Help! cried the panic-stricken girl cashier when she was checking the days takings at Londons Kilburn railway station just after midnight on DECEMBER 12th, 1942. The reason for her distress was the two armed men who had just broken into the station offices and were now ordering her to hand over the money.
When he heard the girls cry for help George Gardiner, 42, the station manager, went to her aid. As he opened the door of the office one of the robbers fired three times, hitting him in the head, mouth and chest. As he fell dying on the office floor the men fled empty-handed.
It was the eighth armed robbery in London that week, which made the going hard for a depleted wartime police force. Huge resources were poured into investigating the Kilburn station murder, but to this date it remains unsolved.