Naval officer who challenged UKIP in court and served Stirlingshire dies aged 76

Paul Henke, a Royal Navy mine-clearance diving officer turned businessman, novelist and Scottish Conservative councillor, died on 20 July 2026. He was 76.

The Herald published a tribute marking a life that moved between bomb disposal beneath the sea, the writing of thrillers and the practical business of local government in Stirlingshire.

Henke was born on 11 February 1950. According to The Herald, he brought the same composed, methodical approach to each phase of his career, whether leading divers in hazardous conditions, producing fiction or pressing local authorities on roads and housing.

A court victory over a 100-year ban

The episode that brought Henke wider public attention came in 2014. After he criticised the UK Independence Party over its selection of candidates for the Scottish European elections, the party suspended him for a period of 100 years.

Henke challenged that decision in court and won. The Herald noted that the affair became widely described as Henke having taken legal action against Nigel Farage, though the proceedings were formally directed at the party rather than at Farage personally.

The case was an unusual footnote in Scottish political life: few party members in any era have successfully overturned a disciplinary ruling of that kind through the courts.

From the Navy to the council chamber

Henke's professional life before politics was rooted in the Royal Navy, where he served as a mine-clearance diving officer. That background placed him in situations requiring precise technical judgement under pressure.

After leaving the Navy, he moved into business and also established himself as a novelist, writing thriller fiction alongside his other commitments.

He subsequently stood for election as a Scottish Conservative councillor in Stirlingshire, where his focus in the council chamber centred on practical constituency concerns rather than high political controversy.

A varied public life

The Herald's tribute described Henke as resourceful, quietly humorous and independent. Those qualities, the obituary suggested, were consistent across the different worlds he inhabited: military service, commerce, fiction and elected office.

He is among a small number of figures in recent Scottish political history to have pursued a legal challenge against a national party organisation and secured a ruling in his favour.

This report is based on a single source, heraldscotland.com, and has not been independently verified.