Detectives Galore!
We recently came into possession of this large group photo and wanted to test your collective memories to see how many we can identify, figure out where and when it was taken, and what was the reason for the gathering.
The photo itself presented a number of challenges. First if all it’s a large group with several faces partially or almost completely hidden (could they be from SB?). Secondly, it’s not easy to figure out who is where because they’re not standing in straight lines.
In order to give us all a better chance to figure out who is who and who is where, I carried out an experiment, or rather a series of experiments, on AI (Artificial Intelligence) to see if I could provide a means by which our readers could be sure which person they were tryng to identity. AI is all very well, but when you use it you have to be able to figure out what it is EXACTLY that you want it to do by describing the task in detail. Sounds easy but I have to admit to spending many hours trying to explain precisely what I wanted some imaginary person sitting at an imaginary desk in an imaginary office to do, until I finally managed to (almost) come up with the illustration below which has a silhouette of each person in the photo, even those who can barely been seen at all.
The next problem was to insert a number on the face of each person, and try as I might, I could not get AI to apply the correct numbers! The final solution was to have AI produce the silhouette with all of the faces blank so I could write in the numbers by hand, and then scan the final document - and hey presto here it is.
This all took place while our ExPo website was out of action so it was published on our ExPo Facebook page. You can CLICK HERE to view all the answers we received.
However, we challenge you test your own memory first by seeing how many you think you can identify and then just scroll down below for our most accurate list of names which was submitted to us by our "Memory Man" Davie Kerr.
September 2026.
This photo has been quite a challenge but at the end of the day, I believe our old friend Davie Kerr provided us with the most accurate list of the men and women in this photo which you will see below. There are two almost completely hidden faces, one between Dave Cooper and Tom Cassin, and another between Tom Cassin and Paul Farrell who are so hidden that I doubt we will ever know who they are. Having viewed #13 with a magnifying glass I'm quite sure it is Theo Providence. We have still not confirmed either the date of the photo or the reason for this gathering of mainly CID officers although it's been suggested that Clive Donald is holding a plaque with 3 stripes on it which may be intended for then Sergeant Paul Farrell. Dai Thomas has even suggested that the photo may have been taken by Paul - on a timer. As for the date - probably early in 1982 prior to May which was the month when "Merve the Swerve" died under tragic circumstances. Sadly we also lost our dear friend, Paul Farrell in August 1983.
1 Donald Grant,
2 Laurie Jackson,
3 Dave Chew,
4 Steve Dunleavy,
5 Merv Willey,
6 Louis Griffiths,
7 Dave Cooper,
8 Stan Hill,
9 Tom Cassin,
10 ?
11 Paul Farrell,
12 Keith Cassidy,
13 maybe Theo Providence,
14 John Williams,
15 Ernie McCreight,
16 Mike Jent,
17 Clive Donald (coincidentally that was his shoulder number as Sgt!),
18 Stuart Donaldson,
19 Carlton Adams,
20 Alan Cleave,
21 Legay Farley,
22 Gerry Benson,
23 Paul Davis,
24 Kevin Reeves,
25 Phil Holder,
26 Eddie Bailey,
27 John Wright,
28 Angus Brown,
29 Lyn Place,
30 Matt Lindo,
31 Sinclair White,
32 Gertie Barker.
I think there's a un-ID'd face between Dave Cooper and Tom Cassin.