Editing Harry Allen (executioner)

{{Short description|English executioner (1911–1992)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Harry Allen
| image       =
| image_size  =
| caption     =
| birth_name  = Harold Bernard Allen
| birth_date  = {{birth date|df=yes|1911|11|5}}
| birth_place = [[Denaby Main]], [[West Riding of Yorkshire]], England
| death_date  = {{death date and age|df=yes|1992|08|14|1911|11|15}}
| death_place = [[Fleetwood]], [[Lancashire]], England
| death_cause =
| resting_place =
| resting_place_coordinates =
| nationality = British
| other_names =
| known_for   =
| education   =
| employer    = [[Her Majesty's Prison Service|HM Prison Service]]
| occupation  = {{plainlist|
* [[Executioner]]
* [[Bus driver]]
* [[Public house|Publican]]}}
| spouse      = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Marjorie Clayton|1933|1958|end=div}}
* {{marriage|Doris Dyke|1963}}<ref name="dorismarriage">{{cite journal
  | title = Harry B. Allen and Doris Dyke
  | journal = Leigh Registration District Marriage Index
  | volume = 10d
  | pages = 10d 105
  | publisher = [[General Register Office for England and Wales|GRO]]
  | location = Leigh
  | date = October–December 1963
  | url = http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/Reg/districts/leigh.html
  | access-date = 12 November 2008}}</ref>
}}
| partner     =
| children    = 2
| parents     = James Allen<br>Emma Burns<ref name="BLH" />
| relatives   = [[Fiona Allen]] (granddaughter)
| signature   =
| website     =
| footnotes   =
}}
'''Harold Bernard Allen''' (5 November 1911&nbsp;– 14 August 1992) was one of Britain's last official [[executioner]]s, officiating between 1941 and 1964. He was chief executioner at 41 executions and acted as assistant executioner at 53 others, at various prisons in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and Cyprus. He acted as assistant executioner for 14 years, mostly to [[Albert Pierrepoint]] from 1941 to 1955.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Colonial executioner's personal items acquired by Cyprus for museum {{!}} Cyprus Mail |url=https://cyprus-mail.com/2015/09/30/colonial-executioners-personal-items-acquired-by-cyprus-for-museum/ |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=cyprus-mail.com/ |language=en-GB}}</ref>

In October 1955 Allen was appointed as Chief Executioner alongside Pierrepoint, although he did not execute anyone in this role until 10 May 1956, when he hanged two [[EOKA]] members in [[Cyprus]]. Pierrepoint was no longer available because he had resigned in February 1956. Allen's most controversial hanging came in April 1962, when [[James Hanratty]] was [[Hanging|hanged]] for murder, despite efforts to clear his name. Hanratty was proven guilty in 2002 by DNA. Allen also assisted in the 1953 execution of [[Derek Bentley]], who was posthumously pardoned. He performed one of the last two executions in Britain, in August 1964.

==Early life==
Born in [[Denaby Main Colliery Village|Denaby Main]], near [[Conisbrough]] in the [[West Riding of Yorkshire]]<!--BOTH DENABY's WERE IN THE WEST RIDING AT THAT TIME--> on 5 November 1911,<ref name="BLH">{{cite book | last = McLaughlin | first = Stewart | title = Harry Allen: Britain's Last Hangman | publisher = True Crime Library | date = 11 September 2008 | isbn = 978-1-874358-42-8 }}</ref> Allen was brought up in [[Ashton-under-Lyne]], Lancashire,<ref name="Newsquest881165"/><!--ASHTON WAS IN LANCASHIRE AT THE TIME--> and was educated at St Anne's Roman Catholic School in Burlington Street, Ashton. His first job was in the Transport Department at Park Bridge Iron Works, before he became a [[bus driver]] with Ashton Corporation, a job he continued to hold after he became an assistant hangman in 1941.<ref name="tameside37">{{cite news | title = The last hangman&nbsp;... Harry Allen | work = The Tameside Citizen 37 | pages = 7 | publisher = [[Tameside|Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council]] | date = 10 October 2006 | url = http://www.tameside.gov.uk/citizen37/citizen07.htm | access-date = 22 October 2008 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081009084419/http://www.tameside.gov.uk/citizen37/citizen07.htm | archive-date = 9 October 2008 | df = dmy-all }}</ref><ref name="OldhamEveningChronicle13622">{{cite news | last = Pavasovic | first = Mike | title = Bus driver, licensee – and hangmen | publisher = [[Oldham Evening Chronicle]] | date = 4 September 2008 | url = http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/8/news/13622/bus-driver-licensee-%C2%97-and-hangmen | access-date = 23 October 2008 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110724002157/http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/8/news/13622/bus-driver-licensee-%C2%97-and-hangmen | archive-date = 24 July 2011 | df = dmy-all }}</ref>

