Ronnie Biggs: 1963 Great Train Robbery criminal dies in London at 84

Ronnie Biggs, who took part in the UK’s 1963 Great Train Robbery, has died aged 84, his spokeswoman has confirmed.

The criminal was part of the gang which escaped with £2.6 million – the equivalent of £40 million ($63 million) in today’s money from the Glasgow to London mail train on 8 August 1963.

Ronnie Biggs, Bruce Reynolds, Ronald “Buster” Edwards and the other gang members wore helmets and ski masks to carry out their crime, which took place near Cheddington, Buckinghamshire.

They made off with 120 bags of money totaling £2.6 million.

Ronnie Biggs was given a 30-year sentence but escaped from Wandsworth prison in 1965.

In 2001, he returned to the UK seeking medical help but was sent to prison. He was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after contracting pneumonia.

Ronnie Biggs, who died early on Wednesday, was being cared for at the Carlton Court Care Home in East Barnet, north London.

He could not speak and had difficulty walking after a series of strokes.

Ronnie Biggs was last seen in public at the funeral of his fellow Great Train Robber, Bruce Reynolds, in March.

Christopher Pickard, ghost writer of Ronnie Biggs’s autobiography, said he should be remembered as “one of the great characters of the last 50 years”.