THE only Bristol man ever to be awarded the George Cross, Robert Taylor, was honoured posthumously after he was killed while attempting to thwart the escape of two Bristol bank robbers in 1950. 55 years later, he finally got a blue plaque in his honour at his old home. The 30-year-old former Evening World journalist, a well-known athlete and ju-jitsu expert, was shot in the face as he tried to rugby tackle one of the thieves as they ran away from Lloyds Bank in North View, Westbury Park. He died later in the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Ironically, Bob had been in the Territorial Army and had been one of the first men to be called up at the start of the war. He had then survived five years fighting, including the bloody campaign at Monte Cassino in Italy. Other bystanders who helped in the chase across the Downs after the armed bank robbers - 23-year-old Polish labourers Zbigmiew Gower and Roman Redel, who lived in lodgings in City road, St Paul's - were Robert Cutler, who received the British Empire Medal, and Peter Scarman, who received the George Medal. The two robbers, who later admitted that they had drunk half a bottle of gin and two bottles of beer each before setting out, were later stopped by mobile police patrols at Cossins Road, Redland, and taken into custody. They had originally intended to take a motorcycle to the bank, they said later, but had decided on the bus because they were so drunk. They had tried to escape by the same means 'because it was the first thing they saw'. The couple decided to plead not guilty to the murder charge but the judge, Mr Justice Oliver, said in his summing up to the jury: 'No argument in the world can dispose of the fact that a young man, doing nothing but his duty as a citizen, is by reason of so doing, shot down.' Redel's only defence was that his pistol had gone off by accident. They were tried together at Wiltshire Assize and, despite an appeal for mercy by the jury in the case of Gower, hanged at Winchester prison four months later, the first double execution there for many years. When it was decided to place a plaque on the family home in Fishponds where Robert had lived with his parents and brother and sister organisers didn't know if he had any surviving relatives. But then his 77-year-old sister Muriel Leonard, who lives in Berkeley, heard about the ceremony and got in touch. She said that Bob, who was seven years, younger than her, and brother Michael, who was eight years older, all grew up in Fishponds with their parents. She said that her brother's death had had a devastating effect on them. Her father had received the medal from King George a year after the incident but she added sadly: 'Dad died only four years later - it was from cancer but he was never the same after it happened.' The Fishponds unveiling was arranged by retired clergyman Rev Jack House, who had seen the medal in an Imperial War Museum exhibition and thought that Robert deserved some sort of honour in his home city. He then got in touch with the organiser of the blue plaques scheme, Councillor Chris Orlik. Peter Scarman, now aged 82 and from Keynsham, said he was very pleased that Robert Taylor's heroism had finally been marked in this way. Also a Second World War veteran, he was near the White Tree on March 13,1950, when he heard a commotion. The raiders had jumped on a bus and then off again as they made their escape. He said:''I was caught up in the chase for about an hour and a half, and we were running for most of that. I was standing on the same side of the road as the bank and Mr Taylor came across and grabbed hold of one of the robbers the one with the gun and twisted his arm behind his back. The gun went off straight into Mr Taylor's face. It was quite shocking.' Bristol Hero gets Blue Plaque