The Forth and Endrick councillor, former Royal Navy bomb-disposal officer and author had served the Balfron community for years before his election to Stirling Council in 2022.
Tributes have been paid to Stirling councillor Paul Henke, who has died aged 76 after a life spanning military service, business, writing and local public office.
Stirling Council announced his death on Wednesday, 22 July, saying its thoughts were with his wife, Dorothy, and the wider Henke family. The Courier reported that he died following a short illness. No further details have been released.
Councillor Henke represented the Forth and Endrick ward as a Scottish Conservative and Unionist member. He was elected in May 2022 and served alongside Labour councillor Gerry McGarvey and SNP councillor Rosemary Fraser in the three-member rural ward.
Stirling Council chief executive Brian Roberts said Councillor Henke had been respected both in the communities he represented and among elected members at the council.
“Councillor Henke was hugely respected in his local community and across the Council Chamber,” he said.
“He served his local community with dedication for many years and ensured their voices were heard, first as a community councillor and then on Stirling Council. Our deepest condolences to Paul’s family and friends at this sad time.”
His election to the council followed years of involvement in Balfron. He had served for five years as chairman of Balfron Community Council and spent six years as president of the local parent-teacher association. He once described standing for election as the natural consequence of his belief in civic responsibility: people could complain about their surroundings, he said, or decide to become involved and attempt to change them.
During his time as a councillor, he raised concerns about rural housing, road conditions and the ability of younger residents to remain in the communities where they had grown up.
In a 2024 interview with Holyrood magazine, Councillor Henke said the shortage of social housing in west Stirlingshire was forcing locally born residents to leave the area. He also identified the condition of the A811 and A81 as a persistent concern for constituents, arguing that roads had become particularly important to rural commerce after the loss of railway connections.
He spoke warmly of Balfron and the services that sustained village life, including its doctors’ surgery, library, ambulance provision, shops, schools and public transport. He and Dorothy had moved there from Kincardine Bridge approximately 25 years earlier, initially because of Balfron High School’s reputation.
His local political career was only the latest chapter in an unusually varied life.
Born and raised in the mining valleys of South Wales, he was the son of a Polish immigrant who had come to Britain during the Second World War and later worked as a coal miner. After attending Pontypridd Boys’ Grammar School, Paul Henke trained as a Royal Navy officer at Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth.
He qualified as a bomb and mine-disposal specialist, working with explosives and underwater-diving teams before commanding minesweeping and minehunting vessels. His service in the Royal Navy and Naval Reserve lasted approximately 25 years, and he left with the rank of lieutenant commander.
His own account of that career included destroying Second World War mines found off the British coast and surviving a machine-gun attack by IRA gun runners in Ireland in 1976. He also worked with the then Prince Charles during part of his naval service.
After leaving the Navy, he spent time in Nigeria overseeing a saturation-diving system and later lived in the American Midwest. He subsequently established a financial-services business before turning his attention increasingly to writing.
Councillor Henke became the author of 20 books, drawing upon history, international travel and elements of his military experience.
His work covered several distinct forms of popular fiction. The Tears books followed the Griffiths family through periods of historical upheaval. His action novels included the Nick Hunter series and stories involving the fictional International Force Against Terrorism, while the Gumshoe novellas centred upon a private investigator working in New York during the 1940s and 1950s.
In September 2025, he appeared at the inaugural Balfron Book Festival to discuss his naval career and his work as an author. The event brought together two parts of his life that might otherwise have appeared quite separate: the dangerous and highly technical work of naval mine disposal, and the solitary business of turning experience and imagination into books.
He continued serving as a councillor while writing, attending community council meetings and local surgeries across Forth and Endrick. His scheduled engagements covered communities including Balfron, Killearn, Fintry, Arnprior and Drymen, reflecting the dispersed character of the ward and the considerable travel involved in representing it.
Behind the naval career, published novels and political affiliation was a long record of participation in the ordinary institutions of community life: the school association, the community council, village meetings and, eventually, the council chamber.
He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, and their family.
Sources
Stirling Council — Councillor Paul Henke Passes Away
https://www.stirling.gov.uk/news/councillor-paul-henke-passes-away/
Stirling Council — Councillor Paul Henke Profile
https://www.stirling.gov.uk/council-and-committees/councillors/your-councillors/paul-henke/
Stirling Council — Stirling Council Election Results 2022
https://www.stirling.gov.uk/council-and-committees/elections-and-voting/previous-election-results/stirling-council-results/stirling-council-election-results-2022/
Holyrood — Stirling Councillor Paul Henke: ‘At Heart I’ve Always Been A Conservative, Even In Wales’
https://www.holyrood.com/inside-politics/view%2Cstirling-councillor-paul-henke-at-heart-ive-always-been-a-conservative-even-in-wales
Paul Henke — Author Biography
https://www.henke.co.uk/about/
Paul Henke — Official Author Website And Book Catalogue
https://www.henke.co.uk/
Stirling And Clackmannanshire Conservatives — Councillor Paul Henke
https://www.stirlingconservatives.com/people/cllr-paul-henke
Balfron Book Festival — Meet The Author: Paul Henke
https://www.balfronbookfestival.com/events/meet-the-author-paul-henke
The Courier — Tributes To Stirling Councillor Paul Henke
https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/obituaries/5543307/paul-henke-stirling-councillor/
