Paul Dukes

Early life and family

Paul Henry Dukes was born the third of five children on 10 February 1889 in Bridgwater, Somerset, England. He was the son of the Congregationalist clergyman, Rev. Edwin Joshua Dukes (1847–1930), of Kingsland, London, and his wife, the former Edith Mary Pope (1863–1898), of Sandford, Devon. Edith was an academically gifted woman, the daughter of a schoolteacher, who obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree by correspondence course at the age of 20. In 1884, she married Edwin, who had returned from missionary work in China. She died from a disease of the thyroid gland, and in 1907, Edwin remarried to a 40-year-old widow named Harriet Rouse.

Paul's siblings included the playwright Ashley Dukes (1885–1959) and the renowned physician Cuthbert Dukes (1890–1977). He had an elder sister, Irene Catherine Dukes (1887–1950), who led a life plagued by illness, and yet another, younger brother, Marcus Braden Dukes (1893–1936), who died in Kuala Lumpur while working as a government official. His sister-in-law was the renowned ballet dancer Marie Rambert. Paul Dukes was also the great-uncle of poet Aidan Andrew Dun, who is the grandson of his brother Ashley.