Brian Arthur Field (15 December 1934 – 27 April 1979) was an English solicitor's clerk who was one of the masterminds of the 1963 Great Train Robbery. He was the crucial link between the key informant known only as "Ulsterman" (who came up with the idea of robbing the money-laden night mail train and also provided the details of the schedule and contents of the trains) with the actual gang capable of planning and carrying out such a complex and large scale robbery. He was found guilty of conspiracy to rob, but his conviction was later overturned on appeal. Field only served prison sentence for perverting the course of justice, in relation to arranging the purchase of Leatherslade Farm, near Oakley, Buckinghamshire, which was used as the gang's hideout. Early life Field was born on 15 December 1934 at Windsor and was immediately put up for adoption. Service in Korean War He served two years in the Royal Army Service Corps, seeing service in Korea. When discharged from the military it was with 'a very good character'. The Korean War lasted from 25 June 1950 until an Armistice was signed on 27 July 1953, with 63,000 British troops involved (part of over 1 million troops on the South Korean side). Field would have been 18 when the war was over. While the Service Corps were considered combat personnel, they were primarily associated with transport and logistics. Later in life, while working with the Children's Book Centre, he would animatedly tell fellow Book Centre employee Tony Saez about living through the chaotic experience of being shelled during the war. Early career and personal success Brian Field quickly became successful in both his personal and professional lives, he married a pretty German girl named Karin and rose to be a solicitor's managing clerk for John Wheater & Co. Despite the fact that he was only 28 at the time of the robbery, he was already much more successful than his boss, John Wheater. Field drove a new Jaguar and had a house he called "Kabri" (an amalgam of Karin and Brian) with his wife at the Bridle Path, Whitchurch Hill, Oxfordshire, near Pangbourne, while his boss owned a battered Ford and lived in a rundown neighbourhood. Part of the reason for this is that Field was not averse to giving some of his less savoury clients good information on what some of