The Great Train Robbery (4 page)

Six of the gang wore nylon stockings over their faces and carried coshes. They attacked the guard, Mr Owen from Holyhead, and tied him up. They began to rifle the 50 bags of mail. The ticket collector was called into an empty compartment further along the train and coshed. But his cries for help were heard by two dining car attendants. They fought with the bandits in compartments and along the corridor and were joined by two more waiters. But the six bandits barred the way to the guard’s van at the rear where two accomplices were steadily going through the mail. Bags were ripped open. A detective said: ‘They obviously knew what they were looking for.’

Then the communication cord was pulled at Boxmoor. Night duty porter Peter George, of Ridgeley, Hemel Hempstead, said: ‘I had the shock of my life when I saw the Irish Mail train pulling up. There was a terrible hollering and shouting. I ran across the line and the guard, ticket collector and dining car men were tumbling out of the train. A couple of them had blood streaming down their faces and one yelled to the foreman to call the police.’

Five of the train crew had cuts and bruises, but refused to go to hospital for treatment. Police sealed off surrounding roads. Patrol cars throughout the area – West Herts, Beds and Buckinghamshire – were alerted by radio. The mail van was taken off the express at Bletchley. After an hour’s delay the Irish Mail continued on to Holyhead – with Guard Owen, the dining car men, and local detectives.
14

Was this the work of the same gang that had been planning the Woking hold-up? Was the Boxmoor raid carried out because it was obvious to the gang that the police were aware of their plan, or was it a completely different gang and its close proximity to the Woking tip-off a complete coincidence?

C11 and certain Flying Squad officers were also, at this time, beginning to pick up word that a ‘big job’ was being planned by a specially assembled gang. Other than that, they had little to go on and resolved to keep their respective ears to the ground.

As bold, calculating and successful as this raid was, sceptics at Scotland Yard doubted that this was the ‘big job’ that was apparently in the offing. While the
Daily Express
crime team were later told by the Flying Squad’s Peter Vibart that one of the mail crime gangs might be responsible for the Paul Street bullion job, so far as the paper was concerned it was only a theory and, if true, might suggest that this particular gang were now moving on to bigger things away from mail crime. However, the
Daily Express
, the rest of Fleet Street and, indeed, the general public were - unlike the Post Office IB and Royal Mail security - blissfully unaware of how much money was actually being transported around the country by the Post Office, particularly by train. According to the IB’s own official figures, the Post Office was carrying over £4,000 million a year at this point in time.
15

The Brighton line raids, while being characterised by cunning, boldness and a good degree of technical know-how, seemed somewhat hit-and-miss in terms of sums stolen, which tended to suggest that the inside knowledge they had was not so precise as to be able to target trains carrying the major sums of money. If the Brighton line gang was behind the aborted Woking job, this at least suggested that they were now, by early 1963, better able to identify targets. However, at this stage there seemed to be little awareness by Scotland Yard, the British Transport Police or the IB as to the identities of those who had taken part in any of the hold-ups or attempted hold-ups. Although a number of individuals had been brought in for routine questioning over a three-year period, nothing conclusive was ever discovered.
16
Despite previous IB warnings, and indeed the Woking tip-off, TPO security was still somewhat lacking to say the least. For the likes of C11’s Chief Inspector Walker and George Hatherill, head of CID, the question now was whether or not one of the mail crime gangs was planning the ‘big job’ and, if so, where and when they would strike.

Notes

  
1
.  POST 120/95 (originally closed until 2001; opened 2002).

  
2
.  POST 120/90 (originally closed until 1985; opened 1986).

  
3
.  
Ibid
.

  
4
.  POST 120/93 (originally closed until 1985; opened 1986).

  
5
.  
Daily Express
, 27/1/62, p. 7.

  
6
.  POST 120/95 (originally closed until 2002; opened 2002).

  
7
.  POST 68/849.

  
8
.  POST 120/102 (originally closed until 1996; opened 1997).

  
9
.  
The Times
, 9/7/62, p. 6.

10
.  
The Times
, 31/8/62, p. 8.

11
.  
Daily Express
, 31/8/62, p. 1.

12
.  POST 120/129 (originally closed until 2014; opened 2011).

13
.  
Ibid
.

14
.  
Daily Express
, 21/2/63, p. 1.

15
.  POST 120/95 (originally closed until 2001; opened 2002).

