Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. UK Und.) a criminal’s bodyguard, a ‘strong-arm man’, someone who guards stolen property.

1896		A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 96: A patron arrived who knew him of old; who had employed him, indeed, as ‘minder’ — which means a protector or bully, as you please to regard it.
1896		Mirror of Life 13 June 15/1: [of boxers] That Ned Payne, the minder of Tom Cannon's two lads, ‘Morny’ and ‘Kempton,’ was half a century last Friday.
1900		Sporting Times 2 June 2/2: A ‘minder’ was carefully told off, to pick up all the banana skins.
1914		W. Sickert New Age 19 Mar. 631: If he could organise it he would carry with him the ‘minder,’ who keeps watch for him.
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 105: The men who command the greatest respect are the gang leaders of crime ‘combines,’ [...] ‘minders’ carry their contraband for them, and by lifting a finger their battles can be fought for them.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 37: They served as ‘minders’, or carriers of burglary tools.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 15: Bunge Marks and College Harry, his minder, were sitting drinking tonic and lemon.
1960		F. Norman in Daily Mail 18 May in Norman’s London (1969) 96: They expect everything that comes — including having an unwanted minder who they may have to bung a pony a week.
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 65: They [i.e. the police] had brushed aside our minder at the door [...] and began to hustle us all down the stairs.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 31: Len Stokes was a professional minder, minder being common parlance in the underworld for a bodyguard.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 42: Big Baz – Ally’s minder – was standing casually just in front of the door.
1991		R.G. Barratt ‘Leave No Turn Unstoned’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] I meant to ask him if he wanted to come back, pull a few cones [...] but his minders dragged him away.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 77: George got his minders with him you understand. He doesn’t know that yet on account of he never woke up, but he got his monkeys guarding him.
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 65: Biscuit was surprised to see Nunchaks without his minders.

2. (UK Und.) a pimp.

1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 104: Each ‘minder’ has a school of girl harpies under his care [...] every girl pays 25 per cent of her earnings.
1997		L. Davies Candy 54: I was the minder, obviously. [...] As if Candy, being so beautiful, would have selected me as the toughest and meanest from some pimp employment bureau.

3. (UK Und.) a young criminal’s patron, who sets up crimes for his protégé to carry out.

1972

P. Fordham Inside the Und. 49: I’ll fix for you to meet my ‘minder’.

4. extended to a variety of non-criminal milieux, e.g. governmental minders, journalistic minders.

1975		J. Ryan Remembering How We Stood 75: One of the last of his ‘minders’ [...] told me how he would be dragged from bed at any old hour of the night by Brendan, who would arrive in a taxi, to commence the day’s marathon of drinking.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 78: He dialled up call minder to see if there was any word from the group.
2010		K. Richards Life 424: Gary Schultz, my minder, was there too.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] Swann sat beside Minister Sullivan in the aisle seat of the highest row of the grandstand, in the place cleared by a departing minder.