Last British execution for attempted murder: Martin Doyle
- When
- 1861
- Where
- Chester
- Episodes
- 1
Martin Doyle was hanged on 27 August 1861 for attempted murder. While legacy records place this event at Horsemonger Lane Gaol, the supplied passages explicitly state the execution occurred at Chester. This discrepancy highlights a conflict between the legacy location hint and the sourced textual evidence regarding the specific site of the last execution for attempted murder in Britain.
Episodes
Background and detail
Background. The event concerns the execution of Martin Doyle, identified as the last person hanged for attempted murder in Britain. The date is firmly established as 27 August 1861. However, the location presents a conflict: legacy data suggests Horsemonger Lane Gaol, but the primary source text explicitly states the execution took place at Chester. This distinction is critical for accurate historical attribution.
Location Discrepancy. Horsemonger Lane Gaol, also known as the Surrey County Gaol, was located in Southwark, London. By 1859, it had been renamed following the road's change to Union Road. Despite this historical context, the specific passage regarding Martin Doyle's execution cites Chester as the location, contradicting the legacy hint of Horsemonger Lane Gaol.
People involved
- Martin Doyle · Executed Person
Sources
- Capital punishment in the United Kingdom Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-28
- Horsemonger Lane Gaol Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-20
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.