Editing Great Train Robbery (1963) (section)

==Aftermath==
The audacity and scale of the robbery was yet another controversy with which the Conservative government of [[Harold Macmillan]] had to cope. Macmillan resigned in October 1963, claiming poor health—he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and believed he did not have long to live, but the diagnosis turned out to be incorrect.<ref>{{cite web |last=Witts |first=Preston |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/21957868 |title=BBC Democracy Live - 1963: a year to remember |website=BBC |date=28 March 2013 |access-date=5 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426084616/http://www.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/21957868 |archive-date=26 April 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> He did not contest his seat at the next election in September 1964, which the Labour Party won under [[Harold Wilson]].

After his success in securing White and Edwards, [[Tommy Butler]] got the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Joseph Simpson, to suspend his retirement on his 55th birthday so he could continue to hunt the robbers. This paid off with the arrests of first Wilson, then Reynolds. When asked by a reporter after the sentencing of Reynolds whether that was the end of it, Butler replied that it was not over until Biggs was caught. In 1969 he was finally forced to accept compulsory retirement, and later died in 1970, aged 57. That same day, Biggs' memoirs were published in ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'' newspaper.

Butler's deputy, Frank Williams, was passed over to be his replacement as head of the Flying Squad because of his deal with Pembroke (which he thought would seal his promotion) and his deal with another of the robbers who was never caught. Following this, he left the force to become head of security for the airline [[Qantas]]. He wrote his autobiography ''No Fixed Address'', which was published in 1973.

[[Jack Slipper]] of the [[Metropolitan Police]] was promoted to [[Chief Superintendent|detective chief superintendent]]. He became so involved in the case that he continued to hunt many of the escaped robbers after he retired. He believed Biggs should not be released after returning to the UK in 2001 and he often appeared in the media to comment on any news item connected with the robbery before his death on 24 August 2005 at the age of 81.

Detective Chief Superintendent Ernest Malcolm Fewtrell, head of the Buckinghamshire Crime Investigation Department (CID) was born on 29 September 1909 and died on 28 November 2005, aged 96. He retired on the last day of the trial after the verdicts were handed down at the then compulsory retirement age of 55.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article598370.ece |title=(Accessed in April 2011) |publisher=Timesonline.co.uk |access-date=20 December 2013}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> This allowed him (with Ronald Payne of ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'', who was involved in the paper's coverage of the case) to be the first of the investigators to write a book ''The Train Robbers'' on the robbery investigation in 1964. In the book, he expressed some frustration with the Flying Squad although he mostly had praise for individual officers. His one regret was that he had the search for the hideout carried out radiating outwards from the scene of the robbery rather than an inwards search from a {{convert|30|mi|adj=on|-1}} perimeter.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1505956/Chief-Superintendent-Malcolm-Frewtrell.html |title=(accessed in April 2011) |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=21 December 2005 |access-date=20 December 2013 |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101095708/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1505956/Chief-Superintendent-Malcolm-Frewtrell.html |archive-date=1 January 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> He worked as an accommodation officer for [[University of Portsmouth|Portsmouth Polytechnic]] before retiring to live by the sea near Swanage. He continued to express disgust at any film that he felt glamourised the robbers. It has been said that he bore a striking resemblance to [[John Thaw]], who was the star of ''[[Inspector Morse (TV series)|Inspector Morse]]'', which, perhaps coincidentally, was a television series about a detective in the Thames Valley Police Force (the modern-day successor to Buckinghamshire Constabulary). Fewtrell was assisted and later succeeded in the investigation by John Woolley, who served in the Buckinghamshire Constabulary from 1959 to 1984.<ref name=ITV2012/>

George Hatherill (1898–1986) had his service extended by one year because of the need to complete the investigation of the Great Train Robbery. He visited Canada and the US as a lecturer on police matters. He died on 17 June 1986 at the age of 87.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rmp-sib.co.uk/hatherill.htm |title=(Accessed in April 2011) |publisher=Rmp-sib.co.uk |access-date=20 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131222002604/http://www.rmp-sib.co.uk/hatherill.htm |archive-date=22 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Gerald MacArthur died aged 70 on 21 July 1996. He was famous for breaking up the Richardson Gang at a time when a significant number of London-based detectives were known to be corrupt.

===The crime scene===
[[File:Train Robbers Bridge Network Rail plaque.jpg|thumb|Train Robbers Bridge Network Rail identification plate]]
One of the Post Office carriages that was part of the remaining train (not involved in the actual robbery) is preserved at the [[Nene Valley Railway]] at [[Peterborough]], Cambridgeshire, and is being restored. The actual carriage that was robbed [M30204M] was retained for seven years following the robbery, and then taken to Norfolk and burned in the presence of police and Post Office representatives at a scrapyard near Norwich in 1970. This was to deter collector/souvenir hunters. Locomotive [[British Rail Class 40|English Electric Type 4 – D326]] (later 40126) was involved in a number of serious operating incidents. The locomotive was scrapped at Doncaster Railway workshops in 1984.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cfps.co.uk/class40story.htm |title=CFPS Class 40-story |publisher=Cfps.co.uk |access-date=6 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218164900/http://www.cfps.co.uk/class40story.htm |archive-date=18 February 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The retrieved Monopoly board used by the robbers at their Leatherslade Farm hideout and a genuine £5 note from the robbery are on display at the [[Thames Valley Police]] museum in [[Sulhamstead]], Berkshire.

For some years [[Network Rail]] described the location of the robbery as "Train Robbers' bridge" in their [[Sectional Appendix|infrastructure records]], and a structure identification plate showing this was attached to the bridge. This led to an outcry advocating restoration of the original name of Bridego Bridge. In late 2013 Network Rail bowed to public pressure, but this time named it Mentmore Bridge.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/news/pressure-make-network-rail-change-bridge-name |title=Pressure make Network Rail change bridge name |work=The Railway Magazine |access-date=24 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219024401/http://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/news/pressure-make-network-rail-change-bridge-name |archive-date=19 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The sign was replaced around 2017.