The Great Train Robbery - in pictures

In the early hours of 8 August 1963, a gang of criminals robbed a Glasgow to London Royal Mail train at Ledburn in Buckinghamshire, England. £2.6million was stolen (approx £48million in today’s money) in one of the most famous heists in history

  • The scene at Bridego Railway Bridge (now called Mentmore Bridge) on the morning of the robbery
    16th August 1963: Scene of the great train robbery with the train waiting on an embankment above a country road.

  • The second carriage behind the engine was known as the HVP (High Value Packages) coach, which carried large quantities of money and registered mail for sorting. Usually the value of the shipment was around £300,000, but because there had been a Bank Holiday weekend in Scotland the total onboard was around £2.6million
    The interior of the Royal Mail travelling post office carriage from which over 2,5 million was stolen

  • The identity of the inside man has remained a mystery, known only as ‘The Ulsterman’. The Observer can now reveal his name was Patrick McKenna, a Belfast-born post office worker
    Patrick McKenna The Ulsterman Great Train Robbery.

  • The staff on the HVP carriage were overpowered but the majority of the 78 staff onboard knew nothing of the robbery
    Police examining one of the coaches on the Glasgow to London travelling post office train near Bridego Railway Bridge in Buckinghamshire, England, the morning after the train was attacked and robbed in the 2.6 million pound 'Great Train Robbery', 8th August 1963.

  • The gang had uncoupled the engine and first two carriages and planned to move them to an easier location to unload. However, their driver failed them and so they brought the truck to the road below the train, formed a human chain and unloaded 120 sacks in 20 minutes
    8th August 1963: The Mail Train which was stopped on a bridge during 'The Great Train Robbery' so that it could be unloaded.

  • Driver Jack Mills had stopped the train at a red light after the gang had tampered with the signalling equipment. He was hit with a rubber cosh and fell over. His head was bandaged by the robbers
    Train driver Jack Mills, the hero of the 'Great Train Robbery' rests at home after the robbery.

  • Co-driver David Whitby had left the engine to phone the signalman and found the lines cut. He was overpowered by the gang. Here he gets a cup of tea from his mother at home in Crewe ten days later
    Train driver David Whitby gets a cup of tea from his mother at home in Crewe, Cheshire, 18th August 1963. Whitby was co-driver of the mail train, which was hijacked in the 2.6 million pound Great Train Robbery, committed ten days previously at Ledburn, Buckinghamshire.

  • Five days after the robbery, the gang’s hideout was discovered at Leatherslade Farm at Oakley in Buckinghamshire
    13th August 1963: Police stand guard outside Leatherslade Farm at Oakley in Buckinghamshire, used as a hide-out by the Great Train Robbers.

  • Herdsman John Maris was working in a field near the house and tipped off police about the whereabouts of the gang. Original Caption: ‘Although now eligible for part of the reward money offered for information in the case, Maris is continuing to fill in his football pools coupons in case he gets nothing’. He received £19,000
    Herdsman John Maris, who tipped off police about the whereabouts of the gang who carried out the 2.6 million pound Great Train Robbery, 16th August 1963. Maris was working in a field near the house at Leatherslade Farm, near Brill in Buckinghamshire, which the gang was using as a hideout. Although now eligible for part of the reward money offered for information in the case, Maris is continuing to fill in his football pools coupons in case he gets nothing.

  • The Austin Loadstar lorry and two Land Rovers which police believed were used to carry the haul were discovered at the farm
    A police-car escorts the lorry and two Land Rovers, which police believe the bandits carried much or all of their haul after the 2.6 million pound mail train robbery, out of Leatherslade Farm, Oakley, Bukinghamshire, where the gang hid after the crime.

  • Police detectives at Leatherslade Farm in Buckinghamshire in August 1963. Seated on the left is Detective Superintendent Gerald McArthur of Scotland Yard, and on the right, with his back to camera, is Chief Superintendent Malcolm Fewtrell , head of the Buckinghamshire CID
    Police detectives at Leatherslade Farm in Buckinghamshire, the hideout for The Great Train Robbers, 13th August 1963. Seated on the left is Detective Superintendent Gerald McArthur of Scotland Yard, and on the right, with his back to camera, is Chief Superintendent Malcolm Fewtrell (1909 - 2005), head of the Buckinghamshire CID.

  • Fingerprints were found on the Monopoly set used by the gang and a ketchup bottle. This image was either taken at the farm or at local police station where the contents of Leatherslade farm were taken
    Monopoly set used by the gang - image either taken at Leatherslade farm or at local police station where contents of Leatherslade farm were taken.

