Brian Field

Solicitor’s clerk who connected the Great Train Robbery gang to inside information about Royal Mail cash trains and helped arrange the Leatherslade Farm hideout.

Editorial standard

Convictions, acquittals, allegations, police assessments, memoir claims and media descriptions are kept separate. Cross-links identify documented relationships or clearly marked context.

A different kind of criminal node

Field was not primarily a muscle figure. His significance came from access, information and logistics.

The robbery opportunity

Gordon Goody later described Field as the man who approached him with information about a large sum of money in transit. Field became the bridge between the insider and the robbery team.

Leatherslade Farm

Field helped arrange the purchase of Leatherslade Farm, the gang’s post-robbery hideout.

Court outcome

He was convicted of conspiracy to rob, but that conviction was overturned on appeal. He nevertheless served a sentence for perverting the course of justice in connection with the farm arrangements.

Graph role

Field links the Great Train Robbery planners, the insider-information layer, Leatherslade Farm and the professional-service facilitators who enabled major organized robberies.

Death

– Date: 27 April 1979 – Place: England – Cause / finding: road traffic collision

Network links

– Great Train Robbery — facilitator / planner; conspiracy conviction overturned on appeal – Leatherslade Farm — helped arrange purchase – Criminal facilitators — professional-services / logistics role

Direct people links

– Gordon Goody — approached with robbery opportunity – Bruce Reynolds — Great Train Robbery planning network

Sources

– The Guardian. Great Train Robber who got away will be named (2013-08-03). https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/04/great-train-robbery-mystery-fixer

Connected records

Documented network

Great Train Robbery (event): facilitator / planner; conspiracy conviction overturned on appeal

Leatherslade Farm (location) is recorded in the canonical graph as helped arrange purchase, documented status, 90% confidence. This is the stored relationship and should not be expanded beyond what the source record supports.

Gordon Goody (person) is recorded in the canonical graph as approached with robbery opportunity, documented status, 90% confidence. This is the stored relationship and should not be expanded beyond what the source record supports.

Bruce Reynolds (person): Great Train Robbery planning network

Timeline and case connections

Structured events are kept separate from general biography so later audits can update a date, conviction, organizational change, killing or court outcome without rewriting unrelated material.

Date not specified in current profile sources — Great Train Robbery. facilitator / planner; conspiracy conviction overturned on appeal

27 April 1979 — Death of Brian Field. road traffic collision

Status and record

The structured birth record lists 1934. The death record lists 27 April 1979 in England. Cause: road traffic collision.

Source record

The current Master package attaches the following evidence sources to this profile: – Great Train Robber who got away will be named — The Guardian, Tier 2.

Each source supports only the claims tied to it. Structured source references remain attached so later audits can trace timeline and relationship records back to evidence.

Evidence and editorial boundaries

For living subjects especially, legal claims and current status require dated sourcing. Future expansion should therefore come from stronger records or newly processed canonical entities rather than unsourced crime lore.

How this profile fits the archive

The current source package includes Great Train Robber who got away will be named. These records define the safe editorial boundary for the page. A later pass should prioritize new primary documents, court outcomes, dated organizational changes, prison history or newly processed books and screen works rather than adding generic background.

Research state

This depth pass expands the page from structured evidence already present in the Master. The profile should return to audit when a new source materially changes chronology, legal status, organizational role or media connections. Add the structured fact first, then update prose so narrative and knowledge graph remain synchronized.

Media remains a separate gate. A portrait should be attached only after source page, provenance and reuse status are checked. Until then, a profile can be text-complete while still carrying an explicit media-review requirement.

Archive discipline

A canonical page remains useful even when some biographical fields are unknown. The stable identity lets future cases, organizations, events, books and screen works connect to the same person without creating duplicates. Depth should come from verified edges, not filler.