AUGUST 8, 1963
As the Glasgow to Euston Post Office train trundled its way through the countryside in the wee small hours of August 8, 1963, the staff on board thought it would be just another night shift.
But when the train came to an unexpected halt at 3.15am, the next few hours would go down in history as one of the country’s most daring and audacious heists saw £2.6 million stolen from the carriages. The Great Train Robbery, as it’s now known, was committed by 15 masks men, who stormed the locomotive after tampering with the track signal, making off with 120 bags stuffed with used banknotes – equivalent to more than £55 million today.
After attacking the train driver, the robbers loaded the postal bags onto a waiting lorry, before fleeing to a nearby farmhouse, where the money would be divide into equal shares. Carefully planned over many months, with help from inside sources, the gang was led by armed burglar Bruce Reynolds.
As The Sunday Post reported on the morning of the robbery, see opposite page, the thieves planning wasn’t enough to evade capture – all members’ fingerprints were found at their hideout – and just over six months later, 12 of the men were sentenced to a total of 300 years in prison.
The ringleader, Reynolds, initially spent five years on the run, while accomplice Ronnie Biggs escaped from prison in 1965, and spent the next three decades living as a fugitive abroad.