George and Andrew Wadman

A Brief History 31/3/02

George and Andrew Wadman are identical twins, born in Guy's hospital, Bermondsey in 1970.

George was born 10 minutes before Andrew, and although they are both in their 30's, George still carries out his responsibility as the elder brother. He is the dominant twin and relishes in his role as protector of his younger brother, even though Andrew needs no protecting.

The twins started boxing at the tender age of 10 and quickly became dedicated prospects. They both represented London boxing for the famous 'Fisher' club in Bermondsey South London.

Being twins they were always compared with Ronnie and Reggie Kray and some of the similarities between them were uncanny! They boxed at the same weight, had the same weight difference and even boxed on the same venues.

And these similarities continued into adulthood ending up the same height and weights as the Krays.

All this was not intentional just amazingly coincidental!

It was while they were boxing that they first came to the attention of Reg Kray.

Reg was corresponding with a young boxer at their gym, named Dave Walker, who is now Southern Area welterweight champion. Dave told Reg about the twins and he asked if they could contact him. And as they say "The rest is History".

George and Andrew Wadman were to become the closest people to Reg and were considered absolute confidantes. And Reg often speaks of his strong affinity to both twins in his letters to them.

Apart from all that, the Wadman twins had their own agenda and were busy building their own business interests.

They were based in the East End and soon became prosperous with the help of new found friends such as Lenny McLean and Charlie Kray.

By the age of 23 they owned or part owned offices, shops and a bar, now infamously known as The Guvnor's Bar. The twins were and are friends to some of London's most infamous people such as Lenny McLean, who the bar was named after, Tony Lambrianou, Joey Pyle, Freddie Foreman and Dave Courtney.

Through all of this, most people apart from those very close, knew of their association with the Krays and they were very keen to keep it that way. They knew that their peers would consider them a couple of wide boys revelling in the "glory of the Krays".

Anyone who knew them would confirm this not to be true and hail them as "proper people".

Even though the twins tried to keep a low profile as far as their Kray connections were concerned, the death of Ronnie Kray blew it wide open. They were now so close to Reg that he asked them if they would help organise Ronnie's funeral. An offer they gladly accepted. But at the same time didn't want the publicity that it would entail.

They soon became targets for the press and were splashed over television channels newspapers and radio stations.

But the media quickly learned that the Wadmans were not just a couple of mugs revelling in the limelight, on the contrary they did their utmost to avaid it.

The press reported daily on the Wadmans, from when Ronnie died through to the days following in the funeral.

And in that time they had some interesting things said about them.

They were reported as 'proper people' in the tabloids and reporters such as Duncan Cambell at the Guardian included them in the top 10 most influential people at the funeral under the heading 'The Gang's all here'. Others called them 'powerful' and 'important'.

Unfortunately for the twins the press coverage made them hot property and they decided to call it all a day and sensibly took a different path in life to the one they were one. And that is one of the reasons why their correspondence with the Krays has now come to auction.

In exercising their ghosts they are also giving every Kray fan an opportunity to obtain some very important gangland memorabilia. Items from the Wadman twins, George and Andrew will appear in our memorabilia section over the coming weeks so take the time to check it out .