Thomas Pierrepoint

Who was Thomas Pierrepoint?

Thomas William Pierrepoint was one of the United Kingdom's executioners from 1906 until 1946. He was the brother of Henry and uncle of Albert.

He was born in Sutton Bonington, Nottinghamshire, the second child and eldest son of Thomas and Mary Pierrepoint. He worked as a hangman for 39 years until his mid-seventies in 1946. He is credited with having carried out 294 hangings in his career, although no precise figure has been verified, as some of these were in Ireland. Among those he executed was the notorious poisoner Frederick Seddon in 1912. During World War II 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 military prison in Somerset for crimes involving murder and/or rape, in most cases assisted by his nephew Albert who was, in turn, "Number One" 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 the Republic of Ireland.