List of British executioners

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The list of British executioners ("the list" for short) was the register of authorized executioners in the history of justice in Great Britain . Officially it was called “List of persons, competent to carry out the duties” (list of persons who are called or qualified to fulfill the duty). The list was kept by the Prison Commission and listed all those men who could be invited by the local prison authorities to carry out final death sentences . There was always a maximum of secrecy around the list itself, which led to the creation of myths and legends.

The "list" was introduced after the last civil servant executioner in Great Britain, William Calcraft , had retired in 1874. He was the last employed executioner with a fixed salary of one guinea per week. After him, the British Empire relied on part-time executioners who, in order to be able to work, had to be on the "list". The authorities were economical in payment: the fee for an execution set in 1874 was never increased until 1964.

Prerequisites for acceptance into the circle of licensed executioners were an interview (clarification of motivation), a medical examination (physical fitness) and successful participation in an introductory training which took place in a prison equipped for executions (usually Pentonville Prison in London) and lasted a week.

Applicants were required not only to be mentally and physically suitable for this unusual job, but also to be able to maintain complete secrecy and respectability. They were forbidden to talk about their task or reveal details of individual executions. After a few incidents, they were also banned from actively applying for executions with the competent prison authorities ( Thomas Pierrepoint and his colleague Robert Baxter had competed in a race for executions during the Depression of the 1920s by serving the prison authorities offered once a death sentence was pronounced) or over-indulging in alcohol (which removed Henry Pierrepoint from the list).

The relationship between the Prison Commission and the executioners was very distant; the correspondence was short and impersonal, individual requests were not taken into account (the non-acceptance of an execution could be enough to be removed from the list) and if a man was removed from the list, he (as for example Syd Dernley ) not even informed of the reason or fact itself. There were simply no more invitations to carry out executions. This approach can be compared with the medieval exclusion of the executioners. Back then, too, as far as possible, any social or professional contact with the executioner or his family was avoided .

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