Sir John Warburton Paul was born in 1916 and educated at Weymouth College, Dorset and Selwyn College, Cambridge. He was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment (Supplementary Reserve of Officers) in 1937 and received a regular commission in the same regiment in 1938. In 1940 Paul was part of the British Expeditionary Force and he served as Aide-de-camp and Private Secretary to the Governor of Sierra Leone in 1945 (seconded) before being called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1947.
In 1947 Paul entered the Colonial Administrative Service in Sierra Leone where he served as: District Commissioner (1952); Permanent Secretary (1956); Provincial Commissioner (1959) and Secretary to the Cabinet (1960). He then served as: Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Gambia (1962-1965); Governor General of the Gambia (1965-1966); Governor and Commander-in-Chief of British Honduras (1966-1972); Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Bahamas (1972-1973); Governor General of the Bahamas (July-October 1973), and Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Man (1974-1980).
Paul received an honorary fellowship from Selwyn College, Cambridge and was awarded the MC (1940), OBE (1959), KStJ (1962), KCMG (1962) and GCMG (1965).
From the guide to the Papers of Sir John Warburton Paul, 1962-1973, (The Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House)
