The Amazing Life and Experiences of Alan Meek

Hugh Thompson on the 98-year-old man who walks daily on the Putney riverside

Alan Meek

August 27, 2024

Many know 98-year-old Alan Meek as he makes his daily walk up and down the Putney river front.

What many do not know is that Alan, always ready with a smile and quick word has had a dramatic past. Not least in 1958 when working as a Fleet Street photographer covering Firework Night in Trafalgar Square for the Daily Express he was arrested by a very aggressive chief inspector for “causing a nuisance”.

Thrown into a police cell at Cannon Street he was accused of being a Pheasant Plucker(Clever F*****) and given a black eye and a broken tooth.

Alan is a very strong willed man ,you don’t get his age without determination, and he sued for wrongful arrest.

Two years later it came to court. A member of the jury later told him he couldn’t believe seven policeman would lie and he lost. He appealed and won because the police had omitted to tell the court the Chief Inspector who made the arrest had been demoted to sergeant for a variety of broken rules and ill-discipline. Alan won £2000 in damages, ”It's what I would have lost if I had lost the appeal” he says. For his deliberate omission the police barrister was barred for a year. The award is worth £60k in today’s money. Alan turned the saga into a book “The High Price of Justice” which is available on Amazon.

But dig deeper into Alan’s past and there is more, as as a very young sailor in 1945 he was on the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable off Japan when the first A bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. ”All we were told was that there had been a big bomb”.

The rise and rise of digital photography hastened his retirement and inspired by his sons he took up metal detectoring. Today in the British Museum is a cabinet dedicated to Alan’s principal discovery The Ashwell (Hertfordshire) Hoard. As the inscription reads, “This hoard of at least 27 gold and silver objects was found by metal detectorist Alan Meek in September 2002. It includes gold jewellery, a silver figurine of a woman and gold and silver plaques (thin decorative sheets). The objects were precious gifts from individual worshippers to a goddess.” The hoard was hidden at the end of the 3rd century but never recovered until the intrepid Mr Meek came along.

Having lived in Putney for 46 years many know Alan from the time he used to swim five days a week at Dryburgh baths or when he was a leading light at the Putney Bowls Club. But today it up and down the river front every morning, as he says “It seems to get longer very day” and then he winks.

Hugh Thompson