The last executions in Britain took place on 13 August 1964, when Peter Anthony Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans were hanged simultaneously at 8am. Allen was executed at Walton Prison in Liverpool and Evans at Strangeways Prison in Manchester. Both men had been convicted of the murder of John Alan West. They were the last people to be executed in Britain before the death penalty for murder was abolished in Great Britain the following year.
Who Were Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans?
Gwynne Owen Evans was a short, wiry young man who was known as “Ginger” and also as “Sandy” on account of his hair colour. His real name was John Robson Walby.
Peter Anthony Allen was 6ft 2in tall and well built. He was married to 21-year-old Mary and they had two children. The couple lived at 2 Clarendon Street in Preston, Lancashire, and Evans lodged with them.
Both men were known to the police as petty criminals. It is probable that Evans was also in a relationship with Mary.
Allen was in need of money to pay the rates on Clarendon Street and also to pay a fine. Evans had once worked with 53-year-old John Alan West, known as Jack, at the Lakeland Laundry. Allen and Evans decided to visit West and borrow some money.
The Murder of John Alan West
On the evening of Monday 6 April 1964, Allen and Evans stole a Ford Prefect car, registration NXC 771, from outside a pub in Preston to drive to Cumbria. The car’s owner, James Cook, reported it stolen.
Mary Allen and her two children went with them but stayed asleep in the car during the visit.
They arrived in Seaton at around 1.10am on Tuesday 7 April and Evans knocked on West’s door while the others waited in the car. He was welcomed inside and was even offered refreshments.
Evans later claimed that West, who was a bachelor, was homosexual and invited him to have sex with him. Evans told police:
“And I said ‘No’. I was going to ask him for £100 and told him I had a friend in the car outside.”
Evans also claimed that West summoned him into his bedroom in order to retrieve something from a cupboard. Evans left his raincoat in West’s bedroom.
At around 3am, West’s neighbours, Mr and Mrs Joseph Fawcett, were woken by a commotion and thuds coming from the other half of the house. Mr Fawcett looked out of his bedroom window in time to see a car driving away.
He went next door to investigate but could get no reply, so he crossed the road to a neighbour who had a telephone and summoned the police.
Sergeant James Park and Constable John Rodgers responded to the 999 call. Park later recorded:
“I saw the body of a man lying on the floor at the foot of the stairs. There was a large amount of blood on the floor, and the man was obviously dead.”
West had been battered about the head with a metal pipe and stabbed through the heart.
Dr J. S. Faulds, the Carlisle pathologist who examined West’s body, found thirteen individual injuries, including serious head wounds. There were six grazes to the face and upper body and six bruises elsewhere. The brain had suffered contusions.
There was also a stab wound on the left side of the chest which had pierced the left ventricle of his heart.
Dr Faulds concluded:
“In my opinion death resulted from haemorrhage and shock, caused by a stab wound to the heart and multiple head injuries.”
How Allen and Evans Were Caught
Police quickly discovered the raincoat and realised that it would not have fitted West.
Searching its pockets, they found a medallion inscribed “G. O. Evans, July 1961”. They also found a piece of paper bearing the name Nora O’Brien and an address in Liverpool.
When police interviewed 17-year-old Nora, she identified the medallion and gave them Evans’s full name and address. She had met him in Preston when she stayed with her sister the previous year and knew him as “Ginger”.
Allen and Evans had also stolen West’s bank books, from which they withdrew just £10 in Liverpool. They then made their way back to Preston, after which Evans and Mary travelled to Manchester.
The stolen car was found in Ormskirk. When it was dusted for fingerprints, prints belonging to both Allen and Evans were discovered.
The knife was found in Windermere and bore bloodstains of blood group A, the same blood group as West. Both Allen and Evans were blood group O.
By Wednesday 8 April, both men were in custody.
Evans was arrested in Manchester in the company of Mary. When searched, he was found to be carrying a watch engraved “J. A. West”. It had been presented to West as a 25-year service award by the laundry. Evans claimed to have bought it earlier that day.
Allen was arrested in Preston and taken to Workington for interrogation.
Evans gave a statement in which he admitted going to West’s home to borrow money. He denied hitting West and blamed Allen for the attack.
