Roger Cordrey

Great Train Robbery participant with specialist knowledge of railway signalling who helped stop the Royal Mail train in 1963 and was among the first robbers arrested.

Editorial standard

Convictions, acquittals, allegations and contextual links are kept distinct. A graph connection does not imply conduct beyond the relationship stated.

Background

Cordrey was a professional criminal with experience around mail theft and railway systems, making him unusually useful to the robbery team.

Case / activity

During the Great Train Robbery he and John Daly were assigned to the lineside signals. The gang used false signals to stop the Glasgow-to-London Royal Mail train before the cash was transferred at Bridego Bridge.

Legal outcome

Cordrey was among the first gang members captured after the robbery. His arrest helped accelerate the investigation that eventually produced convictions across most of the crew.

Later context

Parliamentary records later listed his sentence as fourteen years, with parole granted before the full term was served.

Graph role

His profile strengthens the technical/logistical side of the Great Train Robbery graph rather than merely adding another generic participant.

Network links

– Great Train Robbery — participant; convicted – Bridego Bridge — signal operation / robbery scene – Leatherslade Farm — gang hideout

Direct people links

– John Daly — worked with Cordrey on trackside signal operation – Bruce Reynolds — fellow robber – Gordon Goody — fellow robber

Sources

– British Transport Police. The Great Train Robbery, 1963 (current archive). https://www.btp.police.uk/police-forces/british-transport-police/areas/about-us/about-us/our-history/crime-history/great-train-robbery/ – UK Parliament Hansard. Train Robbers (1976-04-08). https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1976-04-08/debates/0afc9f96-b916-42de-aaaf-d59636c697e5/TrainRobbers – Crime+Investigation UK. The Great Train Robbery (n.d.). https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/great-train-robbery

Death

Roger Cordrey died on 2011.

Why this profile matters

Cordrey adds depth to the Great Train Robbery section because he represents the wider operational crew rather than only the best-known planners. A strong archive needs those supporting participants: they make it possible to reconstruct how the robbery was organized as a group action and how investigators later identified and prosecuted members of the gang.

Connections across the archive

Documented network

Great Train Robbery gang (organization): Roger Cordrey is documented in sources as associated with Great Train Robbery gang.

Great Train Robbery (1963) (event): Linked to the related canonical historical event.

Bridego Bridge (location): signal operation / robbery scene

John Daly (person): worked with Cordrey on trackside signal operation

Timeline and case connections

The Master record keeps events separate from general biography so arrests, convictions, organizational changes, killings and other milestones can be updated without rewriting unrelated parts of the page.

Date not specified in current profile sources — Great Train Robbery (1963). Linked to the related canonical historical event.

Date not specified in current profile sources — Great Train Robbery. participant; convicted

Status and record

The structured record lists the birth information as 1921. The death record lists 2011.

Evidence and editorial boundaries

The profile is designed as a historical research node rather than a collection of unsourced anecdotes. Where evidence is strongest on an organization, prosecution or event rather than private biographical details, the page stays focused on that documented record.

Source record

The current Master package attaches the following sources to this profile: – The Great Train Robbery — British Transport Police, Tier 1. – 50 years on: What happened to the Great Train Robbers? — ITV News, Tier 2. – The Great Train Robbery, 1963 — British Transport Police, Tier 1. – Train Robbers — UK Parliament Hansard, Tier 1. – The Great Train Robbery — Crime+Investigation UK, Tier 2.

Source entries establish the claims for which they are cited; their presence does not mean every source supports every sentence. Structured references are retained so later audits can trace claims back to evidence.