
1961 Glasgow
Paul and Gus McDonald at a Young Socialist gathering in Skegness during Paul’s Glasgow years.
1962 Paul marries Monica
Paul’s wedding to Monica Beckinsale, with his mother present and his father, as so often, busy elsewhere, took place at the Oxford register office, which Monica’s mother, a devout Catholic, compared to a visit to the Dog Licence Office. Paul’s godfather Stewart Perowne stood in for his father and, in the tradition of the Foot family, gave him a collection of Samuel Richardson’s novels as a wedding present. The couple returned to London in 1964, in time for the arrival of their first son John, born on Paul’s birthday in November.
1964 Starting as a journalist
Back in London, Paul joined the staff of the Sun, previously the Daily Herald, but left after six months to join the Sunday Telegraph. That lasted a further two years and then, in early 1967, he finally joined Private Eye, where he had free rein to write the exposés that made his name: James Hanratty, Christiaan Barnard’s heart transplants, the collapse of Ronan Point. Several politicians were also in his sights: Jeffrey Archer, Reginald Maudling and Jeremy Thorpe.
1964 Starting as an author
Immigration and Race in British Politics, The Politics of Harold Wilson, The Rise of Enoch Powell
Three books in just five years. Paul’s ability to write seemed to have no limits.
