Arthur Julian Paul was born in Jabalpur, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India.

In 1956 Arthur travelled to the England to complete postgraduate studies at the Royal Institute of Public Health and was awarded The Diploma in Public Health (1957).

Subsequent appointments in England included 2 years as a house surgeon, at St Lukes Hospital, Bradford, where he met Shirley Mowle, a first-year nurse student from Norfolk. Their romance, despite causing ripples amongst the Nursing and Medical fraternity, did not prevent their marriage on 6 December 1958.

In 1959 they moved to Nottingham where he was appointed medical officer of health and where their eldest two sons were born.

In 1962 the family went to India to live. Arthur was appointed to a lectureship in public health at Jabalpur Medical College. At that time India was in a state of emergency because of escalating tensions with China along their common Himalayan border, causing great instability and uncertainty.

In 1963, Arthur and returned to the England where he joined a general practice in Dagenham. A particularly severe English winter forced Arthur to consider warmer climes. In 1965 the family moved to the Seychelles.

Arthur was appointed on a 3-year contract to provide general medicine and public health services at the Seychelles Hospital. During this time their third son, fondly known as their “Seychelles Souvenir’’, was born

In 1968 the family returned to India for a holiday to visit Arthur’s family. While perusing the Lancet he noticed an advertisement seeking a general practitioner in the rural Northland town of Maungaturoto. Fearful of another English winter, Arthur applied for the position and when appointed the family migrated to New Zealand.

The family enjoyed living among the friendly rural community. Arthur enjoyed life as a rural general practitioner in New Zealand. He found it clinically rewarding and satisfying and spent the next 20 years in solo practice, with his wife Shirley as his practice nurse, in Maungaturoto.

Arthur developed a special interest in acupuncture, which was not widely used at that time. He found acupuncture a useful adjunct in the management of acute and chronic pain.

The local St John Ambulance was an important resource in rural general practice, and Arthur became the Medical Superintendent of the Maungaturoto Order of St John, training volunteers in first aid.

Arthur and Shirley loved the country life of the Northern Kaipara, even though he was on call 7 days a week. They joined in many activities of Maungaturoto including the Otamatea Repertory and the weekly bridge meeting held in their home. Arthur was a founding member of Maungaturoto Rotary Club.

As a young man in India, Arthur had developed a lifelong passion for hunting and fishing, acquired when he joined his father and brothers on a number of sikars (big game hunting safaris). In New Zealand he continued his passion. When time permitted, he made fishing forays on the Kaipara Harbour. Arthur never missed the opening day of duck shooting and he managed to get away on occasions to the Bay of Islands for big game fishing, and the Te Urewera National Park for deer hunting.

Arthur retired from fulltime general practice in 1989 and he and Shirley moved to Tauranga. For the next 20 years he was active in regular locum GP work, which extended from Kaitaia to Gore. Arthur claimed to have fished every river and lake in between! Arthur had a special affinity for the remote East Coast especially Te Kaha and Te Puia. He enjoyed working with Māori communities.

In recent years he largely restricted his locum work to the Western Bay of Plenty with the Te Mana Toroa Health Group, a group of affiliated Māori General Practices. It was fitting that on his final admission to Tauranga Hospital he was nursed in the Ward 2A, Kaupapa Unit.

Arthur is survived by his wife, Shirley and three sons, David, Jonathan and Adrian.