 You gave yourself with love to everything which you did and we just want you to know that the important thing is not the fact that you have been a director of source. What is important is how you impacted in the lives of generations and generations of young people and adults who passed through this institution because of the kind of teaching and the kind of leadership you exerted in this institution. We did have a sense that Paul was leading from the front. He knew what he was doing and he was able to bring people along with him. He had faith, he had confidence in you and he expressed that confidence in giving you independence. I never had the sense that he was looking over my shoulder. Paul Webley was a constant source of help and advice from the moment I joined the international programmes three years ago. He was unfailingly supportive of international programmes, the distance learning programmes of the University of London and to me personally in my new role he chaired our finance committee for example and sometimes chaired our board and I have to say he ran both either and both in an exemplary fashion, the Paul Webley style. I've been thinking a lot about how my relationship with Paul changed over the many years that I knew him from a very operational group that used to meet together in the Bloomsbury colleges and then we worked together very closely for a couple of years on a very difficult issue when Yulu was being reviewed and then during the year when Yulu was closing down and working with Paul it was an object lesson in courage and conviction and holding to a vision and being completely truthful always about what you were doing no matter how difficult it was and it was I learned an awful lot from working with him during that time. I was dean of languages and cultures faculty when Paul came to so I had to take up his directorship which meant I had to attend the weekly meetings of executive board every Monday and as soon as Paul took over the chairmanship it became much more decisive much more organized and his work rate was incredibly impressive he read every paper every word he was totally on top of everything which meant the wheel had to wake up and be completely on top of everything too. Although Paul was a master of detail he mastered his briefing documents finer than anyone else I've ever met he could memorize all the figures and where they were leading despite this semblance of control freakery he still had that entirely human gift of generosity to your space to discharge your responsibilities I think that Paul managed the people in the school extraordinarily well because I think his skills in dealing with people were absolutely superb. He was a great source of wisdom and support and advice and was always ready to lend a near he would share a problem and he'd offer direction whenever it was needed. For me one of the great bonuses of moving from the University of Exeter to direct the School of Advanced Study was to be working alongside Paul Webley again we have both been Deputy Vice-Chancellors at Exeter Paul there at Exeter was absolutely transformative he was in charge of resources which sounds dry and dull but what he did was to introduce a resource allocation model which set departments free to really move ahead and that was a very important time in the history of that University. Paul was also Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of London and so sat around the fortnightly Vice-Chancellors table with myself and with Maureen and with Mary and was extremely supportive of me as I started my job of drawing or dragging the School of Advanced Study into the 21st century. Paul was a very very fine leader because he had great people skills you know on top of his you know strategic leadership and all the things that have made this place develop so much but he was more than that his great skill was that he really loved the students and loved what happened here and he knew it was a hard place to run but he managed it with such skill and it was really because he cared about the place and he cared about the young. He had an absolutely acute sense of what was politically possible and we found that our moral compasses were very much aligned we were both intolerant of lazy people who were trying to play the system when outside there there was a legion of young researchers hungry for an academic career and I think he was also he has also great foresight and what I mean by that is I mean is boldness in moving the second compass of so as to Senate House. I believe it was a very bold I mean decision that actually represents his good leadership. In careers we're now working in the Paul Webley wing which makes those of us who knew him smile. He was hugely approachable he knew everybody's name and now we get the chance to remember his name every day. He was he was Jane Windley an incredible guy when I saw the banner there I was really touched remember the first time I met him actually and there were no barriers it was wonderful he was you know very easy from the start to talk to. After that first meeting he never forgot my name or my role and was always a strong supporter of our work. He struck me immediately as a kind and courteous man as my time at SOAS grew I came to realise how exceptionally gifted Paul was in his field and how high the esteem was in which he was held. Not only was he a very popular man he left his mark on the academic world and at SOAS it's delightful to see that this is recognised in the naming of this new wing. He always had this tremendous ability to make people comfortable. In meetings he would know if you were uncomfortable I think it was obviously he has a background in psychology so I don't know if it was just because he understood people but he had this ability if you were in a meeting and he knew you had something to say feel it and then point at you and say hey Neza do you have something to add and then you instantly felt empowered actually and it became a safe space. If you ask Paul Paul can we meet he would never say no. He genuinely meant it when he said come and see me at any time and he would never hurry it the conversation would always be quite leisurely as if you know we were the most important person at that particular moment for him to talk to. He would come with loads of time and I used to always think how does he manage this you know one thing about Paul he must have been a very busy man he was an important man I knew that but he never let me know that he was busy. He never failed to answer an email at least from me. He would always make time to meet up if there was an issue that we needed to discuss with him. Paul was open accessible available to anybody who needed a