16
.  Among those questioned but released without charge during this three-year period included Roger Cordrey and Robert Welch, who would later be charged and convicted in connection with the Great Train Robbery of 8 August 1963.

T
he Glasgow to Euston Travelling Post Office was a night train often referred to as the ‘Up’ Special or the ‘Up’ Postal. At the time of the Great Train Robbery it consisted of an English Electric Class 40 diesel locomotive and twelve coaches, none of which carried passengers.
1
The second coach from the locomotive was known as the HVP coach as it carried only High Value Packets. All the packets in this coach originated from banks and were being transported to the East Central District Post Office, in King Edward Street, London EC1, for delivery to the head offices of the various banks concerned. The sorting of these bags and packets into mailbags and sacks was carried out by GPO staff. Altogether there were seventy-seven post office employees on the train sorting mail, under the supervision of a post office inspector who was in the fifth coach.

The Travelling Post Office was comprised of coaches collected on its journey to Euston. The engine and first five coaches left Glasgow at 6.50 p.m. on 7 August 1963, arriving at Carstairs at 7.32 p.m. There it was joined by four more coaches that left Aberdeen at 3.30 p.m. and arrived at Carstairs at 7.15 p.m. These coaches were attached to the rear of the Glasgow train. The engine and nine coaches then left Carstairs at 7.45 p.m., arriving at Carlisle at 8.54 p.m. There, three further coaches were added to the train. These again were attached to the rear. At Carlisle, the original guard on the train was relieved by James Miller, who was with the train until it was attacked.
2

The train left Carlisle at 9.04 p.m. and stopped at Preston from 10.53 p.m. to 11.03 p.m., Warrington 11.36 p.m. to 11.43 p.m. and Crewe 12.12 a.m. to 12.30 a.m. At Crewe, the original driver and fireman of the train were relieved by Jack Mills and David Whitby respectively. They then drove the train on the remainder of the journey, stopping at Tamworth from 1.23 a.m. to 1.30 a.m., at Rugby from 2.12 a.m. to 2.17 a.m. and, finally, passed Bletchley at 2.53 a.m. The journey continued until, at 3.03 a.m., the train stopped just before the Sears Crossing home signal as it showed red. It was there that the robbery took place.

Thomas Kett was the assistant inspector in charge of the train from Carlisle to Euston. His main duty was to supervise the staff in the second to fourth coaches behind the engine. Frank Dewhurst, a postman higher grade, was in charge of the High Value Packets coach from Carlisle to Euston. Leslie Penn, a postman higher grade, was also employed in the High Value Packets coach from Carlisle to Euston. Joseph Ware, a postman higher grade, joined the train at Tamworth at about 1.30 a.m. on 8 August 1963. Employed throughout the train sorting mail, Ware was in the fifth coach from the engine until just before 3 a.m. when he was instructed to report to the High Value Packets coach. John O’Connor, a postman higher grade, joined the train at Tamworth at about 1.30 a.m. He was employed throughout the train sorting mail. Just a few minutes before the robbery he was instructed to report to the High Value Packets coach for duty.

The stretch of railway line on which the robbery occurred consists of four tracks (two in each direction). The train was travelling on the ‘up’ fast lane. As the engine approached the dwarf signal that is situated 1,300 yards before the home signal at Sears Crossing, the driver, Mills, saw the light was at ‘caution’. He immediately began to apply his brakes. He then noticed that the home signal was red, so he brought the train to a standstill about 5 or 6 yards in front of the signal gantry.
3

Jack Mills’s own statement best captures the events that followed the train stopping at the Sears Crossing signal:

