Thomas William Pierrepoint (6 October 1870 – 11 February 1954) was an English executioner from 1906 until 1946. He was the brother of

Henry Pierrepoint Henry Albert Pierrepoint (30 November 1877 – 14 December 1922) was an English executioner from 1901 until 1910. He was the father of Albert Pierrepoint and brother of Thomas William Pierrepoint.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. Pierrepoint ...

Personal life

Pierrepoint was born in

Sutton Bonington Sutton Bonington () is a village and civil parish lying along the valley of the River Soar in the Borough of Rushcliffe, south-west Nottinghamshire, England. The University of Nottingham has a site just to the north of the village: Sutton Boni ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, in 1870, the second child and eldest son of Thomas Pierrepoint, a plate layer on the railway, and Ann Pierrepoint, formerly Marriott. The Pierrepoint family were still living in Sutton Bonington at the time of the 1881 census, 1881 census: Sutton Bonington; RG11; Piece 3149; Folio 26; Page 3. but by the 1891 census they had moved to Clayton, near

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, where Thomas and his father were employed as stone quarrymen. He was married to Elizabeth Binns on 5 December 1891. By 1914, Pierrepoint had taken on a number of "sidelines", including a carrier service founded by his brother, a small farm, and an illegal bookmaking business.

Career

Thomas Pierrepoint began working as a hangman in 1906 under the influence of his brother,

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

. His career spanned 39 years, and ended in 1946, by which time he was in his mid-seventies. During this time, he is thought to have carried out 294 hangings, 203 of which were civilians executed in England and Wales; the remainder were executions carried out abroad or upon military personnel. Among those he executed was the poisoner

Frederick Seddon Frederick Henry Seddon (sometimes spelled Sedden) (21 January 1872 – 18 April 1912) was a British murderer hanging, hanged in 1912 for the arsenic poisoning murder of his lodger Eliza Mary Barrow. Background Frederick Seddon was born in Liverp ...

in 1912. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he was appointed as executioner by the US Military and was responsible for 13 out of 16 hangings of US soldiers at the

Shepton Mallet Shepton Mallet is a market town and civil parish in the Mendip District of Somerset, England, some south-west of Bath, south of Bristol and east of Wells. It had an estimated population of 10,810 in 2019. Mendip District Council is based t ...

military prison in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. In this capacity, Pierrepoint carried out executions not only for murder but also rape which, at the time, was a capital crime under

US military law The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. §§ 801–946 is the foundation of military law in the United States. It was established by the United States Congress in accordance with the authority given by the United States Constitution ...

although not in

British law The United Kingdom has four legal systems, each of which derives from a particular geographical area for a variety of historical reasons: English and Welsh law, Scots law, Northern Ireland law, and, since 2007, purely Welsh law (as a result of ...

. In six of these cases he was assisted by his nephew Albert – who was principal hangman for the remaining three executions. In 1940, his medical fitness for the job was questioned by a medical officer who called him "unsecure" and doubted "whether his sight was good". The Prison Commission discreetly asked for reports on his performance during executions in the following time, but evidently found no reason to take action, although one report said that Thomas Pierrepoint had "smelled strongly of drink" on two occasions when reporting at the prison. This, however, appears to clash with Thomas Pierrepoint's instruction to Albert (when the latter acted as his assistant) not to take a drink if on the job and never to accept the drink customarily given to all witnesses at executions in Ireland. Thomas never officially retired, rather his name was removed from the list of executioners and invitations to conduct executions ceased to arrive. He died at his daughter's home in

on 11 February 1954, aged 83.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pierrepoint, Thomas 1870 births 1954 deaths Albert Pierrepoint English executioners People from Sutton Bonington