Syd Dernley

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Syd Dernley (born December 29, 1920 - November 1, 1994 ) was a British executioner from 1949 to 1954.

Life

Dernley was a welder by profession and applied to the Prison Commission for a place on the list of British executioners . He was accepted after training in London's Pentonville Prison in 1949 and assisted in around 20 executions . In the majority of cases he was assistant to Albert Pierrepoint .

In 1951, Albert Pierrepoint set a record with him when both of them carried James Inglis from life to death in just seven seconds.

In 1954 there were suddenly no invitations to executions; Dernley had been removed from the list for reasons not yet clear. Albert Pierrepoint may have been the catalyst for this. Around the same time that Dernley was removed from the list, Pierrepoint reports an execution in which an assistant was removing a hanged man and making inappropriate comments about the dead man's genitals. Pierrepoint on this in his memoir: "I immediately made sure that he never got a job ...!"

Dernley himself describes in his memoir an incident in which he made such a remark, but suggests that he does not consider Pierrepoint, but rather an unnamed other person present to be the "informer", and also points out that he did so afterwards had received requests for "jobs" that were simply not taken up because of the pardon of these death row inmates.

According to another statement, Dernley was sentenced to six months in prison for "disseminating pornographic material" and therefore lost his place on the list.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Dernley, Syd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British executioner (1949–1954)
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1920
DATE OF DEATH November 1, 1994