Paul Harris’ Legacy in Devon Rugby
Friends, family and former team-mates have been saying fond farewells to Crediton and Devon rugby stalwart Paul Harris, who has died at the age of 76 following his battle with cancer.
CONRAD SUTCLIFFE REPORTING
Harris ran up and down the wing for Crediton during the 1960s, 70s and 80s, then switched to administration after injury ended his playing career. He broke a leg, not on the rugby field, but during a summer fun-day at the club!
During more than 40 years as a rugby administrator, Harris served as Crediton RFC chairman and president; a Devon RFU official for 35 years and ran the county cup and merit table competitions.
Eddie Trick, Crediton’s first team captain in 1979, said Harris’ contribution to rugby at club and county level could not be underestimated.
“Paul was a great trier – and surprisingly quick for a big man – and played most of his rugby for Crediton in the second and third teams,” said Trick.
“Paul was already the team secretary before he stopped playing, and after he stopped the threw himself into helping to run the club. He took over as fixture secretary from the late Frank Hayes, spent five years raising money for the club through advertising and sponsorship, then served two terms as chairman (83-85; 94-95) and one as president (2011-2014). One of the toughest task Paul took on was researching and writing a detailed history of Crediton RFC – all 200-plus pages of it – which was published in 2003 to coincide with our 125th anniversary. Although Paul did a huge amount for Devon RFU, he carried on supporting Crediton writing match reports for the local papers and as fixture secretary (2014-2019) for a second time. Paul’s passing leaves a gaping hole in the fabric of not just Crediton RFC but the game of rugby in Devon. He was widely loved and respected and will be missed by all who knew him.”
Trick showed his appreciation of his old friend’s dedication to the club by proposing him for life membership in 2015.
Apart from two years in the early 2000s when he took a break from committee work, Devon RFU kept Harris busy from 1990 until just a few weeks before he died over Christmas.
Devon co-opted Harris to produce the county handbook, which he did every season until 2014-15, when publication ceased in favour of an online version.
Harris became best known in Devon rugby circles for running non-league and cup competitions, either as a committeeman, secretary or chairman between 2002 and 2025. Those included the colts merit tables (2011-2014), the Devon cups (2020-2024) and the second team merit tables (2014-2025).
Geoff Simpson, a former Devon RFU president, was on the county committee when Harris came on-board. He was quick to pay tribute to his former colleague.
“When Paul joined the Devon committee he brought the many qualities he had already displayed at his beloved Crediton RFC,” said Simpson.
“His meticulous eye for detail served him particularly well in his role as editor of the county handbook and aligned perfectly with his interest in the history of Devon Rugby. It was in his work on the competitions sub-committee that Paul had his greatest impact. As administrator of the merit tables he recognised that a healthy match programme for lower XVs was just as important for the sustainability of clubs as the first team results. In framing the County regulations more widely, his instinctive feel for what was needed led to fairness and clarity. As a colleague on Devon RFU, Paul demonstrated the qualities of hard work, loyalty and support for others with that other essential, a great sense of humour. These were what endeared him to the Devon Rugby community and served him so well in his selfless service as Devon RFU president.”
Among the additional jobs Harris took on were junior and minis’ chairman (1991-92); promotions, sponsorship, marketing and publicity (1993-2001) and development (1995-97, 1999-2001).
He also took on roles as newsletter editor (1991–98), fixture exchange (2005–20), governance (2008–09), youth task force (1997) and the mysteriously named support services sub-committee in 1991. What they did, no one knows!
Harris – a keen social historian – became Devon RFU’s self-appointed archivist, compiling an extensive database of players and matches dating back to the 1870s. Devon made him a life member in 2005 and later appointed him president for three years, until he stepped down in 2025.
His son Jay, who followed in his father’s stud-prints at the rugby club and served as 1st XV captain in the early 2000s, said his dad was more than just a rugby fanatic. “He was a loving and much-loved husband, dad, granddad, brother and uncle, a great friend, a stalwart of Crediton RFC and Devon RFU, and one of the good guys,” said Jay. “Recent years had been tough health wise, and his condition deteriorated over the last few months. Nevertheless, his innate optimism and infectious sense of humour never diminished. He has left a massive hole in our lives."
The Harris rugby line continues with Jay’s sons Ben and Ollie – Paul’s grandchildren – both on Crediton’s books.
Paul Harris was born in Exeter in September 1949. He attended the former Central School before gaining a place at Hele’s School, which was a grammar school at the time.
“The game played there was rugby, which Paul did not like at the time,” said elder sister Lizzie. “Either he or I would forge mum's signature on written notes excusing him from this sport!”
Football was Harris’s passion as a teenager, inherited from dad Eric, who was the match-day announcer at Exeter City and read out the football results on local radio.
After leaving school he joined Devon County Council, where he met Hilary, whom he married in 1970. Her father, Fred ‘Gifty’ Steer – a former Crediton player and long-serving chairman (1955-1971) – helped steer Harris towards rugby, shaping the path he would follow for the rest of his life.
“When dad met mum he was ‘influenced’ to play rugby – and look where that led!” said Lizzie.
Harris went on to have a varied career in local government, the motor trade, and sales roles (with Knorr and Sellotape) before finishing his working life servicing garage forecourt equipment. In retirement, he delivered cakes for Peck & Strong. His interests stretched far beyond rugby, including genealogy (tracing his family tree back to 17th Century North Cornwall), baking, cricket with Sandford CC (where grandson Ollie plays in the colts), and even humanitarian work, joining an aid convoy to Croatia in 1992.
Paul Harris is survived by Hilary, his wife of 55 years, son Jay, daughter Kate and his grandchildren. His funeral will take place on Friday, January 16 at Crediton Parish Church of the Holy Cross (11.30am).
Obituary written by Conrad Sutcliffe