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Late
19th century developments. |
Under the Prison Act of 1877, the Home Office took control of county prisons that had previously been under the control of county councils and county sheriffs. This led to the setting up of the Prison Commission in that year.
The late 19th century saw very significant
changes to the way executions were carried out as the Home Office regulated the
carrying out of executions and the equipment to be used for them.
The Aberdare Committee’s report published
in 1888 recommended a number of improvements.
This led to a Home Office list of persons competent to
carry out executions and also proper training at Newgate prison for hangmen and
assistants. The first was issued in 1891 and the
second in 1899.
Also in 1891 the first Memorandum
of Instructions was published. This was a proper written protocol
detailing how hangings were to be performed, rather than the sheriffs, hangmen
and prison officials deciding for themselves how to carry out an execution.
The LPC4 form (London
Prison Commission form 4) came into being in 1892. The earliest one I
have is for John
Banbury at Wandsworth in 1892. The left hand page was completed by the
prison doctor with details of the prisoner and the right hand page completed by
the governor detailing the performance of the hangman and assistant(s). Any adverse comment on the performance of the
hangman was likely to lead to removal from the list.
In 1892 the first drop
table was issued by the Prison Commission causing a striking a
force of 840 ft. lbs. being developed.
In 1885, the Prison
Commission of the Home Office commissioned Major Alten Beamish of the Royal
Engineers to design a standard gallows for use
throughout the country. This consisted of two uprights with a cross beam in 8
inch square section oak. As a result of the recommendations of the Aberdare
Committee, the single beam was replaced by two beams of 8 inch x 3 inch section
oak, running parallel to each other about two inches apart. Straddling the
centre of the beams, was a cast iron bracket drilled with holes offset at half
inch centres through which a metal pin was inserted and to which a length of
chain was attached. This allowed very much more accurate adjustment of the
drop. This mechanism was further refined to allow the drop to be set to within
a quarter of an inch. The beams were 11 feet above the trapdoors and were
generally set into the wall at each end, there being no uprights. It is thought that the first gallows
incorporating the dual beams and all the other improvements was installed at Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool during the latter part of 1890
and used for the execution of Thomas Macdonald there on the 30th of December of
that year.
After the failure of a rope supplied by the hangman, Thomas
Askern, at the execution of John Henry Johnson, on 3rd of April 1877 in Leeds,
a contract was entered into with John Edgington & Co of the Old Kent Road
in London in 1878 to manufacture and supply the ropes. These became known as
“Government ropes” and were formed from a 12’ 6” (3.8m) length of 3/4"
diameter four strand white Italian hemp. “The Government Rope” was a big improvement, as previously hangmen made
and brought their own ropes.
