Malcolm Fewtrell

Ernest Malcolm Fewtrell ( 28. September 1909 - 28 November 2005 ) was Detective Chief Superintendent in the police of Buckinghamshire and head of the CID of Buckinghamshire. He led the first investigation into the mail train robbery in 1963.

Early life

Fewtrell was born in Ryde , Isle of Wight , where his father was a police officer. He attended Reading School, then spent 6 months in New South Wales , Australia , where he looked after flocks of sheep as a "Jackaroo". He then returned to Great Britain and in 1927 became Chief of Police for the Buckinghamshire Police Department. Three of his five brothers also joined the police. After serving a uniformed police officer, he joined the Buckinghamshire CID. In 1934 he married Anne Thomas, who was a nurse in the hospital where his appendix was removed.

His reticent work as a police officer freed him from military service in World War II . He rose through the ranks of the police force, becoming Detective Inspector in Chesham in 1950 and Detective Superintendent and Head of the CID in Buckinghamshire in 1954. He was involved in the A6 murder investigation when he was asked to find 10 red-haired men to face off with James Hanratty.

The big train robbery

Early that morning on August 8, 1963, Fewtrell was called to the Bridgego Bridge near Linslade. He was head of Buckinghamshire CID at Aylesbury within a year of his planned retirement.

The trackside signal lights were manipulated to stop the Glasgow-London mail train. The engine and the high-quality car, which contained money deposited with Scottish banks after the previous holiday weekend, had been decoupled from the other cars that had been left a mile at Sears Crossing. The band of robbers escaped with 2,600,000 pounds of used banknotes. The train driver, Jack Mills, had been hit over the head and never fully recovered.

Fewtrell arrived at the scene at 5 a.m. collecting evidence before accepting testimony from drivers and postal workers at Cheddington Station. He found that about 15 hooded men in boiler suits were involved. Fewtrell originally thought the robbers might have fled to London via the nearby M1, but a member of the gang had made the mistake of telling the postal staff not to move for half an hour after they left, and this was what the police indicated that their hiding place should not be more than 30 miles away. After failing to find forensic evidence at the scene, police embarked on a major search.

Buckinghamshire Police resources increased and Fewtrell advised the Buckinghamshire Police Chief to call the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard. In the days that followed, Fewtrell worked closely with Detective Superintendent Gerald McArthur to review the clues in the area while Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Butler and Detective Sergeant Jack Slipper investigated the London evidence. The gang's hideout at Leatherslade Farm near Oakley was discovered a few days later. After the farm was found by local police, Fewtrell visited two Metropolitan Police detectives where they found food, drinks and items from the train, all of which were covered in fingerprints. As Fewtrell later recalled, "the whole place is a great reference." Fewtrell also interviewed Brian Field, who was a lawyer clerk who helped the robbers buy their hideout, and he received an approval of responsibility for a hotel bill paid with a portion of the stolen money. Most of the gang were captured and the first arrests took place on August 15th.

The trial of the gang members began in Aylesbury in January 1964. The district court building was too small to accommodate the number of defendants, lawyers, witnesses and journalists, so the trial took place in the offices of the Aylesbury County Council instead. Fewtrell was responsible for the safety of the venue and the accused, as well as the evidence (including £ 300,000 cash that was reclaimed).

Fewtrell's last day of service with the police was April 16, 1964 when he came to court on the conviction. Six of the twelve defendants were sentenced to 30 years in prison - a total of 307 years in between.

Next life

With journalist Ronald Payne, Fewtrell wrote two long articles in The Sunday Telegraph on April 19 and 26, 1964 and a book in 1964, The Train Robbers .

Leaving the police force, he worked at Portsmouth Polytechnic as a housing clerk. In 1974 he retired a second time to Swanage in Dorset , where he ran the neighborhood watch.

He died in Poole Hospital after a stroke . His wife died earlier and he was survived by a son and daughter. His obituary in the Daily Telegraph noted a passing resemblance to John Thaw, who plays Inspector Morse.