Paul Pfeiffer, the youngest son of the farming family of August Pfeiffer and Mathilde (nee Schütz), started school at Australia Plain inthe same Eudunda- Point Pass farming locality as Colin Thiele (q.v.). He then boarded at Immanuel College in Adelaide, where he also taught, and attended the University of Adelaide. He received a Bachelor of Arts in 1938, Honours in 1939 and a Masters in 1940. That year he became a resident tutor at St Mark's College and his poem, 'Spain', about the Spanish Civil War, won the Bundey Prize for English Verse, awarded by the University of Adelaide. While teaching at Immanuel and studying at university he met D. B. Kerr (q.v.), and the other young writers of the day. He contributed to the journal Phoenix and its successor Angry Penguins. Max Harris (q.v.) wrote in his obituary for Flying Officer Paul Pfeiffer: 'At the beginning of the war, Angry Penguins came into being. Donald Beviss Kerr, Paul Pfeiffer, and I created this channel of expression because we each felt we had something to say.' He acknowledged Pfeiffer as 'another original force' in the creation of the journal (Angry Penguins No. 7, 1945).
In July 1940 Pfeiffer enlisted in the RAAF and was called up in March 1941. He served in Rhodesia, Northern Ireland, Southern England and the Mediterranean and as a navigator with Coastal Command, he engaged in flying missions over the North Sea. Stationed for a time at Pembroke Dock, Wales, he flew with Ivan Southall (q.v.). Pfeiffer was transferred to Scotland, with letters home filled with cautious optimism for love and for the war's end, but he was killed while on a training flight over Scotland. His RAAF record had noted Pfeiffer's fluency in German and French and he had taught Greek at Immanuel College. John Miles, his biographer (q.v.), has described Pfeiffer as 'a linguist, scholar, and born educator'.
