Paul Sawyer, beloved former editor of Warhammer’s White Dwarf magazine, has died

Six months after announcing his diagnosis with stage four brain cancer, Paul ‘Fat Bloke’ Sawyer, co-founder of Warlord Games and legendary editor of White Dwarf magazine from 1993 to 2007, has now died from his illness.

The team at Warlord Games shared the news in a Facebook post and an email newsletter to its community on Friday, confirming that Sawyer had “passed away on the evening of 27th March 2025, following a long battle with brain cancer”.

The announcement comes just over six months after Sawyer’s public announcement, on September 4, 2024, that he had been diagnosed with stage four Glioblastoma, a highly aggressive form of brain cancer. At that time, doctors had told Sawyer he had “around 12 months left to live”.

Sawyer’s daughter Holly, who since September has raised around $35,000 (£27,000) in a crowdfunding campaign to “Make Dad’s remaining months as comfortable as possible”, also announced her father’s passing.

“To all that knew and loved Paul, it’s with a truly broken heart that we must share the news that our beloved husband and father passed away on the evening of March 27th surrounded by the immense love of his family,” she wrote in an update to donors on the campaign page.

“From the very beginning of his diagnosis, he showed nothing short of heroism with his bravery and strength and that carried through right until the end,” she added.

“We are truly devastated and will feel his loss forever. We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the kindness that has been shared with Dad and to us as a family during this cruel battle.”

Here’s Warlord’s announcement in full, addressed “from everyone at Warlord Games”:

“It is with great regret that we must announce that co-founder of Warlord Games Paul Sawyer passed away on the evening of 27th March 2025, following a long battle with brain cancer.

“Paul was a man of enormous character, and he fought tooth and nail to the end, always in good spirits. He was a true friend to us all. That he passed surrounded by the love of his family is a blessing.

“We offer our sincerest condolences to Paul’s family – his wife Julie, his daughters Catherine & Holly, and his granddaughter Aurora-Rose, whom he was fortunate enough to be able to meet before his passing.

“Paul was not a man to be made a fuss of, he’d perhaps not even thank us for writing this short dedication. We believe it would be his wish that we carry on unabated. We shall strive to continue to shape Warlord Games upon the immensely strong foundations he put in place.

“We raise our collective glass to the late, great man. He will be sorely missed.”

In that same spirit, we’ll keep our obituary of Sawyer – to whom, at press time, well over a hundred fans have already paid their respects and honors via the Facebook post in just one hour – short.

Sawyer founded Warlord Games together with John Stallard in 2007, and has worked as the Nottingham, UK based company’s Head of Product Design ever since, until he was forced to step back from working after suffering an apparent stroke in April 2024, which later proved to be caused by a brain tumor. In those 17 years, he was a driving force behind the development of some of the world’s most popular historical miniature wargames, including the monumentally successful WW2 game Bolt Action.

Stallard paid tribute to Sawyer’s role at Warlord in his newsletter to fans about his co-founder’s illness last September: “Paul and I set up Warlord Games over seventeen years ago, forming a dynamic team that has made tabletop historical gaming accessible to thousands of new hobbyists.”

“His cheery and blokey approach to getting stuff done formed the ‘Warlord voice’ for all these years.”

“He was the best partner to set up a company with, always in high spirits and working like a trooper – he will be sorely missed around the Warlord offices.”

For 14 years before that, between 1993 and 2007, Sawyer worked at Games Workshop as editor-in-chief of its in-house wargame magazine White Dwarf. His tenure at the magazine’s helm spanned a period often thought of by fans as a ‘golden age’ of Warhammer, in which large numbers of new fans were brought into the hobby by new products and a more accessible, engaging environment for newcomers – in large part down to his impact at White Dwarf.

Your Wargamer team contains several thirty-something hobbyists and wargamers who grew up basking in the thrilling, inviting, brightly colored era of White Dwarf over which Sawyer presided. As journalists we’ve also keenly watched and covered the rise and rise of Warlord Games with Sawyer and Stallard in charge.

We wish Paul’s family our deepest condolences, and we honor Paul for the incredible contributions he has made to the wargaming hobby we all love.

As yet, we’re not aware of any public memorials, collections, or events in Paul Sawyer’s memory – but if Warlord Games or Sawyer’s family chooses to organize any, we’ll update this post to ensure anyone who wishes to can pay their respects in a manner chosen by those who knew him best.