Villains bid farewell to Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs

Some of Britain’s best- known villains paid their respects in person at Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs’s funeral.

Biggs, who spent much of his life cocking a snook at authority, was given an appropriate send off.

When he was last seen in public, at the funeral of robbery mastermind Bruce Reynolds, Biggs stuck two fingers up at journalists.

Yesterday, as the hearse carrying his coffin passed through the streets of north London, a white floral wreath in the shape of a two-fingered salute was visible alongside a Union flag and the flag of Brazil, the country where he spent many years as a fugitive.

Well-wishers gathered in the rain to watch the hearse depart. The coffin was surrounded by floral tributes and messages, and adorned with a red ribbon which read ’Ronnie’.

The funeral cortege — with a guard of honour formed by 13 Hell’s Angels bikers — left the home of Biggs’s son Michael and daughter-in- law Veronica in Barnet, north London, ahead of the service at Golders Green Crematorium.

Michael, who was wearing dark glasses and jeans with a skull and crossbones belt, met with mourners before the cortege set off.

His father, who won worldwide notoriety after escaping prison and living the high life in Rio de Janeiro, died last month at the age of 84.

At the time of his escape, Biggs had served just 15 months of the 30-year sentence he was handed for his part in the robbery of a Royal Mail freight train between London and Glasgow on Aug 8, 1963.

Charles Bronson, one of the UK’s longest-serving prisoners, sent a bouquet containing an old ten-bob note with the words “Ronnie Biggs RIP” scrawled across it.

Close friend and writer Chris Pickard, who helped Biggs put together his autobiography, Odd Man Out, said: “I am going to remember him as a great friend. He was great fun to be around.

“I knew him in Rio and he was a great host and a very generous man. People forget he was involved in just one major incident, one of the iconic crimes of the 20th century.

“He always said he was the best witness to the Great Train Robbery, he played a very minor part in it, but people always link it to him. But if he hadn’t gone over the prison wall, he wouldn’t have been remembered — there were 16 people at the track but it’s only people like him, Buster Edwards, and Bruce Reynolds that get remembered all these years later.”

A Dixie band joined the procession for the final part of the journey to the crematorium. Leading the hearse, it played songs including ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ and ‘When You’re Smiling’.