Capital Punishment in the UK

Barnacle Bill made this Freedom of Information request to National Archives

National Archives did not have the information requested.

From: Barnacle Bill

19 January 2009

Dear Sirs,

Under the Freedom of Information Laws could you please provide the
following information:-

1. How many people have been hung in the UK in the period 1900 till
the end of the Death Sentence?

2. Please indicate the following:-
a. Name of Prisoner
b. Crime Sentenced for
c. Place of execution.

3. Could you also name all prisions executed by the BRitish for War
Crime after WWII indicate name, crime, place and method of
execution.

Many Thanks

Barnacle Bill

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From: foi centre
National Archives

28 January 2009

Dear Barnacle Bill

Thank you for contacting The National Archives about capital
punishment in the UK and war crimes.

There may be records at The National Archives of interest to you.
However, we do not have the resources to undertake general
historical research. Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information
Act, we do not have to deal with requests for information if the
work involved would cost more than a set limit. The current limit
is £600, which represents about three-and-a-half days’ work.
Unfortunately, answering your request would take more than this
amount of work.

You may need to try the vast information resources available
through your local library, where a librarian may well be able to
suggest relevant published sources. There is also an excellent
website at www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/contents.html that will
provide most of the information you are seeking. For information
concerning records held by The National Archives relating to War
Crimes, please visit our website at
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/rd....

Alternatively, you or someone acting on your behalf, are welcome to
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Stephen Gradwick left an annotation (29 January 2009)

Hello,

If it helps with your research, there were 865 judicial executions carried out in the UK from 1900 until capital punishment was abolished. 849 men and 16 women lost their lives on the gallows in the twentieth century.

The first was Louisa Josephine Jemima Masset who was hanged on the 9th January 1900 for the murder of her three year old son, Manfred.

There wasn't a single 'last' execution, rather there were two carried out in different prisons at the same time.

Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans (whose real name was John Robson Welby) were both executed on the 13th August 1964 for the murder of John West. Allen was executed at Liverpool and Evans at Manchester.

Other people were sentenced to death, but all were reprieved. The last death sentence imposed in England was on 1st November 1965 when David Chapman was sentenced to death for the murder of Alfred Harland in Scarborough.

Although, on 10th July 1992, Anthony Teare was sentenced to death for the murder of Corrine Bentley on the Isle of Man!

Capital punishment was suspended, initially for five years on the 9th November 1965 and was finally abolished on the 16th December 1969.

Of those executions carried out, 830 were for murder, 25 for espionage, six (all US servicemen) were for rape and 4 were for treason.

With regard to the execution of those convicted of war crimes, I don’t have an exact figure of how many there were, but there were several hundred. All of those executed by the British were hanged using the long-drop method which results in a fracture dislocation of the 2nd/3rd Cervical Vertebrae. The US who also carried out military executions use a standard five-foot drop which, well, doesn’t. Those sentenced to death by what was the USSR, were shot.

I hope this helps!

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