11.08.2004

Murder of a militant miner

Dave Douglass mourns the death of Keith Frogson, the pit militant in the Nottingham coalfield - and explains how the legacy of the Miners Great Strike from 1984-85 still divides communities today

During and after the 1984-85 miners’ strike we received numerous lectures from the wise and the good about violence, and how violent the strikers were. We always pointed out that the first people killed in the dispute were two pickets, for which nobody has every been held accountable. We pointed out also that a couple of kids who died scrabbling for coals on a railway outcrop only perished because of the strike and the attempts to starve back the miners. The violence of their deaths was not the sort they cared about - only our counter-violence and in particular the accidental death of the scab-herding taxi driver in Wales.

Twenty years down the line and another picket dies, killed by a scab. It was quite intentional and was done in vengeance against the National Union of Mineworkers militant because of his loyalty to his class and class struggle. Not content with that, there then follows a further attempted murder of the man’s family, which fails, but not for want of trying. We suspect the same scab or scabs are responsible for both the murder and the attempted murders.

Keith Frogson, 62, a pit militant in the Nottingham coalfield, known to one and all as ‘Froggy’, was a stalwart of the 84-85 strike. He stood his ground in the worst of conditions in a coalfield which was suffering an epidemic of ‘leprosy’, with most miners scabbing. Froggy had continued to support the NUM after the strike and after being finished in the industry he never lost his disgust at not only losing the strike, but the handing over the running of the miners’ interests to a group of bosses’ goons in the so-called Union of Democratic Mineworkers. He always supported the miners’ galas and demonstrations and never ceased to berate the men who he felt betrayed our union and our way of life.

On July 19 he was found dead in a pool of blood outside his Annesley Woodhouse home. A fierce argument was heard at the time, just yards away from his home. A TV documentary about the 1984-85 strike may have led to murder by re-igniting the feud on opposing sides of the dispute. Police investigating the death are exploring a possible link with a film which was shown on television 24 hours before the killing.

The documentary, aired to mark the 20th anniversary of the strike, is thought to have been watched by Keith. Detectives want to question Robert Boyer, 42, who vanished on the night of the July 19 murder. He was an 84-85 scab. Like many of his ilk he is an oddball, much taken with knives and crossbows and killing and wounding things. Neighbours say he was obsessed with hunting, often disappearing into nearby fields and woods late in the evening or early in the morning. He had a criminal record for shoplifting and had also been seen firing an airgun at cats and dogs from his bathroom window. It is thought that he may be living rough in nearby woodland and the Nottinghamshire force is receiving assistance from search experts, behavioural scientists and geographic profilers.

A helicopter with heat-seeking equipment is also involved in the operation. They could perhaps try waving a full wage packet about, as that never failed to work last time in getting such blokes to break cover and run. Boyer is a reclusive loner. He had worked in the pits after leaving school at the age of 16 until he was made redundant at 23, one year after helping to break the strike and cripple the coal industry.

The two former miners lived in terraced houses 50 yards apart in the close-knit village of Annesley Woodhouse, where Froggy, a father of three, was a popular and well-known character. Police say that Froggy and Boyer had been engaged in a bitter personal dispute for several years and they believe that it may have exploded into violence if the two men crossed paths on the night of the killing.

Froggy was later found lying on the pavement with fatal head injuries inflicted by at least two sharp-bladed weapons and may also have been attacked with arrows fired from a crossbow. Police think a crossbow found in a nearby garden may have been used in the attack. The scab ex-miner, who worked at the Linby and New Hucknall pits, is also suspected of torching Froggy’s home on July 29, just 10 days after the murder. Keith’s daughter, Rachel, 33, was in the house with her partner when the blaze took hold.

The ITV documentary Real life, shown 24 hours earlier, had followed the struggle of a mother in a nearby mining community to save her son from the epidemic of heroin addiction which swept though former pit villages after the collapse of the coal industry. Froggy’s opinion of those he blamed for aiding and abetting the mass closure of Britain’s coalfields, never far from the surface, had been given a particularly vocal airing after he watched the programme, according to villagers.

The gregarious grandfather worked as an odd-job man in the village and, in a community which has long been accustomed to sorting out its own problems, was also regarded as something of a local enforcer of law and order, often warning petty criminals to clean up their behaviour.

Froggy’s family, comrades and workmates are determined to give him a big, defiant send-off at his funeral, the details of which are yet to be announced. Clearly there will have to be an inquest which, given the fact that murder will be a probable cause, must then be adjourned pending the arrest of the suspect and the outcome of his trial. The body will though be allowed to be released once all the evidence related to it is known.

We are hoping NUM branches will turn out with their banners and we hope at least one band might be present. The left in Britain if it is serious at all, should turn out in force to mark the contribution and ultimate sacrifice made by our dear comrade and friend, Keith Frogson.

His fate is somewhat similar to that of the NUM nationally itself, a hero murdered by cowards and scabs.