A talented journalist who broke the story of the Great Train Robbery after turning his back on education aged 14 has died aged 96.

Percy Trumble, who lived in Cedar Close, Epsom, for the past 30 years, passed away on October 17.

Born in London, he grew up in Dulwich, Kennington and Morden and was an only child.

A gifted student, he passed his 11-Plus exam but refused to go to a grammar school or to university.

His son, David Trumble, 68, a retired newspaper photographer, said: "He left school aged 14 with extremely good reports.

"But his university was the university of life."

After leaving school, he went to work at the Associated Newspapers which produced the now defunct Evening News and the Daily Mail newspaper.

His son said he had always wanted to be a journalist.

"He took the view very early on at school that the university of life was out there and to him it was in Fleet Street," David Trumble said.

"He started at 14 as a copy boy which was taking copy on paper to the different desks and down to the printers.

"He then started as a junior reporter and got his shorthand and typing.

"Then he was called up for military service and because he typed and had shorthand he was straight into the Royal Signals."

On his first period of leave, in 1940, he married Margaret, known as Peggy, giving her the reason that "if I don’t come back you will get a widow’s pension".

He spent most of the war in the Middle East and Italy and returned to work at the Evening News after it ended.

David Trumble said: "Over the years he became a picture editor and then the news editor and this was when the Evening News was selling over one million copies a night."

One of the big stories which Mr Trumble covered was the Great Train Robbery of 1963.

His son said: "I remember it. We would have the phone go off at any time in the night as dad was the news editor.

"This night it went again and again.

"I woke up at the time and dad briefly said he had had a tip-off.

"He had a lot of contacts in all sorts of places.

"The Evening News came out with the story in the first edition. They broke the story."

David Trumble said his father could "smell a story before it even happened".

He added: "When he came out of the forces after the war one of his jobs was going around the higher classes’ establishments where celebrities used to go such as Princess Margaret.

"He was reported as knowing the streets of London better than its taxi drivers."

Mr Trumble’s wife Peggy died when she was 60. When he retired at the same age, the journalist moved to Epsom with his second wife Maureen.

His main hobbies were bowls, driving and travelling and his son said he even did some work for the Epsom and Wimbledon Guardians.

Asked what he has learnt from his father, David Trumble said: "Treat people as you like to be treated. Politeness doesn’t cost anything. Be kind and fair.

"He liked a laugh and a joke. He would come up with good tricks on his friends. He used to have a glint in his eye then.

"He was a very considerate and caring man.

"Some people might find that surprising because of the perception of journalists.

"But he still had sympathy for people who got caught up in something that wasn’t really their fault.

"He’s a person who will be missed by a number of people."

Mr Trumble was also father to Susan Pepper and Stephen Trumble.

He leaves behind his wife Maureen Trumble, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

His funeral was held on November 5 at Randalls Parks crematorium in Leatherhead.

An extract mentioning Percy Trumble in the book 'Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits from Propaganda' by Roy Greenslade:

"Trumble was also lauded: 'he knows London better than a cabbie and can smell a story before it's happened'.  

"It was Trumble who was woken at 5am on the fateful morning of 8 August 1963 when a contact called with a tip-off about the story that would be known ever afterwards as the Great Train Robbery.

"His call was from an 'earwigger', slang for the men who made their living by listening in to police radio calls.

"There were few details but Trumble, living up to Fairey's praise, had a hunch it was big.  

"Even so, after dispatching two of his best reporters to Buckinghamshire, he couldn't believe that the haul was really £2million.  

"His swift action, backed by Willis, who gave the story increasing coverage over seven editions, routed the Standard.  

"'It was the greatest moment of my working life,' Trumble recalled, 'and a total triumph for the Evening News'."