  • Supplies discovered at Leatherslade Farm
    Supplies discovered at Leatherslade Farm.

  • The nation was gripped by the robbery
    The Robbery Of The Postal Train Glasgow London On The Front Page Of Newspapers At Buckinghamshire In Great Britain On August 1963.

  • The manhunt was intense. Nine year old Alan Walker from Oakley collected car numbers and police took several pages of his book to see whether he had jotted down the numbers of vehicles used by the gang
    Alan Walker Nine Who Wrote Down Car Registration Numbers Near His Home In Oakley Was Visited By Detectives Investigating The Great Train Robbery.

  • Arrests soon followed. Here three men are taken to a police van at Linslade Court House, Buckinghamshire, after being remanded in custody in late August 1963
    Under the guidance of police officers, three hooded men are taken to waiting police cars at Linslade, Buckinghamshire, after being remanded in custody on charges in connection with the great train robbery the previous week. Two women were also remanded in custody.

  • Sightseers and press watch the suspects at Linslade Court House
    Sightseers crowd around the van at Linslade, Buckinghamshire, as some of the five accused leave the hearing to be remanded in custody on charges in connection with the with the Glasgow-Euston mail train robbery.

  • Gang member Bruce Reynolds, pictured here circa 1963 on the left with his wife Frances, Barbara Daly and brother-in-law John Daly. Daly was arrested but released without charge due to lack of evidence
    circa 1963: English criminal Bruce Reynolds (left), a member of the gang which robbed a mail train of over two million pounds at Cheddington, Buckinghamshire, with (from left) his wife, Frances, Barbara Daly and John Daly.

  • Douglas ‘Gordon’ Goody, brains behind the robbery, arrives to face charges in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire in October 1963
    Covered by a blanket, Douglas Gordon Goody, 33-year-old hairdresser of Putney, London, arrives at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where he faced charges in connection with the mail train robbery.

  • Three of the ringleaders. Charles Wilson, Bruce Reynolds and Ronald ‘Buster’ Edwards
    Charles Wilson, Bruce Reynolds, Buster Edwards the men involved in the 1963 Great Train Robbery.

  • Convictions and sentencing took place at Aylesbury Assizes in early 1964. Here members of the gang travel to an appeal in the Law Courts on the Strand in London in July 1964
    Police Cars And Motorcycles Escort A Prison Van Containing Members Of The Great Train Robbery Gang Into The Criminal Appeal Court The Law Courts The Strand London.

  • Scotland Yard Detective Jack Slipper, pictured in 1966, was at the heart of the case and continued to hunt many of the escaped robbers after he retired. He tracked Ronnie Biggs to Brazil
    Scotland Yard Detective Jack Slipper, who is working on the Great Train Robbery case, September 1966.

  • Bruce Reynolds was finally captured in Torquay in 1968 where he had been living under the alias Keith Hiller. He was sentenced to 25 years in jail. Here he is pictured in November 1968 at Linslade
    The Great Train RobberyBruce Reynolds outside Linslade (?) Court.

  • In May 1964, train driver Jack Mills returned to work after sick leave. He died of leukaemia in 1970
    Train driver Jack Mills (1905 - 1970) returns to work after 39 weeks of sick leave, 12th May 1964. Mills was beaten with an axe handle during the 2.6 million pound Great Train Robbery committed at Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, on 8th August 1963.

  • In August 1963, Leatherslade Farm was opened to sightseers by it’s owner who charged half-a-crown for adults and a shilling for children
    Anthony Agutter, 14, right, and friend Richard Mackenzie, 13, both of Oxford, receive the first tickets to view Leatherslade Farm after they had paid their shillings. The farm, which is owned by Bernard Rixon and has been opened to sightseers at half-a-crown for adults and a shilling for children, was used by the Great Train Robbers as headquarters from which they raided the Glasgow-Euston mail train at Cheddington, near Buckinghamshire. 28/08/1963.

  • The bulk of the haul was in £1 notes and £5 notes. Less than £400,000 was ever recovered. Some of that loot is seen here on display at an exhibition at Thames Valley Police’s museum in Sulhamstead, near Reading
    Thames Valley police handout photo of part of the 2.5 million stolen by the Great Train Robbers forty years ago, that went on display today at an exhibition at Thames Valley Police's museum in Sulhamstead, near Reading.
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