Ernest was a wages clerk at H. W. Nevill and Co., a bakery in Herne Hill, south London. On that Monday morning, he and two colleagues ‚Äî Leslie Powell and John Harris ‚Äî arrived by van at Barclays Bank on Half Moon Lane to make a cash and cheque deposit. The bag they were carrying contained just under ¬£4,000: roughly ¬£150,000 in today’s money.