The Miner and the Copper

The picture might not even be known to many people outside the U.K., but in Britain it's one of the best-known press photos of recent decades: a moment of good humor and seeming rapport between a policeman and a miner, in the midst of a bitter strike that was ugly and all too often violent.

For many years, the identities of the miner and the officer weren't known; they weren't to the late Don McPhee, the famous British newspaper photographer who took the picture. But now, writes Martin Wainright in The Guardian, thanks to the efforts of a BBC Executive's assistant named Lucy Smickersgill, the identities of the two men have been discovered.

The miner was George "Geordie" Brealey, who died young (age 53) in 1997 from choking on an egg sandwich after having suffered a series of strokes, but who is fondly remembered by his many friends for his ready smile and sense of humor—including the way he would pretend to "inspect" the police, dressed in the toy bobbie's helmet he acquired on a family outing.

The policeman was Paul Castle (shown above in a more recent photo from his website), who now lives in Tennessee and runs a "Tactical Training & Research" company called Sabre, Inc. Paul Castle now doesn't recall his feelings or the mood at the moment the photo was taken. Although he says he had sympathy during the miners' strike for "the decent human people [who] just got pulled into the middle of it all," he thinks that, at the time, he would have been more interested in crowd safety than anything else.

But the last word on the human aspect of the encounter, fittingly, is in the photographs—the negatives surrounding the shot on Don McPhee's contact sheet. The famous photo is the second of four, and the last two show Officer Castle laughing, as Geordie Brealey continues to clown.

Mike
(Thanks to Gavin McLelland)

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Featured Comment by Neil Castle: "The Police officer in this photo (Paul Castle) is my father. I was unaware of said photo's existence or importance until a few hours ago. I feel a little dizzy."

Comments

[ben ng]

I remember this photograph very well, being in England during the Thatcher years when Arthur Scargill led the miners on many strikes.
The persons in this photo were wearing shorts-it was winter. The policeman was talking about the pheasant who tried to leave town, while the miner described "A State of Alarums" because of an uninvited goat in his mother's house. They both went to the pub later to discuss the rumour of money pouring into Northern Ireland with nothing to show for it. Funny how history repeats itself, even in Wisconsin!

[Sean]

That photo and many other great photographs taken for the Guardian (my home town paper) can be seen until the 22nd of march at the Lowry in Manchester(UK)

A Long Exposure: 100 Years of Guardian Photography

http://www.thelowry.com/WhatsOn/EventDetail.aspx?EventId=3466

[londonbackpacker]

A great photograph; but this could well be a thing of the past.

A new law was passed last week which will stop photographs like this being taken.

http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=836646

The funny thing is the Police didn't want the law passed.

[Toe Tag]

I recall the general feeling among the cops at the time was "Arthur Scargill Pays My Mortgage," on account of all the overtime they were racking up.

[charlie d]

I always thought that was a pic of Ringo Star.

You telling me it's not Ringo Star? I think that's Ringo Star.

Okay maybe a member of the Kinks?

[David Mannion]

Great, but everyone seems to be missing the irony. The British government passed a law in the last few weeks that means taking a photograph of a policemant can result in up to 10 years in prison. The war on terror...

[Ed R.]

Nice picture, good backstory. Also a nice set of McPhee's pics at the Guardian site (my favorite is probably the pit ponies, though the mine photos have a lot of resonance for someone who's spent a fair amount of time in northeast Pennsylvania). Of course it is the Guardian, so it's only natural that something should be screwed up: the other photos mentioned aren't featured.

[mickr7an]

It should also be noted that the police have removed all their identifying numbers and branch codes from the shoulders of their coats so when they soon after rushed and beat the miners they could not be named.

[EmmJay]

This is a great shot. A memorable alltime classic in my book. Think I saw it first in the British B&W magazine.

[Paul Mc Cann]

" Of course it is the Guardian, so it's only natural that something should be screwed up"

The satirical magasine Private Eye always refers to this paper as The Gruniad due to its numerous typos

[erlik]

In that series of McPhee's photos, there's one subtitled "Boys playing football in Oldham", number 10 in the series.

You would have thought Britons knew the difference between football and rugby, as it's obviously a rugby ball the boy is holding. Or possibly an American subtitled it.

And look at the noise on that photo! :-)

[Tom]

"It should also be noted that the police have removed all their identifying numbers and branch codes from the shoulders of their coats so when they soon after rushed and beat the miners they could not be named."

Seems sensible. And it just proves that they were able to get around just fine without restricting photographers rights.

[Simon E]

Orgreave was a hotspot of confrontation during the long NUM strike. The tension that existed between the miners and the police there and elsewhere isn't evident in this frame, but there were plenty of photos published during the long strike where it was obvious.

This image was far more entertaining and still leaps off the page/screen 25 years later. It's a seminal photo from one of the really great snappers of modern newspaper photojournalism.

[GKFroehlich]

Come on, Charlie D, that looks nothing like Ringo. I had seen this photo long ago. No idea where, but I honestly thought that was Oliver Reed!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/347650.stm

[Mike Johnston]

GKFroelich,
I just watched the new (well, 2007) adaptation of "Oliver Twist" by the BBC, which I thought was excellent (especially the music). But it made me think of Oliver Reed as Bill Sikes in the 1968 musical version--the most memorable character from that movie for me. He terrified me when I was 11!

Mike

[Mani Sitaraman]

Keeping a sense of humour in difficult times? That's being civilized in the highest sense of the word. Three cheers for the British sense of humour.

[Paul Amyes]

I remember those days very well. My friends and I held many fund raising events for the miners strike fund. We were repeatedly detained by the police and the funds confiscated. After the defeat of the NUM by the Thatcher government the Labour party realised that the tide had turned and started expelling the more militant members from the party calling them Trotskyites. It was a pretty depressing time and it was why I migrated to Australia. I always considered myself a political refugee.

[northerner]

being round i'd say that's a football and that noise is fog!