The death penalty seems like an unimaginable punishment to be carried out in the UK, but did you know it only became illegal in the UK in 1965, with the last person executed in 1964.
Crimes that carried the punishment of death included, murder, rape and robbery.
The website British Executions, have compiled a full list of Britain’s executions between 1100 and 1964, including six which were either committed in, or the criminal was from Swindon.
Many of the earlier executions were public, particularly in the early 19th century, and often attracting an audience sometimes in the thousands. There are no records that show any execution being carried out in Swindon itself.
Here is a breakdown of the Swindon connections to the death penalty and the crime that were committed.
Edward Richard Palmer, 24, was sentenced to death by hanging in Devizes on 17th November 1903 after being found guilty of murder for shooting his girlfriend, Esther Swinford, at the Ship Hotel where she working on Friday 18th September 1903.
Walter James White, 22, murdered his girlfriend Frances Priscilla Hunter 24 whose throat he cut at the Goddard Arms Hotel, Swindon on 29th April 1914. He was hung to death in Winchester on 16th June 1914.
William Bignell, 32, murdered his girlfriend Margaret Legg 37 whose throat he cut in a field near Tetbury, Long Newnton on 25th October 1924. Bignell was then hung in Shepton Mallet on 24th February 1925.
Ralph Smith, 40, was hung in Gloucester on 7th June 1939 after he murdered his ex-girlfriend Beatrice Delia Baxter 53 by cutting her throat in the back of Argyle Street on 4th March 1939.
Harold Smith murdered Harry Jenkins at Chisledon Camp, Swindon, Wiltshire on 9th January 1943 and was hung in Shepton Mallet on 25th June 1943.
The last execution with a Swindon connection was on 20th October 1953 in Bristol. John Owen Greenway, 27, was hung for the murder of Beatrice Ann Court, 68, who he battered to death at 22 College Street, Swindon on 2nd June 1953.
