THE CRATE ESCAPE
Fifty-six years after homesick Brian Robson mailed himself to Britain from Australia, the Express helps him identify the long-lost pals who sent him on his incredible journey
IN 1965 homesick Welshman Brian Robson wedged himself into a freight crate to fly back to Britain from Australia – and made headlines around the world. Now 76, he has written a book about the 96 hours he spent as a stowaway and how they nearly cost him his life. But his story had vital pieces of the jigsaw missing.
Brian couldn’t remember much about his accomplices who posted him as a parcel from Melbourne so he could see his parents in Cardiff.And now his appeal for them to come forward has snowballed into a media circus as journalists from around the world try to help him solve the mystery.
But the Daily Express can today name the helpers as Ronnie Stuart, Jimmy Little and Tony Ferguson.We have also trawled our files to come up with a picture of Ronnie and Jimmy, standing with the crate that they helped seal more than half a century ago.
Brian’s illegal trip in a wooden crate measuring just 36x29x25 inches was big news in Britain in 1965 and the Daily Express was the first newspaper to interview Brian on his return to the country.
BRIAN, then 20, told Express reporters: “I was homesick. Doctors told me I came within hours of death. But I’d do the same again to see my mum and dad.
“I bought a crate and my pals helped me. I arranged false invoices so that the airline would accept the crate cash on delivery.
“Then I climbed in with my suitcase, blankets, one pint of water, five biscuits and a hammer with which I planned to break out once I reached London.
“I thought I was going to London by way of Singapore – the shortest route – but then, after what seemed like an age, we landed and I heard an American accent.”
Instead of going into the cargo of a scheduled passenger flight, the crate had been boarded onto a freight plane which stopped off at Los Angeles.
Luckily, while the crate was moved into a cargo holding area, Brian was able to summon help.
“I was too weak to shout for help but I shone my torch through a crack in the crate and an airport worker got me out,” Brian said in the interview, published in the Daily Express on May 19, 1965.
The Express arranged for a reunion between Brian and his father James, a butcher’s storeman, who shook his
head in disbelief at his son’s story. His mother Edna was delighted to see him but could not believe he had put his life on the line to get back with his family.
Although the parcel was marked “fragile” and “this side up”, the crate had in fact been turned upside down several times during the journey, adding to Brian’s huge overall discomfort.
At Los Angeles he was taken to hospital for treatment for dehydration and muscle cramps, which were so bad that he could barely move.
The youngster had left his mother, father, sister and brother to start a new life in
Australia on the assisted migration scheme, which meant his travel costs getting down to Oz were met by the country’s government, which was desperate to attract skilled immigrants.
He worked as a ticket collector at a railway station in Melbourne, but quickly found himself missing home desperately. As he was earning just £40 a month he had no way of paying for the trip home, which would have cost about £800.
His snap decision to return came after he went to an exhibition in Melbourne and saw a sign for the British removal company Pickfords.
“Pickfords advertised that they could move anything anywhere,” Brian recalled from his home in Cardiff.
“The slogan stuck with me and I just couldn’t get it out of my head. Then I thought I don’t need Pickfords, I can move myself.The next day I went down to the offices of the airline Qantas and found out about the paperwork. None of us drank but we went to pubs for the company.We talked about the idea of me going on a crate and it just sort of snowballed from there.” First stop on the flight from Melbourne was Sydney, where he was left
upside down and suffered black-outs. During the journey he slowly lost the use of his muscles. Starving and dehydrated, he found it difficult to even hold a torch.
“It was the most stupid thing I had ever done in my life,” he says. “It showed how desperate I was to cure my homesickness.”
Luckily, the US officials took a sympathetic view. Instead of being thrown in jail, the stowaway was put on a flight to London after a spell in hospital.
Now in retirement, he has decided to tell his story in a book,The Crate Escape, released later this month. He has found himself at the centre of a media storm.
His phone in Cardiff is red hot with calls coming in from journalists all over the world, who are as keen as Brian is to discover more about his accomplices from yesteryear.
Now with the help of the Daily Express he is closer to finding out more about those who made the trip possible.
Brian said: “I would love to speak to them again, to hear from them. I still can’t believe I was so stupid to try it but I was very young and very homesick for my family and Wales.”