When I stop in that way it is my duty to tell the fireman to get out and telephone to the signal box. David Whitby was my fireman. He got down on the left hand side. I saw him go to the telephone box. He shouted, ‘The wires have been cut’. He then walked back towards the cabin of the train. After David had gone back towards the coaches I saw two men come from the verge on the left hand side. I thought they were railway men. I could not see how they were dressed. It was too dark. I was looking at the controls of the engine and when I looked round I saw a masked man entering the cab on the same side as David Whitby got out; the left side. He had on a blue boiler suit and a balaclava helmet with just his eyes showing. I think the balaclava was green. He was carrying a large staff wrapped in white cloth. It was about 2 feet long. He was holding it ready to strike me, up in the air. I grappled with the man and almost forced him off the foot plate. I was struck from behind. Someone came in from the other cab door. I do not know how many times I was struck. When I came to I was on my knees. The next I remember the cab was full of men. I was very frightened. One man wiped my forehead with a piece of rag. I could not see who they were; the blood was running in my eyes. They took me into the passage leading to the boiler room. They told me not to look round, not to look on the footplate. They told me to look that way, I would get some more if I did not. David was in the passage with a masked man. He had a balaclava helmet on his head – the masked man. It was dark in the passage but there was some light coming from the cab. There is a light over my seat and a light over David’s seat. They were both on. I think someone had tried to move the engine. Someone said, ‘Well fetch the driver’. They put me in the driving seat and told me to move the engine. They told me to move the engine and get going and when we shout stop, stop or you will get some more. The cab was full; I would imagine there were eight or nine. I did not notice anything about their hands. They had all got staffs. They told me to keep my head down while I was driving. I did as I was told and moved the engine off. I thought I had got all the train. Nothing happened just then. I had to put the rear ejector on as I thought they had not put the stopper on the back. I had had no similar trouble during the journey. It is the large ejector. I drove the train on until I was told to stop. They just shouted ‘stop’. I did not look out of the front of the cab as they told me to keep my head down. I saw no marking flags at the side of the track. When I stopped they pulled me into the engine room again and handcuffed me to the fireman. There was one with David and one pulled me towards him. All the others jumped off the footplate. They took us on to the ground on to the track. They told us to lay face downwards on the grass. I had to walk through the men who were unloading the mailbags. There were only two coaches behind the engine. The men unloading the mailbags were all dressed in boiler suits and balaclava helmets. The men had formed a chain down the bank passing the bags from hand to hand. I should imagine there were about 15 men. One man was standing over us when we were on the grass. He was in a boiler suit and balaclava. He said, ‘I’ll get your address when this is all over and send you a few quid’. He said, ‘Keep your mouth shut. They are right bastards here’. After seven or eight minutes on the grass he told us to climb in the back of the GPO van. I told him I could not climb in so they lifted us both in. In the van I saw four GPO men lying in the corner. I lay on the mailbags. One of the raiders said ‘Stay here for half an hour, we shall be back’. Just after he had gone I heard the noise of a motor car engine. It appeared to be one engine. I waited for a few minutes. We stopped in the van until the guard came up. After the guard came another train came up on the slow line and the fireman of this train took my train to Cheddington Station for assistance.
4

The sequence of events described by Mills is essentially corroborated by fireman David Whitby:

I had an uneventful journey until the train was held up at Sears Crossing by a red signal. I got down from the left hand side of the cab in order to telephone the Leighton Buzzard signal box. I could not get through to the signal box. I looked under the box and saw that the wires had been cut. I wanted to tell the driver Mr Mills about this. There was a man looking between the second and third coach. I thought he was a postman or somebody out of the train. He had a slop, a cloth jacket on, the same as railway men wear. He had an overall on underneath. The jacket was reasonably light blue. It had been washed a lot. I walked in his direction. I said, ‘What’s up mate?’ He said nothing then. He walked across the line to the down slow. He beckoned me to follow him and said, ‘Come here’. The up slow line is on the edge of the embankment. There is a fairly steep embankment at that point. I followed him. I thought he was going to tell me there was something wrong, the train or the signals. He grabbed hold of me just above the elbows, swung me round and pushed me down the embankment. There were two men down the embankment. One of them rolled on to his left hand side and I went underneath him and he came on top of me. He put his hands over my mouth and showed me a cosh. There was white tape bound round the cosh. He said, ‘If you shout, I’ll kill you’. I was very frightened. He took his hand away from my mouth. I said ‘You are all right mate. I am on your side’. I said that to save him hitting me with the cosh. He asked me where I came from. I said Crewe. He said, ‘I’ll send you some money’. I could not see how this man was dressed. He made me get up and walk towards the engine. I did not see the man who had been looking between the coaches nor anyone else on my way back to the engine. There were five or six men in the cab. They had the same type of overall on as I saw before. They had balaclavas on with just their eyes showing. The one I saw looking between the coaches had a piece of rag round his head. I did not notice any other sort of headgear that they had. I had a view of the man’s face who I thought was a railwayman. It was a round face.