Gavin Bell " "Scab on a Bike" as he braved printers' picket line

After Beirut, Gavin again showed his mettle, choosing to cycle to his new job at the Times through one of the most protracted and violent disputes in British industrial history, in which hundreds were  injured and arrested.

A rising chorus of “Scab on a Bike,” from hordes of angry printers greeted Gavin each morning as he arrived at News Corp’s Wapping premises after cycling from Waterloo Station. The year-long protest from 1986-87 came after Rupert Murdoch moved production of his newspapers from Fleet St to the high-tech, non-union plant at Wapping, East London, breaking the power of the print unions. There was a strong police presence around the plant, dubbed Fortress Wapping.

Asked if he wasn’t worried about exposing himself to the protesters’  fury twice a day, Gavin replied that if you came from Glasgow you knew how to look after yourself.

I lived near Gavin for a while when he had a cottage at  Hampton and with Jim Odgers we used to run in the beautiful Bushey Park. Afterwards, in fine weather, we would rehydrate at a riverside pub and Gavin would admire the lassies – another field at which he excelled.

A life fully lived. RIP. ■