Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Sad News. Paul


 SAD NEWS

I am not sure that it is even appropriate to put this dreadful news here. News has reached us from several sources of the death of Paul Calvocoressi.  Many people in Greenwich will have known him as the English Heritage Officer who covered Greenwich - and worked with him on conservation and listing issues.
Paul was also enthusiastic and knowledgable on industrial history - always supported Greenwich Industrial History Society, joined at the very start and came to talk to us on several occasions (he always said he would tell us 'the truth about the Arsenal' when he retired - but, sadly, never did).   Outside of Greenwich he attended many industrial history events and was a regular at conferences.  Personally I knew him when I worked on regeneration issues in Docklands - we commissioned a booklet from him 'Conservation in Docklands' - and I remember only too well at national events being part of a small group of east London industrial historians trying to get through to provincials the true horror of destruction of London's industry with no sign of any recording - they never did listen, but Paul was a great advocate and the only only one of us they really took seriously. 
Paul's father was Peter Calvocoressi who died - ironically - only a couple of years ago - and who had had an amazing career in, among many other things, in publishing and at Bletchley Park. He had a whole page obituary in the Guardian - and I hope someone is writing something similar for Paul.
He was a lovely man, who I can think of nothing bad to say about.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I stumbled on your post and just want to say I am heartened to see that my distant relative worked actively for preservation of historic buildings.

I do the same in the US. Good luck in your endeavors-- there are kindred souls far away.

Anonymous said...

This is so sad to hear. I spend time with my neighbour Micheal Kilburn who worked with Paul at English Heritage many years ago & has just mentioned him, reminiscing fondly. So I googled. He's very sad to hear of his passing, even though it has been nearly 10 years now
Much love & respect XxX