Hal Mullin

Apr 3 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

BALDNESS began its inexorable advance to the remoter outposts of his scalp just as the 1960s began to swing and long hair became all the rage.

The photographer smiled rather darkly at this truth as it sank in to the constant broth of his humour.

He would have been more likely to rise at this description of his occupation. He was not a photographer. He was an “industrial photographer”.

Of course, he admired those press photographers, scurrying from job to job, cameras swinging from their necks. He had to, as his second wife, Sue McCann, is editor of weekly papers in Wirral. But his great skill and passion lay in capturing the majesty of machines and fine engineering. He specialised in air and marine crafts.

Soon after Harold (“Hal”) Mullin’s death was announced, dozens of condolence cards plopped on the doormat of his detached house in Childer Thornton, south Wirral.

One sender, a photographer, said that Mullin had been “a large and colourful” part of their life.

Mullin was the son of Hal senior, a woodwork machinist, and Elizabeth, a nurse. He was brought up in Liverpool.

After leaving Ellergreen School, Norris Green, he began his photographic apprenticeship with the revered company of Elsam, Mann and Cooper of Liverpool.

During this time, when Liverpool was fashionable and the clouds of depression were gathering, Mullin practised his craft to the most exacting standards.

He then worked for Unilever, in Port Sunlight, for some 20 years, before branching out on his own, acquiring an enviable book of “clients”, the word he always preferred to “customers”.

For work was also a performance by which you would be judged, and Mullin always dressed appropriately. Open-neck shirts and denim jackets might look arty, but he was a professional in polished shoes and a collar and tie.

Although he never acquired a pilot’s licence, Mullin could fly. But his more daring feats were reserved for journeys in his beloved Saab cars – a white-knuckle experience for those in the passenger seats.

In recent times, Mullin had endured illness with great fortitude. He had a son, Steven, with his first wife, Mary.

His funeral service is at 10.30am today, in the chapel at Allerton Cemetery.

Hal Mullin, industrial photographer; born January 24, 1944, died March 25, 2008.