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This article recounts the last executions in British history – the deaths of Gwynne Owen Evans and Peter Anthony Allen on August 13, 1964, at Walton Prison (Liverpool) and Strangeways (Manchester) – along with the context of their crime, the execution procedure, and information about the last man and woman executed on Merseyside. The content is for educational and historical documentation purposes only, based on newspaper archives and court records. It does not aim to glorify violence or advocate for crime.
The Last Two Men Hanged in Britain: The Murder of John Alan West in Workington
Nearly sixty years have passed since Britain last carried out a death sentence. At 8:00 a.m. on August 13, 1964, two men were led to the gallows at two different prisons in northern England. One at Walton Prison in Liverpool, the other at Strangeways Prison in Manchester. Their names were Gwynne Owen Evans, 24, and Peter Anthony Allen, 21. Both were unemployed drifters who had together committed a bungled burglary that led to the death of an innocent man. Their crime was neither sophisticated nor political: a failed break-in, a raincoat left at the scene, and a medallion engraved with a name that sealed their fate. This article tells the story of Britain’s last execution, of the last men hanged on English soil, and of Walton Prison – once the infamous execution centre of Merseyside.
Two of the last men to be executed in Britain for the murder of John Alan West in 1964. Gwynne Owen Evans (left), 24, and Peter Anthony Allen, 21.
First, Walton Prison – also known as HM Prison Liverpool – was one of the most important execution sites in northern England, where many condemned criminals met their end.
Built between 1848 and 1855, the prison was originally called Walton Gaol, and it replaced Kirkdale House of Correction as Liverpool’s main execution centre. Everyone executed at Walton was hanged for murder. The execution procedure was cold and systematic: the executioner placed a white hood over the condemned person’s head, followed by the noose, and then pulled the lever that released the trapdoors, causing the victim to fall to their death within seconds or minutes (if the neck did not break cleanly). The cold stone walls of Walton witnessed dozens of deaths, until the final execution took place there in 1964.
Second, the crime of Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen – the last two men hanged in Britain – began as a failed petty burglary that ended with the death of an innocent man for the sake of just £10.
The victim was John Alan West, 53, a bachelor laundry van driver living in Workington, Cumbria. In the early hours of April 7, 1964, Evans and Allen broke into West’s home intending to rob him. They carried an iron bar. Their plan quickly fell apart. A struggle ensued, and the two thieves struck brutally. John Alan West was beaten with the iron bar and stabbed through the heart. After the crime, they fled in haste, but left behind a crucial piece of evidence: Evans’s raincoat. In the coat pocket, police found a medallion inscribed “GO Evans July 1961.” Within 48 hours, both men were arrested. Evans and Allen each pointed the finger at the other, but both were convicted and sentenced to death.
Third, the execution took place simultaneously at two prisons, and Peter Allen – a father of two young sons – spent his final moments in dramatic fashion.
Allen met his wife for the last time through a prison glass partition. When the visit ended, he hurled himself against the glass and broke his thumb. Thus, on the morning of the execution, when executioner Robert “Jock” Stewart came to pin his hands behind his back, Allen’s thumb was heavily bandaged. As he was led from the condemned cell to the gallows, he shouted one word: “Jesus.” Meanwhile, at Strangeways, Evans also walked to the gallows. Both wore white hoods over their heads – a standard ritual in British hangings. The execution was over. Just two months later, the Labour government came to power, and the death penalty was suspended. Evans and Allen became the last two men to die on the gallows in England.
Fourth, besides the last two men of Britain, Merseyside also had a “last woman” executed – and her death was no less tragic.
The last woman executed on Merseyside was Margaret Allen (no relation to Peter Allen). She was hanged at Walton Prison in 1955 after being convicted of murdering her husband. Margaret Allen had used crushed glass to poison her husband. At the time, she was one of the few women to face the death penalty – a punishment that British society still considered “unsuitable” for women, yet still carried out. Her death closed a chapter in Liverpool’s execution history, before Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans became the final names for the entire nation.
Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen were not the most notorious criminals, nor were they the most brutal murderers. They were two unemployed, reckless, and stupid men who killed an innocent person for loose change. A forgotten raincoat and a medallion sent them to the gallows. Their deaths on August 13, 1964, closed a long era of capital punishment in Britain. Since then, no one has been executed on English soil. The image of the white hoods on Evans and Allen, and the trapdoors opening beneath them, became the final symbol of a justice system that Britain has now left behind. Walton Prison still stands, now a category B/C men’s prison, but the gallows are long gone. Only old records and black-and-white photographs remind us that there was a time when justice was carried out by the hangman’s noose.