The Great Train Robbery

Ian Boskett from Tewkesbury has studied the events of the early hours of 8^th August 1963 and the subsequent investigations and enquiries and presented his thoughts on The Great Train Robbery to us on 16^th December. Money was often carried in a bullion van on the overnight Royal Mail service from Glasgow but how did the robbers know that, on that particular day just following a Bank Holiday, there would be more money than usual on board and, perhaps critically, that the ‘spare’ bullion van – less secure than the usual vehicles - was rostered in the train consist. As is so often the case with armed robbery a number of innocent parties including Driver Mills and Second-man Whitby were seriously injured during the incident. Worryingly the subsequent investigation into the heist suffered a series of cock-ups. Ian has uncovered some local connections with the heist including: - the registration number used on the bigger lorry was nicked off a vehicle in Gloucester a week or two earlier; one of the escape flights out of the country took off from an airfield in Worcestershire. Some items connected with the heist, all supposedly destroyed, have quite recently resurfaced! So just how did the gang tamper with the signals? Invite Ian to your Branch with this presentation for a live demonstration!