MEMBERS stood in silence on Thursday 28 September on hearing that former member George Lewis had passed away.
We then welcomed guest and prospective member Bob Turner who is a relative newcomer to Evesham.
Our speaker this week was Ian Boskett, a Tewkesbury businessman and railway enthusiast, who described how the great mail-train robbery of 1963 was committed.
He explained that the robbers planned to stop the train, unload the 128 bags of used £5, £1 and ten shilling notes amounting to some £2.6 million, and hide up in an isolated farm for several weeks before returning to the community.
Instead of the usual glorification of the robbers, Ian described how the gang planned to conduct the robbery. He explained that despite some essential inside information, the gang was in fact incompetent. For example, in stopping the train they alerted the signalling staff; they had not recruited someone capable of driving the train; and they had underestimated the time it would take to unload the bags.
The gang was of course captured and prosecuted. Nevertheless, out of the £2.6 million, less than £700,000 was ever recovered.
Richard Lawrence, who is also a train enthusiast, thanked Ian profusely for a most entertaining talk.
Information about our Club is on our website: www.eveshamprobus.co.uk
CHRIS DONOUGH
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