Train robber Biggs mourns mastermind

Reynolds died in his sleep on February 28 after a period of ill health, just months before the 50th anniversary of the robbery.

The gang targeted a Glasgow to London mail train in the early hours as it travelled through the countryside in Buckinghamshire and escaped with a then record haul of £2.6m, equivalent to £40m now.

Biggs, who was freed four years ago following a series of strokes and pneumonia, was among the friends and family gathered for the private service at St Bartholomew The Great, in the City of London.

In a tribute read on his behalf, he said: “Bruce was a true friend, a great friend. A friend through the good and the bad times, and we had many of both.

“He was a good friend to me and my family. My thoughts are with Nick, his son.

“It was Bruce who set me off on an adventure that was to change my life, and it was typical of Bruce that he was there at the end to help me back from Brazil to Britain. I am proud to have had Bruce Richard Reynolds as a friend. He was a good man. I miss him already.”

A number of other men with criminal backgrounds attended the funeral, including Freddie Foreman, Dave Courtney and Chris Lambrianou.

An emotional Nick Reynolds described his father as his best friend and greatest inspiration.

“He was a romantic, a true adventurer, a journeyman who chose a lunatic path and paid the price,” he said. “He was an artist at heart and although he referred to the train robbery as his Sistine Chapel, his greatest triumph was in reassessing himself and changing his attitude about what is important in life.”

He drew laughter from the congregation when he said Reynolds had “no interest” in the 50th anniversary of the heist, adding: “So perhaps, true to form, as he had so often done in the past when wanted for questioning, he chose to split the scene.”

Tributes were given by Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt, actor David Thewlis and novelist Jake Arnott.