Train robber John Daly won respect as Launceston dustman

LOCAL people knew the quiet dustman and road sweeper as Gentleman John.

What no one would have guessed is that he took part in the most sensational heist of all time, the Great Train Robbery.

But now, a week after his church funeral at Launceston, John Daly's widow Barbara has spoken of a husband who turned his life around and worked hard and honestly to raise his family.

Mr Daly, whose funeral took place at the Catholic Church in St Stephen's Hill, Launceston, near the home where he had lived for almost 40 years, was one of the gang who made off with £2.6 million in August, 1963, the equivalent of more than £50 million today.

The robbery and subsequent capture and jailing of the gang gripped the nation.

John, unlike his compatriots who received sentences of up to 30 years for their part in the robbery of the mail train in Buckinghamshire, was acquitted at the start of the trial, the only member of the 16-man gang to walk free.

His defence claimed that although his fingerprints were on a Monopoly set found at the farm where the gang hid after the robbery the game had been taken there at a later date.

John Daly then turned his life around completely and, after leaving his underworld friends, spent the rest of his life in Launceston, working as a dustman and street cleaner for the county council.

"John never spoke to anyone about the Great Train Robbery as he was told he could face a retrial," said Barbara.

His £150,000 share of the £2.6 million in used notes was stolen from him by the men meant to be minding it for him.

Mrs Daly said: "John was devastated when he learned his money had been stolen.

"Things were tight financially and John struggled to get work. But he never committed another crime.

"I was much prouder of him being a dustman and road sweeper than a train robber."

After the robbery Mr Daly and his wife, aged 72, went on the run.

She said: "I was pregnant and had to leave my oldest, who was a baby, with a friend. Wanted pictures of us had been released by the police and I felt like a hunted animal.

"The worry that he might be arrested again was making me ill. I hated the Great Train Robbery, it was like a stone on my back.

"The others got 30 years, which was shocking and savage. John didn't have any money, but he had his freedom, his garden and his family — and that was everything.

"He proved that crime does not pay and that the best things in life come from hard work and honesty."

"We had just enough to survive and we worked long hours to make ends meet. He was a decent man who reformed and had a strong belief in God.

"John would be up at 5am and walked 17 miles a day following the dustcart. Even after he retired from the council, he got cleaning jobs and worked until he was 70.

"We had a very simple life and didn't earn a lot, but we had what we needed."

Launceston photographer Paul Hamlyn worked on the dustcarts with John Daly two decades ago and will be eternally grateful to him.

Mr Hamlyn said: "A bin I was about to tip into the cart was heavy with water and I started to fall in with it. The weight was dragging me into the crusher, but John saw what was happening and pressed the stop button.

"He saved my life," said Paul.

"He would help anyone, and people used to call him Gentleman John. I feel proud that I was asked to be a bearer at his funeral."

Mr Daly's death comes just six weeks after that of his brother-in-law and gang leader Bruce Reynolds, who was married to Barbara's sister Angela.

Recruited by Reynolds to join the gang which held up a Glasgow to London Royal Mail train near Leighton Buzzard, John Daly's job was to alter the signals to red.

Within 12 hours of the robbery, Daly was one of six suspects named by an informant; he was captured at a London flat after being betrayed by the two men who had shielded him then stolen his £150,00 share.