The Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs has died at the age of 84.

British man Biggs was part of an 11-man gang that attacked a mail train in 1963 and stole £2.6 million, the equivalent of more than £40m today.

He had been unwell for years.

He escaped from jail in 1965 and spent 36 years as a fugitive abroad, before voluntarily returning to the UK in 2001.

His biographer Anthony Delano is amazed he was on the run for so long:

He was last seen in public in March at the funeral of Bruce Reynolds, who masterminded the audacious robbery.

The gang pounced shortly after 3am on August 8, 1963 as the train passed through the Buckinghamshire countryside close to Cheddington.

The train driver, Jack Mills, was struck with an iron bar and never worked again.

Biggs was jailed for his part in the robbery itself but for escaped from jail after serving just 15 months of a 30-year sentence.

He avoided British justice for almost 40 years, mainly living in Brazil and Australia.

He finally returned to England in 2001 as his health failed, and served eight years of his original sentence before being released on compassionate grounds in 2009.

Biggs lived his final years in a care home, completely reliant on nursing staff.

In his 2011 biography, 'Odd Man Out: The Last Straw', Biggs said he believed the public saw him as a "loveable rogue".

Asked whether he was remorseful, he firstly replied "No", then qualified it by saying he regrets the robbery but not fleeing justice.

After suffering a series of strokes, Biggs used a homemade letters board to communicate and effectively dictated his book to a ghostwriter.