Jack Mills was a British railway worker who was the driver of the train that was robbed in the Great Train Robbery in 1963.
15 Facts About Jack Mills
2.
Jack Mills boarded the train at the driver change-over at Crewe station, his home town, in Cheshire, on the train's journey to London Euston station, a journey that would take the train through Buckinghamshire, where the gang of robbers were waiting for it.
3.
Jack Mills stopped, and soon after the robbers launched their robbery.
4.
Jack Mills was handcuffed to the train's secondman, David Whitby, in the locomotive's engine compartment.
5.
Jack Mills, who was 57 at the time of the robbery, never fully recovered from his injuries.
6.
Jack Mills returned to work in May 1964, and worked for 18 months on light duties.
7.
Jack Mills was then on sick leave from November 1965 until December 1966 with shingles.
8.
Jack Mills returned for one last year in work for 1967, retiring for good at Christmas, with two and a half months off sick that year.
9.
Jack Mills sustained severe brain damage from blows to the head.
10.
Jack Mills died in February 1970, shortly after moving, of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, with a further complication of bronchial pneumonia.
11.
The West Cheshire Coroner concluded that there was no reason to hold an inquest and that while he was aware that Jack Mills had been injured in the incident, there was no connection as far as he was concerned.
12.
The identity of the train robber who assaulted Jack Mills has been the subject of some debate, but most sources agree that Jack Mills's assailant was one of three members of the gang who were never identified.
13.
Jack Mills was referred to as "Mr Three" by Ronnie Biggs, and "Alf Thomas" by Piers Paul Read and Bruce Reynolds.
14.
Where all accounts agree is that Gordon Goody made Jack Mills drive the train after the failure of the robbers' substitute driver, and that Charlie Wilson told Jack Mills not to worry and that he would not be harmed, and ensured he was left alone after that.
15.
Reynolds himself was not at the train site as he was the spotter at the Ledburn road rail bridge and met the gang at the rendezvous point at Bridego Bridge after Jack Mills was forced by Goody to drive the train.