Bruce Reynolds
| Bruce Reynolds | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Bruce Richard Reynolds 7 September 1931 Charing Cross Hospital, Strand, London, England |
| Died | 28 February 2013 (aged 81) Croydon, Greater London, England |
| Other names | Keith Clement Miller Keith Hillier |
| Occupation | Messenger, Cyclist, Antiques dealer |
| Spouse(s) | Frances (until her death) |
| Children | Nick Reynolds |
| Motive | Financial gain/enjoyment |
| Conviction(s) |
1957: Assault and robbery, 3½ years HMP Wandsworth 1969: Great Train Robbery, 25 years HMP Durham 1980: Drug dealing, 3years HMP Maidstone |
Bruce Richard Reynolds (7 September 1931 – 28 February 2013) was an English criminal, who masterminded the 1963 Great Train Robbery. At the time it was Britain's largest robbery, netting £2,631,684, equivalent to £49 million today. Reynolds spent five years on the run before being sentenced to 25 years in 1969. He was released in 1978. He wrote three books and performed with the band Alabama 3, for whom his son, Nick, plays.
Bruce Richard Reynolds was born at Charing Cross Hospital, in the Strand, central London, the only child of Thomas Richard and Dorothy Margaret (née Keen). He was initially brought up in Putney, and his mother, a nurse, died in 1935 when he was aged four. His father, a trade-union activist at the Ford Dagenham assembly plant, married again, and the family moved to Gants Hill. Reynolds found it difficult to live with his father and stepmother, choosing often to stay with one or other of his grandmothers. During the London Blitz of the Second World War he was evacuated to Suffolk and then to Warwickshire.
On leaving school at 14½, Reynolds failed the eyesight test to join the Royal Navy, and decided he wanted to become a foreign correspondent, so he applied in person for a job at Northcliffe House. Employed first as a messenger boy, he then worked in the accounts department of the Daily Mail. By the age of 17 he had become bored with the routine and was working in the Bland/Sutton Institute of Pathology at Middlesex Hospital, before joining Claud Butler as a bicycle messenger and a member of their semi-professional racing team, where he first met criminals and began a life of crime.
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