Robert Leslie Stewart
Encyclopedia
Robert Leslie Stewart from Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, also known as Jock Stewart, was one of the last executioner
Executioner
A judicial executioner is a person who carries out a death sentence ordered by the state or other legal authority, which was known in feudal terminology as high justice.-Scope and job:...

s in the United Kingdom, officiating between 1950 and 1964.

Brought up close to Edinburgh's Saughton Prison, Stewart completed the Prison Commissioners'
Prison Commission (England and Wales)
The Prison Commission was a public body of the Government of the United Kingdom established in 1877 and responsible for overseeing the operation of HM Prison Service...

 Assistant Executioner training course in September 1950 at Pentonville Prison in London. His name first appeared on the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

 list in 1950, with his first engagement occurring at Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

 on 19 July 1951, assisting Stephen Wade at the execution of Alfred Reynolds.

Stewart was active on the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

 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
Albert Pierrepoint is the most famous member of the family which provided three of the United Kingdom's official hangmen in the first half of the 20th century...

 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
Anthony Miller (murderer)
Anthony Joseph Miller became the second-last criminal to be executed in Scotland on 22 December 1960 when he was hanged on the gallows at Glasgow's Barlinnie Prison by Harry Allen, assisted by Robert Leslie Stewart. Miller had been convicted of murdering John Cremin at Queen's Park Recreation...

, 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
Liverpool (HM Prison)
HM Prison Liverpool is a categoryB/C local men's prison, located in the Walton area of Liverpool in England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...

. Allen had been convicted of the murder of John Alan West
John Alan West
John Alan West was a 53-year-old laundry van driver from Seaton, Cumberland, England, murdered by two men on 7 April 1964. His murder led to the executions of Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans — the last executions in the United Kingdom.-Crime and arrest:John West, who lived alone, had returned to...

; Allen's accomplice, Gwynne Owen Evans, was hanged at Strangeways Prison in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, at the same time by Harry Allen. Stewart also carried out the last execution in Wales, that of Vivian Teed at Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

Prison in May 1958, for the murder of a postmaster during a robbery in Swansea.

Stewart died in South Africa, aged 71, in November 1989. He had emigrated after the abolition of Capital Punishment to work as an airline engineer and not, as has been speculated, as a hangman.
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