Last Public Hanging

Newgate Gaol in London

The last man to be publicly hanged in Great Britain was 29 year old Michael Barrett, who was a member of the Fenians (the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood.) His crime? The Clerkenwell bombing in 1867 which killed 12 people and severely wounded many more.

Barret delivered a passionate speech in court before sentence was passed:

"I am far from denying, nor will the force of circumstances compel me to deny my love of my native land. I love my country and if it is murderous to love Ireland dearer than I love my life, then it is true, I am a murderer. If my life were ten times dearer than it is and if I could by any means, redress the wrongs of that persecuted land by the sacrifice of my life, I would willingly and gladly do so."

On 26th May, 1868 in front of thousands who were jeering and singing "Rule Britannia", Michael Barrett was hanged outside the walls of Newgate Prison. The hangman was William Calcraft.

Devil's Own Brigade

excerpt of Ballad Of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde:

I only knew what hunted thought
Quickened his step, and why
He looked upon the garish day

With such a wistful eye;
The man had killed the thing he loved
And so he had to die.

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!


Trooper Charles Wooldridge was hanged at Reading Gaol, while Oscar Wilde was an inmate there, on 7 July 1896, for having slashed his wife's throat in a fit of jealousy.
This was Oscar Wilde's final work, written after his release. He had served two years' hard labour for homosexual offences (homosexuality was illegal at the time), and he died in 1900.

As Wilde says: We were the Devil's Own Brigade.