Early Life and Background
Robert Evans was born in Carmarthen in 1816, the son of a prosperous Welsh lawyer.
He pursued medical studies and qualified as a medical doctor, although he never formally entered clinical practice.
Having inherited substantial family wealth, Evans possessed the financial independence to live comfortably as a gentleman of leisure.
In his later years, he adopted his mother’s maiden name, Anderson, though among prison officials and the press he remained widely known as “Evans the Hangman.”
Interest in Executions and Apprenticeship Under Calcraft
Like his mother before him, Evans harboured an intense personal fascination with capital punishment and judicial mechanics.
Determined to observe the process from the scaffold, he offered his services as an unpaid assistant to William Calcraft, Britain’s principal executioner of the era.
Evans reportedly handed his official assistant’s fees directly to Calcraft for the privilege of working beside him on the scaffold.
He assisted Calcraft on several high-profile commissions, including:
- The execution of Richard Spencer at Kirkdale Gaol, Liverpool, on 8 January 1873;
- The hanging of notorious serial poisoner Mary Ann Cotton at Durham Gaol on 24 March 1873;
- Calcraft’s final execution at Newgate Prison, that of wife-murderer John Godwin in 1874.
Evans’s personal philosophy regarding judicial hanging was articulated in a letter he addressed to the Home Secretary in September 1883, later published in The Times:
“So long as it is the law of the land that criminals shall suffer death, I submit that the dread punishment should be carried into effect by respectable and skilful hands and should not, as has been too frequently the case of late, be entrusted to any ignorant or brutish person whom the love of gain and notoriety prompts to apply for the performance of the office.”
Career as Principal Executioner
Following Calcraft’s retirement in 1874, Evans officiated as principal executioner on seven occasions in England between 1874 and 1875.
Although the Home Office ultimately selected Lincolnshire cobbler William Marwood to implement the scientific “long drop” system nationwide, Evans secured several provincial sheriffs’ warrants.
His first execution as Number One took place at Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool on 5 January 1874.
He hanged 23-year-old Thomas Corrigan, who had been convicted of the matricide of his mother, Mary Corrigan.
The execution was conducted smoothly, though under the short drop method favoured by Evans, Corrigan struggled for several moments after the trap fell.
The Gloucester Gaol Triple Hanging
On 12 January 1874, Evans carried out a notable triple hanging in the open yard of Gloucester Gaol.
The condemned prisoners were:
- Edwin Bailey (aged 31) and his common-law partner Mary Anne Barry (aged 31), convicted of the murder of Bailey’s illegitimate child;
- Edward Butt, convicted of shooting his girlfriend.
For this execution, Evans proposed an architectural modification: sinking the scaffold over a five-foot pit excavated in the prison airing yard so the platform sat flush with ground level, enclosed by a four-foot black calico screen.
At 8:00 a.m., following pinioning in their cells, the prisoners were escorted to the yard in a solemn procession led by the chaplain.
Butt and Bailey were dressed in dark suits, while Mary Anne Barry wore a long dress with lilac prints. She was supported to the scaffold by the matron, Miss Marshall, while Bailey walked alongside Governor Captain H. K. Wilson.
The three prisoners knelt on the trapdoor and recited the Lord’s Prayer.
Mary Anne was placed on the centre trap between the two men. After their legs were strapped and the white hoods and nooses were adjusted, the chaplain and Evans shook hands with each prisoner.
Evans pulled the lever, dropping the prisoners beneath the level of the calico screen.
While the two men died almost instantly, Mary Anne Barry, being of slight build, convulsed on the rope for three minutes. Evans had to descend below the beam and press down heavily on her shoulders to hasten death by strangulation.
Evans later revealed that on the scaffold, Mary Anne had whispered to him that she had previously dreamt of dying in precisely this manner.
She holds the historic distinction of being the last woman executed by the short drop in Great Britain, as well as the last woman executed at Gloucester Gaol.
Final Executions in England
Evans’s final English execution took place on 4 January 1875 at Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool, where he officiated at another triple hanging.
He executed two teenage members of Liverpool’s violent “Cornermen” street gang: 20-year-old John M’Crave and 17-year-old Michael Mullen, convicted of the street kicking murder of brothers Robert and Samuel Morgan.
Sharing the scaffold was William Worthington, convicted of the murder of his wife.
M’Crave, the gang’s ringleader, broke down in terror and was reduced to a weeping wreck on the scaffold, while young Mullen remained outwardly calm and indifferent.
Final Execution in Ireland and the Long Drop
Evans’s final recorded judicial hanging took place in Ireland on 18 December 1883 at Richmond Prison in Dublin.
He executed Joseph Poole, a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Fenians) convicted of the assassination of suspected police informer John Kenny.
By 1883, Evans had abandoned the traditional short drop in favour of William Marwood’s measured long drop calculations.
Poole’s neck was instantly dislocated by the drop, producing instantaneous death.
This execution made Evans one of the few Victorian hangmen to successfully transition from the primitive short-drop strangulation method of Calcraft’s era to the modern cervical fracture technique of the late 19th century.
Death, Burial, and Legacy
Robert Evans lived to the age of 85, dying on 26 August 1901.
Although he had personally expressed a philosophical preference for cremation, he was interred with a traditional church burial service at the request of his surviving daughter.
Evans represented an unusual figure in British penal history: a qualified medical doctor and wealthy gentleman who entered the execution trade purely out of personal choice and a belief that executions should be managed by educated men rather than rough tradesmen.
His career immediately preceded the professional era dominated by The Billingtons and William Marwood, whose standardized methods replaced the older ad-hoc appointments of the 19th century.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Robert Evans Anderson?
Robert Evans (later adopting the surname Anderson) was a Welsh doctor of independent wealth from Carmarthen who operated as an executioner in England and Ireland between 1873 and 1883, earning the moniker “The Gentleman Hangman.”
Why was Robert Evans known as the “Gentleman Hangman”?
Unlike working-class executioners of the era who were shoemakers, barbers, or labourers, Evans was the educated son of a wealthy lawyer, held medical qualifications, lived on an independent private income, and even gave away his assistant execution fees to William Calcraft.
What was notable about the 1874 Gloucester Gaol hanging?
On 12 January 1874, Evans conducted a triple hanging at Gloucester Gaol of Edwin Bailey, Mary Anne Barry, and Edward Butt over a sunken pit. Mary Anne Barry became the last woman executed by the short drop method in Great Britain, requiring Evans to pull on her shoulders to end her strangulation.
Did Robert Evans use the short drop or the long drop?
He began his career using William Calcraft’s short drop (which caused death by slow strangulation), but later adopted William Marwood’s measured “long drop” system, using it to cause instant cervical fracture at his final hanging in Dublin in 1883.
When and where was Robert Evans’s final execution?
His last recorded execution took place at Richmond Prison in Dublin, Ireland, on 18 December 1883, where he hanged Fenian activist Joseph Poole.
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