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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 the story of Margaret Walber, the last woman hanged in Liverpool in 1894. We condemn all acts of murder and violence. This article is for historical and criminological education only, based on newspaper archives and court records. It does not glorify violence or advocate for crime.
The Last Two Men and the Last Woman Hanged in Liverpool
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. But before Evans and Allen became the final names for the entire nation, Liverpool had its own “last woman” executed – and her death was far more gruesome.
1. Walton Prison: A Place of Death
Walton Prison – also known as HM Prison Liverpool – was one of the most important execution sites in northern England. 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. The cold stone walls of Walton witnessed dozens of deaths, from notorious criminals to impulsive murderers, until the final execution in 1964.
2. The Crime of the Last Two Men: For Just £10
Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen – the last two men hanged in Britain – committed a failed petty burglary that ended with the death of an innocent man for 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.
3. Peter Allen’s Final Moments
Peter Allen – a father of two young sons – spent his final moments in dramatic fashion. He 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 – a standard ritual in British hangings. 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.
4. The Last Woman Hanged in Liverpool: Margaret Walber
Before Evans and Allen became the final names for the entire nation, Liverpool had its own “last woman” executed – and her death was far more brutal. The last woman executed in Liverpool was not Margaret Allen in 1955, but Margaret Walber, 53, who was hanged at Walton Prison on April 2, 1894.
Her story is one of the most gruesome in Liverpool’s criminal history. Margaret Walber and her husband John Walber, 55, were both alcoholics living in an unhappy marriage. When Margaret discovered her husband was having an affair with a former lover, she planned her revenge. One night, after John passed out from drinking, Margaret dragged him upstairs, stripped him naked, chained him to the wall, and padlocked the door. For four months, she imprisoned and tortured her husband. She told the lodgers in the building that he was locked away to stop him from visiting brothels.
Finally, on November 16, 1893, while drunk, Margaret beat her husband to death with a chamber pot and a lamp, then delivered the final blow to his head with the very chain that had held him captive. The Liverpool Mercury reported: “The place presented a horrible spectacle… the floor, walls, pillows, and clothes were covered with blood.” A post-mortem examination revealed that John Walber’s body was covered with awful gashes, and death was due to shock and loss of blood.
Margaret Walber was tried at St. George’s Hall in Liverpool on March 14, 1894. The jury found her guilty, and she was sentenced to death. She was hanged by executioner James Billington at 8:00 a.m. on April 2, 1894. A crowd of about 800 people gathered outside Walton Prison to witness the black flag raised, signalling the execution had taken place. This was the last time a woman was hanged in Liverpool – nearly 70 years before Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans became the final names for the entire nation.
Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen were not 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.
But nearly 70 years before them, Margaret Walber – a jealous, drunken, and brutal wife – became the last woman to die on the gallows in Liverpool. Her story, with four months of imprisonment and torture ending in lethal blows from a chamber pot, a lamp, and a chain, is one of the most gruesome in Liverpool’s criminal history. Both – Evans, Allen, and Walber – were “lasts,” closing different chapters in Britain’s dark history of execution.
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.
Primary sources:
Liverpool ECHO reports (2014 and subsequent coverage) on Britain’s last executions.
Contemporary newspaper and court records of the John Alan West murder case (1964).
Historical materials on Walton Prison (HM Prison Liverpool).
Liverpool ECHO, “The horrifying true story of the last woman hanged in Liverpool” (2017).
New Zealand Herald, “A Jealous Wife’s Crime” (1894).
Margaret Walber court records and witness testimonies.