Paul Simons is a genuine phenomenon. He is a charming, unassuming person, who is also a captain of industry. Nothing in his background prepared him for this, which might seem to be serendipity, being by accident in the right place and at the right time. But this account of his life shows that when an opportunity presented itself, he had the courage and self-assurance to take it and do whatever he had to do. He also has a genuine gift for friendship, which stood him in good stead over the years, as this biography makes very clear.
His early life had not been easy; his father was a brave man who served his country as a member of the British Navy in both World Wars, but also a hard-drinking womaniser. His mother became depressive—she had already lost their only other child to illness—but gave Paul as much love and support as he could; she too had a naval background as her father was a ‘Cape Horner’, carrying cargo on the Chile-Britain route. Paul attended wartime school in both England and his native Wales, but was not particularly academic and was very happy to join the Merchant Navy in 1944, when he was 17. World War Two was close to ending but there were still many dangers and terrifying happenings, retold in his own words; there were some memorable encounters with Soviet officers in the Barents Sea ports of Archangelsk and Murmansk.
Paul’s personal recollections are printed in italics with surrounding text giving the historical background with accompanying footnotes. While this occasionally seems like too much information it does bring home how much has been forgotten about the amount of sheer labour involved in warfare and (in this case) cleaning up after it. But all the hard yakka paid off, the Merchant Navy was able to get back to its normal work and the boys even got time off, much of it spent in low dives, but some in super-luxurious accommodation in the Chelsea Hotel, New York, or around Copacabana Beach, courtesy of America philanthropists.
All other things being equal, Paul might have gone back home and stayed there, but quite by chance he met a lovely Australian girl, Gwenda Grant, whom he married after a long courtship—a long-distance one, since Paul was still at sea. This was the 1950s, Australia was becoming ‘the lucky country’ and Paul was at its centre. Wanting to work on shore, he took a small job with Woolworths, rising fairly effortlessly through the ranks to become a Director in 1970, then Joint General Manager in 1974. He was doing so well that he was sent to the Harvard Business School for a 3-month course in Advanced Business Management, which cost Woolworths a mere AU$20,000. That course reinforced some convictions he was developing about management, but on his return he found that he could not persuade the company’s senior people. Accordingly, he resigned in December 1978—and was immediately deluged by employment offers, 32 in all. He accepted that of Franklins and became its Chief Executive (1979-87). A decade later, Woolworths came under new management and Paul went back. He stayed there until retiring in 2000 and is generally credited with having turned the business around. The whole story is given in great details over eight chapters.
Paul’s personal life also had its ups and downs. His beloved Gwenda had gone back to her family roots in Yass, close to the pastoral properties of the famous Walter Merriman, the king of fine wool. Gwenda’s maternal aunt, Kate Sleeman, had married him in 1908. In 1982 Gwenda and Paul purchased Euralie, a farm created by Hamilton Hume, the explorer who had first traversed the Yass Plains. They restored the Federation-style mansion built by Stanley Hume and Gwenda created a magnificent garden. Ever adventurous, Paul now launched himself into wool production, not so much at Euralie, where he still lives, as at Glencoe, near Boorowa, north of Yass, where, among other things, he has forbidden mulesing over the past 20 years. In this work he is ably assisted by his longtime partner—and co-author—Lyndall Eeg.
Sadly, Gwenda died in 1992, after a long battle with cancer. Paul remarried two years later, but that union was short-lived. He reconciled with his father and maintains a connection with his half-brother in the UK. He was also able to renew connections with long-lost family in Wales and even to attend an old-school reunion as guest of honour. That reunion was arranged by Terry Larder, who co-authored Ships, Shops and Sheep, the first iteration of this biography, published in 2023.
This book includes a couple of appendices recapping Paul’s work, several maps of his voyages and two blocks of images, in both black-and-white and colour. And, a bonus, short texts by twenty-seven of his friends and business associates. That number could easily have been doubled, for Paul Simons is a good man, always concerned about others, and one who has contributed a lot to his adopted country and locality.
Authors: Paul Simons and Lyndall Eeg
ISBN: 9780646711317
Publisher: Delphian Books
First published: 2024, Second Edition: 2025
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Related stories: New release – Paul Simons: His Remarkable Life on Land and Sea; Review – Ships, Shops and Sheep – The Remarkable Life of Paul Simons