==Career as an executioner==
Allen applied for a job in the [[Her Majesty's Prison Service|Prison Service]] in the 1930s but was turned down. He successfully applied to be put on the Home Office list of executioners and was often employed as an assistant executioner to [[Thomas Pierrepoint|Tom Pierrepoint]], the uncle of Albert Pierrepoint.<ref name="gazette081022"/> As a preliminary step, he witnessed his first execution at the age of 29 – that of William Cooper – on 26 November 1940 at [[Bedford (HM Prison)|Bedford Prison]], describing it as a "very good, clean job, not as gruesome as I expected".<ref name="telegraph3229009"/>

Allen became a [[Public house|publican]] in [[Farnworth]], Lancashire in the 1940s, combining his role as executioner with running the pub, which he ran until the early 1950s when he took over another pub, the Junction Inn, on Higher Lane in [[Whitefield, Greater Manchester|Whitefield]].<ref name="Newsquest881165">{{cite news | title = The hangman who was a pub landlord | publisher = [[Newsquest]] | date = 3 June 2006 | url = http://archive.thisislancashire.co.uk/2006/1/3/881165.html | access-date = 22 October 2008 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100123232314/http://archive.thisislancashire.co.uk/2006/1/3/881165.html | archive-date = 23 January 2010 | df = dmy-all }}</ref>

In 1945, five German [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] were hanged for murdering a fellow German soldier, Sergeant-Major Wolfgang Rosterg,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.highlandstrathearn.com/content/case-feldwebel-sergeant-major-wolfgang-rosterg |title=The Case of Feldwebel (Sergeant-Major) Wolfgang Rosterg &#124; Highland Strathearn |access-date=29 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318020418/http://www.highlandstrathearn.com/content/case-feldwebel-sergeant-major-wolfgang-rosterg |archive-date=18 March 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> whom they suspected of having betrayed their escape plan. It seems to have been this crime and ultimate execution that made the deepest impression on Allen. He wrote, "It was a foul murder. They staged a mock trial, kicking the victim to death and dragging him by the neck to the toilet where they hung his lifeless body on a waste pipe. These five prisoners are the most callous men I have ever met so far but I blame the Nazi doctrine for that. It must be a terrible creed."{{cn|date=August 2024}} A 21-year-old, Erich Palme-König, was the first of the soldiers to be hanged at [[Pentonville Prison]], swearing allegiance to the last to [[Nazi Germany]].{{cn|date=August 2024}}

On 28 January 1953, Allen assisted at the controversial execution of [[Derek Bentley case|Derek Bentley]], who was hanged for a murder committed by a friend and accomplice during an attempted robbery, and for which Bentley received a posthumous pardon 45&nbsp;years later. Contrary to some accounts, Allen was not present at the execution of [[Ruth Ellis]], the last woman to be hanged in the UK, in 1955: the assistant to Albert Pierrepoint on that occasion was Royston Rickard.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

