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Paul Hayter

British civil servant

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ7151207
Source-derived summary

Sir Paul David Grenville Hayter (born 4 November 1942) is a British public servant and was Clerk of the Parliaments from 2003 to 2007.

Early life and education

Hayter is the eldest son of Michael Hayter and his wife Patricia Schofield and has four siblings. He is the great-great-grandson of Harrison Hayter.

He was educated at Eton College (where he was a King's Scholar) and Christ Church, Oxford.

Career

He became a Clerk in the House of Lords in 1964. From 1974 to 1977 he was seconded to the Cabinet Office as Private Secretary to the Leader of the House of Lords and the Government Chief Whip, serving two Leaders, Lord Shepherd (1974-1976) and Lord Peart (from 1976), and one Chief Whip, Baroness Llewelyn-Davies of Hastoe. From 1977 to 1991, in addition to his work in the House of Lords, he served as Secretary of the Association of Lord-Lieutenants, and in 1992 he was created a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order. He was Reading Clerk from 1991 to 1997, and Clerk Assistant from 1997 to 2003.

In July 2003 he was appointed Clerk of the Parliaments.

He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the Queen's Birthday Honours in June 2007.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Paul Hayter” as british civil servant. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Paul, Hayter and British.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1942, 2003, 2007, 1964—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1942-11-04. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Paul, Hayter and British providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Paul Hayter”, the useful work is to connect “british civil servant” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7151207. VIAF identifies the subject as 36032553. The Library of Congress control number is n88637496. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 2003, 2007 and 1964.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Paul Hayter”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Paul Hayter primary sources, Paul Hayter archive and Paul research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Paul Hayter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.