Portsmouth 'Pauls', who have known each other since childhood, celebrate joint 50th birthdays together

Born and bred in Portsmouth, their families lived just a five-minute walk away from one another when they were growing up.

If they were ever apart, Paul Alland recalls picking up his Walkie Talkie to speak to Griff from his bedroom window where he lived at St Mary’s Road.

‘His mum used to be shouting at him in the background telling him to shut up,’ laughs Paul A, who has fond memories of Griff’s late mother, Kath, who died in 2013.

‘I got the Walkie Talkies for Christmas [in the 80s] and they were pretty standard but they were good for the time when it was,’ says Griff, 49.

‘If I was in my bedroom window and he was in his bedroom window we would be able to talk to each other.

‘We were 12 and both had paper rounds at the time so we would see if we could meet up on our paper round.’

As children, the motley pair weren’t strangers to mischief either.

Sometimes they'd skive off school together and act as if they were both searching for the other so as to dodge getting into trouble from school... or their parents.

And their shared love for action and adventure to escape life’s ‘mainstream run of the mill’ was what helped them form an unbreakable bond that to this day, is seemingly resistant to anything and anyone.

Griff says this is partly down to him serving 25 years in the army as they were never in each other’s back pockets.

He left school at 16 to join the army and of the treasured times when the pair could reunite, Griff says they’d ‘always make up for lost time’.

Whether it was karate, boxing, cadets, climbing, running, clubbing; you name it, the Pauls have probably had a bash at it at least once in their lifetime. Even now, the duo belong to the Baffins running club which they attend every Monday night.

‘We were both into the same sort of things as kids,’ says Paul Alland.

‘I was in the Royal Marine cadets and Griff was in the cubs.

‘But as we got older we went to Stacey Boxing School together in Baffins.’

Aged 15 and 16, the Pauls ran the Portsmouth Half Marathon together with no training whatsover.

‘We didn't even enter it officially,’ says Alland.

‘We just turned up on the day and ran it. We didn't have a number when we crossed the finish line and somehow we still managed to get a medal each.’

Now, 27 years on, Paul and Griff have thrown themselves a huge 50th birthday party for more than 100 of their family and friends at the Farmhouse and Innlodge at Burrfields Road.

Paul A turned 50 on January 30 and Paul Griffin will mark his milestone birthday on February 11. The date of the party, February 5, was duly timed because it meant they celebrated exactly six days apart from each other’s special days.

Like on this celebratory occasion, the dynamic duo say they have done ‘anything and everything together’.

‘We always went to exactly the same schools so we always travelled to school together and travelled back home together.

‘Our families knew each other quite well so a lot of the time I went round for Sunday dinners and things like that,' says Griff.

‘Most weekends we didn't really stay in, we'd spend the whole day out doing whatever we were up to and we’d only come back when we were hungry.’

Griff served across the world in the army, spending most of his early career in Germany and his senior career within the ranks back in the UK. But in that time he served in Northern Ireland, fought in the Bosnia war twice and saw action in both Gulf wars and Afghanistan.

He left the army when he was 43 taking on a new job as a gas engineer.

However, in the early days of Griff’s army career, Paul and Griff would exchange ‘blueys’ – hand written airmail letters – when the immediacy of an email or a text message was still a thing of the future - to support one another on the long periods of time that Griff would be away.

And on one of the rare times Griff made a fleeting visit to Portsmouth, Paul had a fantastic surprise for him.

Paul A, who formerly worked as a radio DJ until just a few years ago and served in the RAF aged 18, won a competition in 2002 to be on the prime time weekday television show Live with Chris Moyles.

He says: ‘I could take three friends with me.

‘Luckily Griff was on leave and I said "mate, come on, lets go".

‘We went to London and we stayed at a hotel that the company had put us up in and then we went on to the studio which turned out to be a studio above a pub.

‘Chris Evans was the producer. But I was sent out to Alexander Palace because I had to take part in another activity.

‘Griff was in the studio and he was just messing about as always.

‘The cameras kept zooming in on him because he was pulling funny faces. You could see what type of character he is. Bearing in mind this is 20 years ago now.’

Among being on the telly and belonging to various clubs together as youngsters, the Paul’s have also competed in The Great South Run together.

Paul wasn’t massively into running when Griff first brought up the idea, but since the start of the pandemic he’s got used to it and enjoys getting out every week.

‘We did The Great South Run last year. Griff’s a lot faster than me so we didn't actually run it together but he did do 20 odd years in the army so he's really fit. We started it together and we had some pictures done at the start and in 2019 we also took part.’

On the day of their big birthday bash, Griff had a thrill-seeking plan up his sleeve to put to Paul as a birthday gift which would honour both their birthdays and incredible friendship.

‘We’re going to do this challenge that’s a bit like Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad,’ says Griff. ‘It’s going to be called Breaking Paul and will involve getting some kind of mobile home and going to Wales and Scotland.

‘There's a few death slides I want to take him on like the tallest one in Europe which is in Wales. We'll fill the rest of the week partying a bit.’

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Paul echoes how ‘special’ his friendship with Griff is. ‘It's always nice to have someone in life you know has always got your back. I've got other close friends but our friendship is so special because we've known each other for so many years.’​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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