Brian Field

Brian Arthur Field (15 December 1934 – 27 April 1979) was an English solicitor's clerk who was one of the masterminds of the 1963 Great Train Robbery.

He was the crucial link between the key informant known only as "Ulsterman" (who came up with the idea of robbing the money-laden night mail train and also provided the details of the schedule and contents of the trains) with the actual gang capable of planning and carrying out such a complex and large scale robbery.

He was found guilty of conspiracy to rob, but his conviction was later overturned on appeal.

Field only served prison sentence for perverting the course of justice, in relation to arranging the purchase of Leatherslade Farm, near Oakley, Buckinghamshire, which was used as the gang's hideout.

Field was born on 15 December 1934 at Windsor and was immediately put up for adoption.

He served two years in the Royal Army Service Corps, seeing service in Korea.

When discharged from the military it was with 'a very good character'.

The Korean War lasted from 25 June 1950 until an Armistice was signed on 27 July 1953, with 63,000 British troops involved (part of over 1 million troops on the South Korean side).

Field would have been 18 when the war was over.

While the Service Corps were considered combat personnel, they were primarily associated with transport and logistics.

Later in life, while working with the Children's Book Centre, he would animatedly tell fellow Book Centre employee Tony Saez about living through the chaotic experience of being shelled during the war.

Brian Field quickly became successful in both his personal and professional lives, he married a pretty German girl named Karin and rose to be a solicitor's managing clerk for John Wheater & Co. Despite the fact that he was only 28 at the time of the robbery, he was already much more successful than his boss, John Wheater.

Field drove a new Jaguar and had a house he called "Kabri" (an amalgam of Karin and Brian) with his wife at the Bridle Path, Whitchurch Hill, Oxfordshire, near Pangbourne, while his boss owned a battered Ford and lived in a rundown neighbourhood.

Part of the reason for this is that Field was not averse to giving some of his less savoury clients good information on what some of his wealthier clients had in their country houses, making them prime targets for the thieves.

Another key reason being that an honest solicitor was useless to a career criminal of that era.

What was needed was a bent solicitor who could arrange for alibis and friendly witness statements and bribe police and witnesses.

As the managing clerk at his law firm, Field was able to carry out these activities and encourage repeat business.

On one occasion he described the contents and layout of a house near Weybridge where his wife Karin had once been a nanny to a couple of criminals that he represented at various times in his career, Gordon Goody and Buster Edwards.

He had arranged Buster's defence when he had been caught with a stolen car, and later met Goody at a nightclub in Soho.

Field was then called upon to assist in the defence of Goody in the aftermath of the "Airport Job" which was a robbery carried out on 27 November 1962 at a branch of Barclays Bank at London Airport.

This was the big practice robbery that the South West Gang had done prior to their grand scheme – the Great Train Robbery.

Field was successful in arranging bail for Goody and Charlie Wilson.

Field was a crucial member of the Great Train Robber gang.

He was the link between the gang's organizers and the informants who knew the details of the Royal Mail train and he was also crucial in arranging for the gang's escape with the loot and in purchasing the gang's hideout at Leatherslade Farm and was entrusted with its clean up (which ended badly).

The robbery was planned by several parties with no overall mastermind, although the robbery operation itself was planned and executed by Bruce Reynolds, the target and the information on the timing of the train and the amount of cash being carried, came from the unknown individual dubbed the "Ulsterman".

The key field organisers were Gordon Goody, Buster Edwards, and Charlie Wilson.

According to one account by Piers Paul Read (1978), in January 1963, shortly after the furore of the Airport Job had died down, Brian Field called Gordon Goody to a meeting at the Old Bailey and asked him whether he was interested in a large sum of money that only a large gang could steal.

The following day, Goody and Edwards met with Field at his office at James and Wheater (New Quebec Street near Marble Arch).

There they met with Field and another man called "Mark" who was well dressed, aged around 50, with hair turned silvery grey and who spoke with a smooth accent.

"Mark" then convinced them to meet the actual informant and drove Edwards and Goody to Finsbury Park where they met another man they nicknamed the "Ulsterman", who was a slightly balding middle aged man, who spoke with a Northern Irish lilt (where Goody had grown up).

The "Ulsterman" told them about the night mail trains doing runs between London and Glasgow with large amounts of money.

Edwards and Goody then went and discussed the matter with Reynolds and Wilson and it was agreed that they should make a serious attempt.

In the meantime they would recruit others and do practice train robberies.

On 31 July, Goody and Edwards met with the "Ulsterman" for one last strategy meeting in Hyde Park.

They agreed that his share of the loot would be delivered at Brian Field's house.

It is at this meeting that Gordon Goody claimed that when he was in the toilet, Goody checked the pockets of his suit jacket and saw the name and address of the owner, presumably the "Ulsterman".

Bruce Reynolds and John Daly spotted a potential hideout in Leatherslade Farm at Brill only 27 miles from the crime scene.

The farm also happened to be the only major farm in the area not labelled on local maps – the perfect hideout from the police.

Field arranged for the farm to be purchased by one of his firm's clients, Leonard Dennis (Lennie) Field (no relation), who had come into some money as he was power of attorney over the affairs of his brother, Alexander Field who was serving time in prison.

The two Fields went to see the farm, and in return for a promised sum from a robbery (though he was not told that it was a train robbery) Lennie Field agreed to act as the purchaser and pay the 10% deposit.