I have studied capital punishment for many years, and Albert Pierrrepoint stands out as an extremely professional and humane man. If you were scheduled to hang at 0700hrs then you were at the end of the rope dead by the time the clock bell stopped chiming 7.

I remember Pierrepoint being unsettled and discomforted by having to work with the U.S. in executing Nazi war criminals, as the Americans insisted on a lengthy reading of the death warrant, the long walk to the gallows, the last words, etc. To him this smacked of an unnecessary slow torture, and in complete opposition to the way he worked.

A modest and sympathetic man in a situation where those qualities were quite possibly a liability.

P.S. I can think of one or two walks of life that would benefit from a ‘suspended sentence’…property developers and greedy politicians working hand-in-hand to destroy as much heritage as they can before they retire.