At 1.15am on Thursday morning, both men were charged with murder. Mary Allen was not charged.
The Trial and Death Sentences
Allen and Evans were tried at Manchester from 1 to 7 July 1964 before Mr Justice Ashworth.
The prosecution was led by Joseph D. Cantley QC, assisted by J. Bamber. The defence team comprised S. G. Nance, J. Naylor, G. W. Guthrie Jones and Morris Jones.
Both defendants testified and each blamed the other for the violence.
Mr Justice Ashworth made it clear to the jury that they were not obliged to reach the same verdict on each accused if they did not believe that both men had been involved in the killing.
On 7 July, after deliberating for three-and-a-quarter hours, a jury of nine men and three women unanimously found both men guilty of the capital murder of John West during the course of robbing him in his home.
Mr Justice Ashworth sentenced them:
“to suffer death in the manner prescribed by law”.
Their appeals were dismissed two weeks later.
In dismissing the appeal, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Parker, commented:
“A more brutal murder it would be hard to imagine.”
Neither man would admit to striking the fatal knife blow.
Under the legal principle of common purpose, however, it did not matter. Both could be held equally guilty if they had jointly intended to rob West and to kill or seriously injure him.
Murder committed in the course of robbery was a capital offence under the Homicide Act 1957.
The Last Executions in Britain
At 8am on Thursday 13 August 1964, Peter Allen was hanged at Walton Prison in Liverpool by Robert Leslie Stewart, assisted by Harry Robinson.
At exactly the same time, Gwynne Evans was hanged at Strangeways Prison in Manchester by Harry Allen, assisted by Royston Rickard.
The simultaneous executions made Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans the final people to be executed in Britain.
Allen had reportedly injured himself during a final visit by his wife the previous afternoon by throwing himself against the protective glass separating them. He is said to have cried “Jesus!” when he saw the noose hanging above the trapdoors.
Around 40 anti-death-penalty demonstrators gathered outside Walton Prison, although there were none outside Strangeways.
At the time, there was little indication that these executions would prove to be Britain’s last. They attracted relatively little press interest, being regarded as the executions of two young men convicted of a violent robbery murder.
What Happened After Britain’s Last Hangings?
No further executions took place in Britain after Allen and Evans were hanged on 13 August 1964.
A further 17 men were sentenced to death after their executions, but none was executed. The last was 23-year-old David Stephen Chapman, sentenced to death on 1 November 1965 for a murder committed during the course of a robbery.
Allen and Evans therefore proved to be the final people executed in Britain. However, the legal abolition of capital punishment took place in stages over the following decades.
When Was the Death Penalty Abolished in Britain?
The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 received Royal Assent on 8 November 1965 and came into force the following day. It ended the death penalty for murder in Great Britain initially on a temporary basis.
The Act provided that no person should suffer death for murder and that anyone already under sentence of death for murder when it came into force would instead receive a sentence of life imprisonment.
In December 1969, Parliament voted to prevent the Act from expiring, making the abolition of the death penalty for murder permanent.
The important dates are therefore:
- 13 August 1964 — Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans became the last people executed in Britain.
- 8 November 1965 — the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act received Royal Assent.
- 9 November 1965 — the Act came into force, ending the death penalty for murder in Great Britain.
- December 1969 — Parliament voted to make the abolition of the death penalty for murder permanent.
- 1998 — capital punishment for the remaining offences for which it was still available was abolished in the UK.
Britain’s Last Executions: Key Facts
Who was the last person hanged in Britain?
There was not a single last person. Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans were hanged simultaneously at 8am on 13 August 1964, making them jointly the last people executed in Britain.
Where did the last executions in Britain take place?
Peter Allen was executed at Walton Prison in Liverpool and Gwynne Evans at Strangeways Prison in Manchester.
Why were Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans executed?
They were convicted of the capital murder of John Alan West during a robbery at his home.
When did Britain stop carrying out executions?
Britain’s final executions took place on 13 August 1964. No further death sentences were carried out.
When was the death penalty for murder abolished in Britain?
The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 came into force on 9 November 1965, ending the death penalty for murder in Great Britain. Parliament made the change permanent in December 1969.
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