Following the resignation of Albert Pierrepoint and the death of [[Stephen Wade (executioner)|Stephen Wade]] in 1956, Allen and [[Robert Leslie Stewart]] jointly became [[List of executioners|Chief Executioner]]s. However, the [[Homicide Act 1957]] reduced the number of condemned criminals by 75%, from an average of 15 a year in the early 1950s to about four a year in the late 1950s. As Chief Executioner, on 11 July 1958 Allen hanged American-born Scottish [[serial killer]] [[Peter Manuel]] at [[HM Prison Barlinnie|Barlinnie]] prison, [[Glasgow]].<ref name="express67136">{{cite news | last = Edge | first = Simon | title = Secrets of the last hangman | publisher = [[Daily Express]] | date = 21 October 2008 | url = http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/67136/Secrets-of-the-last-hangman | access-date = 22 December 2011}}</ref> He also hanged [[Guenther Podola]] on 5 November 1959, a German-born petty thief, and the last man to be hanged in the UK for killing a police officer.<ref name=JMS107>{{cite journal | last = Furneaux | first = Rupert | title =  Crime Documentary Series 1 – Guenther Podola | journal = [[British Journal of Psychiatry|Journal of Mental Science]] | volume = 107 | issue = 447 | pages = 348 | publisher = [[Sweet & Maxwell|Stevens & Sons]] | location = London | date = March 1961 }}</ref>

His most controversial case was that of [[James Hanratty]], hanged on 4 April 1962 at Bedford Prison for the "A6 murder" case. Efforts to clear Hanratty's name continued until 2001, when [[DNA testing]] matched Hanratty to the crime scene.

Allen performed the last execution in Northern Ireland in December 1961, when he hanged [[Robert McGladdery]] at [[Crumlin Road (HM Prison)|Crumlin Road Gaol]] in [[Belfast]]. He also performed the last hanging in Scotland, when [[Henry John Burnett|Henry Burnett]] was hanged at [[Aberdeen (HM Prison)|Craiginches Prison]] in Aberdeen on 15 August 1963 for the murder of Thomas Guyan. He hanged [[Russell Pascoe]], one of the third-last prisoners to be hanged in a British prison, at Bristol's Horfield Prison on 17 December in the same year. He also performed one of the two final executions in the UK, when at 8.00&nbsp;am on 13 August 1964 [[Gwynne Owen Evans]] was hanged at [[Manchester (HM Prison)|Strangeways Prison]] in Manchester for the murder of [[John Alan West]]. This occurred simultaneously with the execution of Evans's accomplice [[Peter Anthony Allen]], who was hanged at [[Liverpool (HM Prison)|Walton Gaol]] in Liverpool by Robert Leslie Stewart.

Allen always wore a [[bow tie]] during executions as a sign of respect.<ref name="gazette081022"/><ref name="murderfiles-allen">{{cite web | title = Image of Harry Allen | publisher = Murder Files | url = http://www.murderfiles.com/harry_allen.html | access-date = 22 October 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110930074550/http://www.murderfiles.com/harry_allen.html | archive-date = 30 September 2011 | url-status = dead | df = dmy-all }}</ref> Of his job, Allen said, "I never felt a moment's remorse and always slept peacefully on the nights before and after a hanging."{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

A second man also answering to the name "Harry Allen", Herbert Allen, an ice cream salesman from the [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands]], was also on the official list of executioners for a period in the early 1950s, having graduated from the same training group as [[Syd Dernley]].  The two Harry Allens are known to have worked together as assistants on at least two double hangings.<ref>Dernley & Newman ''The Hangman's Tale: Memoirs of a Public Executioner'', Trans-Atlantic Publications, 1990 {{ISBN|0-330-31633-8}} Both Harry Allens, particularly the Birmingham one, feature prominently throughout the book.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/brithangmen.html|title=British hangmen 1800 - 1964|website=www.capitalpunishmentuk.org}}</ref>

