Occasionally a life comes to mind that is just so utterly far-fetched, so out of the ordinary, it’s as though it were taken from the screen. Just a young girl from a tranquil town in England, who fell in love with a handsome stranger on a train, Charmian Powell would find herself on a journey from the mundane safety of an English suburb to police raids and visits to prison, aliases, becoming a fugitive in Australia, and the devastating death of a child, yet all through it, remained strong, dignified and stoically courageous. Whilst the world knows Charmian Powell as simply being the wife of Ronnie Biggs-the Great Train Robber-she was so much more than just a mention in a criminal record.
How Charmian Powell Met Ronnie Biggs
Charmian Powell was born on 17 May 1939 in Brackley, Northamptonshire. She was brought up in a very strict household as her father was the headmaster of the village school, placing a massive importance on rules and discipline at home. During her teenage years Charmian was full of life, was fun-loving, and desperately wanted something more than the restrictions that her home life had offered.
That world arrived very suddenly, on a commute train in 1957. As the train sat in the station, waiting for departure, Charmian (who was only 17) struck up a conversation with Ronnie Biggs (aged 27) and was instantly attracted by his ready smile, and his charm, he had had previous dealings with the law before this meeting, but the young Charmian could not fail but find the handsome, dashing Ronnie, an exciting man of a very different character to any of the men that she had met before. The two fell in love and were married in Surrey in 1960, Charmian being 21.
The loving couple went on to have three boys and for a few years, it seems like things were set to be a quite ordinary affair. Ronnie was a carpenter in Reigate, Surrey and Charmian stayed at home bringing up the children. It was then that disaster struck in a form, which had far reaching consequences for everyone involved.
The Great Train Robbery and the shocking revelation
On August 8th 1963 the Glasgow to London Royal Mail train was held up by between 17 and 19 men, just past the Bridego Bridge, in Buckinghamshire. 2.6 million pounds in banknotes was taken (now worth well over 50 million pounds making it the biggest cash robbery in British history) and on of those involved was Ronnie Biggs.
Charmian knew nothing of the theft until police reached her door prior to the police arriving. She was not aware of any robbery, and, perhaps surprisingly, even given the shock and betrayal of knowing her husband was capable of such a crime, she stuck by him. Ronnie Biggs was arrested, and given a thirty-year prison sentence; he had spent only fifteen months in prison when, in July 1965, he escaped from Wandsworth prison using a homemade rope ladder, climbing the wall and then dropping in to a removal van below.
What followed was the most exciting part of Charmian’s life, when she helped to arrange for the family to flee England, and used false names for herself, Ronnie and their children to travel first to Paris, and then onto Melbourne, Australia. A life that was going to take Charmian’s home, who she was, her very sense of security from her, but it was a life she gave voluntarily as her due to her loyalty to her husband.
Charmian Powell’s Life on the Run in Australia
The Melbourne years were not smooth for Charmian. She was living under assumed identities with her sons; paranoid that they would be apprehended, she struggled to keep the family fed and housed on a minimal income and far from any familiar comforts. She was bringing up the boys almost exclusively by herself with Ronnie being increasingly uncooperative and unhelpful. Money problems were perpetual, and the sense of threat was ever-present.
Once it looked like Scotland Yard was about to find out about the Australian hideaway Ronnie did another bolt – but this time without actually taking Charmian with him. He went to Brazil in 1970, leveraging the fact that he had fathered a child with a Brazilian woman and could therefore not be extradited to Britain. Charmian was stranded in Australia alone once more, keeping the home and the boys ticking over.
Even after all she had done for Ronnie, their marriage finally came to an end; divorce was granted in 1976. Post-divorce, Charmian sold her story for (it is believed) somewhere in the region of A$65,000 to the Packer media consortium (though she lost a substantial part to the tax man). She came under fire in some circles for speaking out – for supposedly cashing in on crime, but Charmian had a sound defence: ‘living with a criminal does not make you a criminal’.
What this whole story seems to neglect, in most narrations of it, is precisely how isolated Charmian was. She had nobody to rely upon, no family near to turn to and no legal identity she could use outwardly. She could not obtain normal employment and nor could she register her children at school under their own names and without risk she could not go to the authorities. Life was a series of constant tightrope acts between survival and finding things out. For her to keep her family in such circumstances is testament to a strength of character often omitted from the standard accounts of the Great Train Robbery.
Charmian Powell: Heartache and a New Beginning
Her eldest son, Nicky, in a road crash in Melbourne, was possibly the worst loss she could ever experience. But Charmian carried on: establishing herself in Australia, forging a new career and bringing up her remaining children. By deed poll, she altered her name to Brent – a silent but absolute rejection of the man, whose name had once defined so many of her years.
By the end of her life Charmian had become a kind of semi-public persona, at any rate. She readily gave up her time to talk about her experiences and acted as an advisor on the 2012 ITV drama Mrs Biggs, in which Sheridan Smith took on her role, and told the story of her life to a new audience. Mrs Biggs was critically acclaimed as a drama which not only celebrated not the romance of crime, but the very real human cost inflicted upon women left behind.
The 84-year-old died on December 18, 2013 in Barnet care home, in north London. Biggs returned to England voluntarily and returned voluntarily to England in 2001 when his health declined. Charmian’s death from the stroke came about a year later on December 11, 2014 at the age of 75 in Box Hill, Victoria and she is buried at Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Victoria, Australia.
Conclusion
It is not on the sins of the man she loved that Charmian Powell‘s fame rests, it is on what she did afterwards. It rests on her calm stoicism in putting her life back together, in raising her children alone and in refusing to succumb to grief. She is not merely Ronnie Biggs’ wife.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Who was Charmian Powell?
Charmian Powell (17 May 1939-11 December 2014) was an English woman who achieved notoriety as the first wife of Ronnie Biggs, who was found guilty for the 1963 Great Train Robbery. Born in Brackley, Northamptonshire in May 1939 she married Biggs in 1960, divorced him in 1976 and went on to lead a life independent of her now infamous former husband in Melbourne, Australia.
How did Charmian Powell meet Ronnie Biggs?
Charmian first met Ronnie Biggs on the morning commuter train travelling to London in 1957.Charmian was only 17 at the time while Ronnie Biggs was 27. Their meeting sounds a lot like something out of ‘Brief Encounter’, and the meeting which eventually lead to Charmian Powell and Ronnie Biggs’ wedding three years later in 1960.
Was Doom Charmian Powell aware that way the train robbery?
Charmian knew nothing at all about the train robbery. It was only when police came to their door after Biggs was implicated, that she knew of her husband’s connection. The shock was profound, but she decided to stick by her man.
What was Charmian Powell doing after the divorce from Ronnie Biggs?
After she divorced Ronnie Biggs, in 1976 Charmian decided to stay on Australia. There, she changed her surname into Brent, started a new life as a free woman raising her sons and sold her story to some newspapers as well as had an advisory role on an ITV drama entitled Mrs Biggs. Charmian Powell died in Melbourne on the 11th December, 2014.
How did Charmian Powell die?
Charmian Powell of Box Hill, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 11 th December, 2014 at 75 years of age. Death from natural causes, following a full and eventful life and Charmian will be recalled by her friends and family as an extraordinarily courageous and independent woman who bore her very individual circumstances with admirable strength.
