Many of you will be aware now that Paul died last Wednesday a few days after his 85th birthday, he was a member of the Gravesend Group and a great supporter for many years of the North Kent Marshes. Malcolm Jenning of the group has written about him and it says everything you need to know about this exceptional man. I will miss him greatly, Malcolm also sent a couple of photos of him.
'Paul Keene loved the north Kent marshes. He loved the reed filled ditches, the wild open landscape and the saltmarsh shore. Paul was happy just sitting on the seawall watching the movements of birds. Yantlett Creek, where it empties into the Thames, was one of his favourite spots. Paul was not a great birdwatcher. He was certainly no ornithologist and he had no interest in rarities. He just wanted to be with birds in places where nature came first.
His love of wild spaces was nurtured further afield. He liked to tell stories of how he obtained permission from the authorities to wild camp alone on the island of St Kilda. And how he had dug snow holes, in which to sleep overnight, on the Cairngorm plateau. He used to tell us all of this, with a slight smile on his face, knowing that it would all be used against him – a never ending source of jokes and banter.
In 1972 Paul, as President of the North Kent Wildlife Preservation Society, joined with leaders of the Dickens Country Protection Society to campaign against the development of a major oil refinery on the Cliffe marshes. As Paul said, the large conservation organisations were not interested, so they had to do it alone. The campaign group produced a film that was broadcast as part of the BBC, “Open Doors” programme. Paul is shown striding across the marsh and then stopping as a flight of curlew goes past. He tells us that the call of this bird sounds like “cur-lew”. [This was, of course, the butt for endless jokes. “Remind me again Paul, what does a curlew sound like?”]. The film finishes, with views of a snow-covered landscape from the Norrard, with Paul talking about the importance of protecting this area and a “thousand pities” if it were to be lost. My copy of this film is in a very poor state. But, as a call for the protection of the north Kent marshes, it will never be bettered. Although the campaign group lost their fight, it had caused sufficient delay that by the time permission was granted, the economic environment had changed. The refinery was never built. If it had been, further development on the Cliffe peninsular would almost certainly have followed.
Paul was active, as a volunteer, on the RSPB reserve at Northward Hill for many, many years. He was there too, supporting the “No Airport at Cliffe” campaign. This time he worked, in the background, supporting others and offering to do whatever he could to help.
For those that knew him “on the marsh”, Paul leaves us with great memories of a serious man with a lovely, subtle sense of humour and of a wonderful companion in the field. To everyone he leaves the north Kent marshes. Thanks Paul.
Paul died, a few days after his 85thbirthday on Wednesday 16thJanuary 2019.'
Malcolm Jennings
Photographs. Paul leading the local MP and others across the marsh in 1974 as part of the campaign to stop the oil refinery. Paul on the marsh in 2014.