==Executions performed by Allen as head executioner==
*23 July 1957 – [[John Vickers (criminal)|John Wilson Vickers]] ([[HMP Durham]])
*4 December 1957 – Dennis Howard ([[Birmingham (HM Prison)|HMP Winson Green]], Birmingham)
*11 July 1958 – [[Peter Manuel|Peter Thomas Manuel]] ([[HMP Barlinnie]], Glasgow)
*12 August 1958 – Matthew Kavanagh (Winson Green, Birmingham)
*3 September 1958 – Frank Stokes (Durham)
*10 February 1959 – Ernest Raymond Jones ([[Leeds (HM Prison)|HMP Armley]], Leeds)
*28 April 1959 – Joseph Chrimes ([[HMP Pentonville]], London)
*8 May 1959 – Ronald Henry Marwood (Pentonville, London)
*14 August 1959 – Bernard Hugh Walden (Armley, Leeds)
*9 October 1959 – [[Francis Joseph Huchet]] (Newgate Street prison, [[Saint Helier]], [[Channel Islands]])
*9 November 1959 – [[Guenther Podola|Guenther Fritz Erwin Podola]] ([[HMP Wandsworth]], London)
*1 September 1960 – John Louis Constantine ([[HMP Lincoln]])
*10 November 1960 – [[Francis Forsyth|Francis George Forsyth]] (Wandsworth, London)
*22 December 1960 – [[Anthony Miller (murderer)|Anthony Joseph Miller]] (Barlinnie, Glasgow)
*27 January 1961 – Wasyl Gnypiuk (Lincoln)
*9 February 1961 – George Riley ([[HMP Shrewsbury]])
*29 March 1961 – John Day ([[HMP Bedford]])
*25 May 1961 – Victor John Terry (Wandsworth, London)
*29 June 1961 – [[Zsiga Pankotia]] (Armley, Leeds)
*6 July 1961 – [[Edwin Bush|Edwin Albert Bush]] (Pentonville, London)
*25 July 1961 – Samuel McLaughlin ([[Crumlin Road (HM Prison)|HMP Crumlin Road]], Belfast, Northern Ireland)
*8 September 1961 – Henryck Niemascz (Wandsworth, London)
*20 December 1961 – [[Robert McGladdery|Robert Andrew McGladdery]] (Crumlin Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland)
*4 April 1962 – [[James Hanratty]] (HMP Bedford)
*20 November 1962 – [[Murder of Thomas Bates|Oswald Augustine Grey]] (Winson Green, Birmingham)
*28 November 1962 – [[James Smith (murderer)|James Smith]] ([[HMP Strangeways]], Manchester)
*15 August 1963 – [[Henry John Burnett]] ([[HMP Craiginches]], Aberdeen)
*17 December 1963 – [[Russell Pascoe]] ([[Bristol (HM Prison)|HMP Horfield]], Bristol)
*13 August 1964 – [[Murder of John Alan West|Gwynne Owen Evans]] (HMP Strangeways, Manchester)

[[File:The gallows at Central Jail of Nicosia.JPG|thumb|right|The [[gallows]] at the [[Central Jail of Nicosia]], which is now a museum.]]
In addition to these, Allen also performed the 9 executions of [[EOKA]] members which took place at the [[Central Jail of Nicosia]], [[Cyprus]] in 1956 and 1957.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://cyprus-mail.com/2015/09/30/colonial-executioners-personal-items-acquired-by-cyprus-for-museum/|title=Colonial executioner's personal items acquired by Cyprus for museum|work=Cyprus Mail|first=Andria|last=Kades|date=2015-09-30|access-date=2022-11-24}}</ref> The remains of the hanged men are buried within the walls of the prison, in the "[[Imprisoned Graves]]" section. Their names are:

*[[Michalis Karaolis]]<ref name="CYPRUS: Deepening Tragedy">[https://archive.today/20130104223549/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,808483,00.html CYPRUS: Deepening Tragedy], Time Magazine, Monday, 21 May. 1956.</ref> – executed 10 May 1956
*Andreas Dimitriou<ref name="CYPRUS: Deepening Tragedy"/> – executed 10 May 1956
*Iakovos Patatsos – executed 9 August 1956
*Andreas Zakos – executed 9 August 1956
*Harilaos Michael – executed 9 August 1956
*Michael Koutsoftas – executed 21 September 1956
*Stelios Mavrommatis – executed 21 September 1956
*Andreas Panagidis  – executed 21 September 1956
*[[Evagoras Pallikaridis]] – executed 14 March 1957

