18 Facts About Malcolm Fewtrell

Ernest Malcolm Fewtrell was a Detective Chief Superintendent in the Buckinghamshire Constabulary and head of Buckinghamshire CID.

Malcolm Fewtrell led the initial investigation into the Great Train Robbery in 1963.

Malcolm Fewtrell attended Reading School, then spent 6 months in New South Wales, Australia working as a jackaroo on sheep stations.

Malcolm Fewtrell then returned to the UK and became a police cadet with the Buckinghamshire Constabulary in 1927.

Malcolm Fewtrell married Anne Thomas in 1934, who was a nurse in the hospital where he had his appendix removed.

Malcolm Fewtrell's reserved occupation as a police officer made him exempt from military service in the Second World War.

Malcolm Fewtrell rose through the police ranks, becoming Detective Inspector at Chesham in 1950, and Detective Superintendent in 1954, and head of Buckinghamshire CID.

Malcolm Fewtrell was involved in the A6 murder investigation when he was asked to find 10 redheaded men for an identity parade with James Hanratty.

On 8 August 1963, Malcolm Fewtrell was called out in the early morning to Bridgego Bridge, near Linslade.

Malcolm Fewtrell was head of the Buckinghamshire CID located at Aylesbury, and within a year of his scheduled retirement.

Malcolm Fewtrell arrived at the scene of the crime at 5am and gathered evidence before taking statements from the driver and postal workers at Cheddington railway station.

Malcolm Fewtrell established that about 15 hooded men in boiler suits were involved.

Malcolm Fewtrell originally thought that the robbers could have escaped to London via the nearby M1, but one member of the gang had made the mistake of telling the postal staff not to move for half an hour after they left and this suggested to the police that their hide-out could not be more than 30 miles away.

The resources of the Buckinghamshire police force were stretched, and Malcolm Fewtrell advised the Chief Constable of Buckinghamshire to call in the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard.

Malcolm Fewtrell was in charge of security of the venue and the accused, and the evidence.

Malcolm Fewtrell retired a second time in 1974, to Swanage in Dorset where he administered the neighbourhood watch.

Malcolm Fewtrell's wife predeceased him, and he was survived by a son and a daughter.

Malcolm Fewtrell is a character in A Copper's Tale, the second part of a BBC television drama entitled The Great Train Robbery that was broadcast in December 2013.