Robert Leslie Stewart (April 1918 – 30 April 1988), from

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, was one of the last

executioner An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who executes a sentence of capital punishment on a legally condemned person. Scope and job The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorising or order ...

s in the United Kingdom, officiating between 1950 and 1964. Brought up in Dundee Street in Edinburgh, 3 miles from Saughton Prison, Stewart completed the Prison Commissioners' Assistant Executioner training course in September 1950 at

Pentonville Prison HM Prison Pentonville (informally "The Ville") is an English Category B men's prison, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Pentonville Prison is not in Pentonville, but is located further north, on the Caledonian Road in the Barnsbury ar ...

in London. His name first appeared on the Home Office list in 1950, with his first engagement occurring at

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on 19 July 1951, assisting Stephen Wade at the execution of Alfred Reynolds. Stewart was active on the Home Office list between 1950 and the suspension of capital punishment for murder in 1965, carrying out 21 executions as assistant. On the 1957 printing of the list, Stewart and Harry Allen were both promoted to the role of executioner in the wake of the resignation of

Albert Pierrepoint Albert Pierrepoint (; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry and uncle Thomas were official hangmen before him. Pierrepoin ...

and the death of Wade, both in 1956. In this capacity, Stewart carried out six executions. He also assisted Harry Allen at the execution of Anthony Miller, the last teenager to be executed in the United Kingdom. Stewart performed one of the last executions in the United Kingdom at 8 am on 13 August 1964, when he hanged Peter Anthony Allen at Walton Prison. Allen had been convicted of the murder of

John Alan West John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

; Allen's accomplice,

Gwynne Owen Evans The murder of John Alan West on 7 April 1964 was the crime which led to the last death sentences being carried out in the United Kingdom. West, a 53-year-old van driver for a laundry company, was beaten and stabbed to death by Gwynne Evans and P ...

, was hanged at

Strangeways Prison HM Prison Manchester is a Category A and B men's prison in Manchester, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It is still commonly referred to as Strangeways, which was its former official name derived from the area in which it is l ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, at the same time by Harry Allen. Stewart also carried out the last execution in Wales, that of

Vivian Teed Vivian Frederick Teed (1934 - 6 May 1958) was the last person to be hanged in Wales. He was charged with the murder of 73-year-old William Williams on 15 November 1957. The case was controversial at the time due to Teed's claims of mental illness ...

at Swansea Prison in May 1958, for the murder of a postmaster during a robbery in Swansea. Stewart died in South Africa in 1988 at the age of 70. He had emigrated there after the abolition of capital punishment to work as an airline engineer.

Executions performed by Stewart as chief executioner

* 6 May 1958 –

( HMP Swansea) * 17 December 1958 – Brian Chandler ( HMP Durham) * 14 May 1959 – Michael George Tatum ( HMP Winchester) * 10 November 1960 – Norman Harris ( HMP Pentonville, London) * 17 December 1963 - Dennis Whitty ( HMP Winchester) * 13 August 1964 – Peter Anthony Allen ( HMP Liverpool)

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * 1918 births 1988 deaths Scottish executioners People from Edinburgh Scottish emigrants to South Africa {{Scotland-bio-stub