Following the [[Independence Day (Cyprus)|Independence of Cyprus]] in 1960, Allen performed the final three executions at the Central Jail of Nicosia for the new Cypriot government, assisted by John Underhill.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.truecrimelibrary.com/crime_series_show.php?series_number=13&id=681|title=June 13th Hambia Zacharia, Michael Hiletikos and Lazaris Demetriou – Cyprus 13/6/1962|access-date=2015-03-12|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402142425/http://www.truecrimelibrary.com/crime_series_show.php?series_number=13&id=681|archive-date=2 April 2015|df=dmy-all}}</ref> All 3 executions took place on 13 June 1962:

*Hambis Zacharia – killed a man in a [[Limassol]] vineyard in 1958
*Michael Hiletikos – shot a man dead outside a Limassol nightclub in 1961. Fled to UK and was extradited to Cyprus to stand trial
*Lazaris Demetriou – shot a man dead outside a Limassol nightclub in 1961. The accomplice of Michael Hiletikos

==Personal life and diaries==
Allen's first wife was Marjorie Clayton whom he married in 1933.<ref name="marjoriemarriage">{{cite journal
  | title = Harry B. Allen and Marjorie Clayton
  | journal = Barton Upon Irwell Registration District Marriage Index
  | volume = 8c
  | pages = 1194
  | publisher = [[General Register Office for England and Wales|GRO]]
  | location = Barton upon Irwell
  | date = October–December 1933
  | url = http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/barton%20upon%20irwell.html
  | access-date = 12 November 2008}}</ref>  She left him on the day that he was hanging Peter Manuel.<ref name="record080712">{{cite news | last = Edge | first = Simon | title = Wife walked out on Peter Manuel's executioner day he put killer to death | work = [[Daily Record (Scotland)|Daily Record]] | date = 12 July 2008 | url = http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/special-reports/peter-manuel/2008/07/12/wife-walked-out-on-peter-manuel-s-executioner-day-he-put-killer-to-death-86908-20640497/ | access-date = 23 October 2008}}</ref> Allen's second wife was Doris Dyke, whom he married in 1963.<ref name="dorismarriage"/>

In October 2008 it was revealed that Allen had kept a diary which included a precise log of the prisoners and how they died. He recorded each prisoner's age, weight, height and calculations for the length of rope needed to hang them. The diary and other belongings were sold at auction in [[Knutsford]], Cheshire on behalf of his widow<ref name="gazette081022">{{cite news | last = Halstead | first = Tom | title = Glimpse work of port's hangman | publisher = [[Blackpool Gazette]] | date = 22 October 2008 }}</ref><ref name="telegraph3229009"/> in November 2008 for £17,200.<ref name="gazette081112">{{cite news | title = Going, going, gone for £20,000 – a hangman's lot | publisher = [[Blackpool Gazette]] | date = 12 November 2008 }}</ref>

