The Great Train Robbery

The 1963 robbery became a media phenomenon that often overshadowed its violence and wider context.

The Library editors

In the early hours of 8 August 1963, a gang used a false signal to stop a Royal Mail train at Sears Crossing in Buckinghamshire. They removed sacks containing about £2.6 million, an enormous sum at the time.

The train driver, Jack Mills, was struck during the robbery and suffered lasting effects. Police later found fingerprints and other evidence at Leatherslade Farm, which the group had used as a hideout.

The case became a national media spectacle. Long sentences, escapes from prison and later memoirs helped turn several participants into public figures.

Popular retellings can romanticise the operation as an ingenious caper. A responsible history keeps the violence, the postal workers and the machinery of policing and publicity in view.

Sources and further reading

The Postal Museum: The Great Train Robbery
The National Archives, Great Train Robbery records

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