Welsh radio and television broadcaster Roy Noble pays tribute to late Llanbadarn councillor Paul James...

Paul ‘Jacko’ James and I first crossed paths in 2010. It came out of a gentle memory I related on my programme on BBC Radio Wales.

I recalled that, as a boy, the first signs of Christmas in the shops, in my native Brynaman, were pomegranates and dates. In those long ago days, they were only sold in the weeks leading up to the festive season.

The box of dates was particularly enticing. The long box had Arabs on camels drawn on the lid, alongside an oasis. Inside the box, there were tokens that a young boy could collect and send off to become an honorary member of the French Foreign Legion. To confirm the membership, you were sent a certificate, a badge and a legionnaire’s kepi, albeit plastic, with a long flap at the back to protect your neck against the intense Brynaman sun in August.

At the end of my musing, I asked whether anyone in Wales, by any chance, had an association with the French Foreign Legion. To my surprise, a telephone call to my programme from a county councillor in Ceredigion stated excitedly: “We’ve got one, here, in Aberystwyth. He’s a county councillor too... different party to mine, mind, but I thought you should know.”

Enter Paul ‘Jacko’ James. So we contacted him and I interviewed… no, I chatted to… no, mainly I listened to Paul as he regaled us, on air, of his life and times in the Legion. It was extraordinary.

In fact, it was so good that, as a tribute to Paul, on this sad occasion of his sudden passing, we played most of the interview again on my Sunday programme on 5 May, one day after his funeral.

Following that first radio chat, we next met in Llandudno, at Venue Cymru, where I was speaking at a gathering of the Welsh Local Government Association. It was awash with county councillors and Paul was there.

It turned out that his presence was a bonus for me because, on the following day, in travelling south, my car sustained a puncture as I passed Trawsfynydd. Standing forlornly in the layby, a car carrying two county councillors passed by, suddenly slowed down, then stopped, reversed and pulled in alongside me. In the car was Paul, sitting alongside county councillor Rowland Rees-Evans. Councillors of different parties, but sharing expenses – an admirable trait to be fair.

Paul quickly produced an interesting implement from his bag and, in no time at all, my wheel was changed and I was on my way.

See this week’s south papers for the full feature, available in shops and as a digital edition now