Allen always publicly maintained that hanging was a "swift and humane business". In his diaries he revealed that the execution of one prisoner, Peter Griffiths, who was convicted at [[Lancaster Castle|Lancaster assizes]] of murdering a three-year-old child, [[June Anne Devaney]], in the grounds of [[East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust|Queens Park Hospital]] in [[Blackburn]] on 15 May 1948,<ref name="FPS-JAD">{{cite news|url=http://www.fpsociety.org.uk/news/JAD.html|title=The Fingerprint Society commemorates 60 years since landmark fingerprint identification|date=16 August 2008|publisher=The Fingerprint Society|access-date=13 November 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306164019/http://www.fpsociety.org.uk/news/JAD.html|archive-date=6 March 2012|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="cottontown2952">{{cite web|url=http://www.cottontown.org/page.cfm?language=eng&pageID=2952|title=Devaney, June Anne|publisher=cottontown.org|access-date=13 November 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615060849/http://www.cottontown.org/page.cfm?language=eng&pageID=2952|archive-date=15 June 2011|df=dmy-all}}</ref> took 30 seconds, which would have been the time from Allen's entering the condemned cell to the moment of the drop. Many other executions were faster than this, but death itself was always practically instantaneous. Griffiths was 22 years old, 5' 10" tall, weighed 10st 8lbs, and was given a drop of 7 feet 6&nbsp;inches on 15 November 1948 at Walton Gaol.<ref name="Metro365029">{{cite news | title = Diary of hangman up for sale | publisher = [[Metro (Associated Metro Limited)|Metro]] | date = 20 October 2008 | url = http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Diary_of_hangman_up_for_sale&in_article_id=365029&in_page_id=34 | access-date = 22 October 2008}}</ref> Of another hanging he noted, "Very good job, but should have had another two or three inches – very strong."<ref name="express67136"/>

His granddaughter [[Fiona Allen]] is a comedian and actress, who rose to fame on the comedy sketch show ''[[Smack the Pony]]''.<ref name="telegraph3229009">{{cite news | last = Allen | first = Nick | title = Britain's last hangman kept 'diaries of death' | publisher = [[Daily Telegraph]] | date = 21 October 2008 | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3229009/Britains-last-hangman-kept-diaries-of-death.html | access-date = 22 October 2008}}</ref> She said of him, "It's as if I had two grandfathers. One was the sweet, lovely man who took me for walks on the beach, bought me sweets and toys and always had me laughing and giggling. The other one was the man employed to take lives for the Government. When I was a kid, everyone in the area knew what he did. I remember going round to my first boyfriend's house for the first time and I tried to impress his dad by telling him I wanted to go on the stage. He looked up from his paper and said, 'Going on the stage are you, lass? Well keep away from the trapdoor!{{'"}}.<ref name="express67136"/>

==Later life==
Under the [[Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965]], [[capital punishment in Great Britain]] for murder was suspended, before finally being abolished in 1969 (it was abolished in 1973 in Northern Ireland). Although the death penalty remained for other crimes such as [[High treason in the United Kingdom|treason]] and [[Piracy Act 1837|piracy with violence]], no further executions took place in the UK, although a working gallows was kept in service and regularly tested at Wandsworth Prison until 1998. It was dismantled when the death penalty for treason and piracy was abolished by the [[Crime and Disorder Act 1998]]. He worked for a few years in security at an engineering firm in [[Blackburn]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Capital Punishment UK |url=https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0KxKUSRFMSuJeka5ddFhV9W2sWiyGVkwFesqbS89Ax2tE1rcqFzbDNATkPFN9eCaVl&id=315934825111204 |access-date=2022-09-06 |website=www.facebook.com |language=en}}</ref>

Allen moved to [[Fleetwood]] with his wife Doris in 1977, to escape the continued publicity, and worked there as a cashier at [[Fleetwood Pier]]. He died on 14 August 1992, just a month after Albert Pierrepoint, who had died on 10 July in [[Southport]].<ref name="gazette081022"/>

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

'''Bibliography'''
*{{citation |last=McLaughlin |first=Stewart |title=Harry Allen: Britain's Last Hangman |publisher=True Crime Library |date=11 September 2008 |isbn=978-1-874358-42-8}}

==External links==
*[http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Diary_of_hangman_up_for_sale&in_article_id=365029&in_page_id=34 Newspaper article with image from a page of Harry Allen's diary about the execution of Peter Griffiths]

{{Authority control}}
<!--DENABY WAS IN THE WEST RIDING AT THAT TIME-->

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Harry}}
[[Category:1911 births]]
[[Category:1992 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Conisbrough]]
[[Category:English executioners]]
[[Category:People from Ashton-under-Lyne]]