slice of his time so I just asked myself the question now how on earth did he do it. Paul was always happy and I never saw Paul lose his temper or lose his weight. He was a very calm person and he faced challenges very very calm. I remember in 2009 when there was an occupation of his office. I mean I think the video is still I mean it was very very tense but I was very very inspired by the fact that Paul just sat calmly in his seat and despite all the I mean pressure he was answering the questions of the students very very calmly. His real appreciation of the diversity of voices all brought in a wave of student representation and respect for the student voice. I saw him fortnightly at those periods and it was it was wonderful just to talk to him and see his passion for the school. He was particularly interested in knowing whenever I was going to go on holiday because he believed that whenever I went on holiday the students would occupy which wasn't always the case but did happen more often than it should have done. Paul loved the arts. He was a great supporter of the Brunei gallery and of the treasures of Sours project. He would always ask me to to give him a sort of a private tour in advance of the opening and he would always have his favorite piece which he then would highlight during his opening speech. For example for the object of instruction exhibition he was fascinated by a magic book from Northern Sumatra which is in the Mazdan collection of the library. Paul was very keen that the students should be involved and should be part of this project and this is now materialized. Here we are in the Lady David gallery and this is one of the cases that our MA students curated last session. When Paul came to the school the Taiwan program was already well established but he was very supportive of it. One could always count on him to turn up if you wanted wanted him to turn up to to shake somebody's hand to meet somebody occasionally to host a lunch. He was always ready to do it. The Sours China Institute is of course a much more recent initiative and getting it off the ground owed a great deal to Paul's characteristically very energetic involvement. Unimaginable how he could afford to come to all our events and really take his time there and talk to individuals one by one about our research our work and how he could help to make our experience as so as a better one. For example he came to the inauguration of our first ever common room. So it's a great pleasure to inaugurate with the scissors, the Pascale Research School room. So here we go. This is just the start. Not long after that he managed to secure the doctoral school for us. It's a great place for PhD students to study and live really. Paul Webley you are the Sours legend. We miss you. Paul always had a great sense that Sours had a great vision and a vision for the future and I think if Paul has any legacy with the Webley Wing opening and everyone coming together is that sense of community, is that sense of intricate work that we can work beyond our boundaries and actually change the world from within by sharing. Paul Webley was one of my best friends. He would sit on the floor in our house and play with my infant toddler for hours on end. Sing nursery lullabies. In the end it's Paul as a friend whom I remember most strongly and most warmly. I mean not only weddings he would turn up on my birthday celebration you know I'd throw a party in a bar and Paul would be there. Entire afternoon he'd miss his favorite rugby games which he'd still travel all around for. He said love rugby. I invited him for the wedding again thinking that he might not be able to show up and the wedding was being held far away in North Somerset. His reply was we love weddings we will be there and such good humor that was the best thing and honesty correctness all of this means a very noble figure but Paul was just fun. I had many very happy memories we worked together for a long time but one of my favorite memories is actually almost my last memory of him. It was one of the last times I saw him in Senate House and he had his mobility scooter and I was very interested in this so he got me to ride it. He gave me a go on it and he was standing in one corner of the landing at Senate House shouting instructions on turn left turn right then go faster go slower go slower go slower go slower and until I eventually got it back to him practically running over his foot but that was that was a very happy memory and a very typical Paul memory. At every Christmas he would send me a Suas Christmas card appreciating what we were doing and also encouraging us and indicating how our work really helps Suas. I mean that was very very inspirational for me. Ah very good very good you know it's a Suas Christmas card and he says here must shoot I hope you are enjoying yourself as head of school I hear good reports about the way things are going have a good break all the best for 2010 Paul you know so it's it's you know he used to send me this every year I'm very happy that I could get one to show the card he's the same you know. Paul was an incomparable enricher I think of the lives of of all the people with whom he came into contact. I think one of my fondest memories of Paul was when he and I went to Buckingham Palace to accept the the Queen's Award for Higher Education for our teaching of minority languages here and we were waiting in the queue to receive the the medal from the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and Paul turned to me and he said do you realise Mike she's been doing this since before we were born. He just was not formulaic so if you add in the great sense of humour which he also had and think of the new possibilities we'll offer for student occupations no seriously I shouldn't I shouldn't have said that I'm getting demob happy evidently I would never have said that if I was carrying on as director that's a shocking thing to say really it was a pretty irresistible package he was one of the most generous people I have ever met he was one of the genuinely good people that I have met in my life and and I miss him a lot I miss him every day that I come into service and Paul of course was one of the very nicest of men it was a rare privilege to have been a colleague and a friend of his Paul you live on forever within me and thank you for being such an important part of my life past present and future thank you we miss him here enormously and we particularly miss his twinkle his challenge and his kindness yes we will always keep you with us because we as students as academic staff administrative staff we were enriched by your way you lived with us in this institution thank you god bless you