British Executions

Charles Gerrish

Age: 70

Sex: male

Crime: murder

Date Of Execution: 23 May 1882

Crime Location:

Execution Place: Wiltshire

Method: hanging

Executioner: unknown

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20070624062456/http://www.fred.net/jefalvey/execute.h

Gerrish, Charles

On Thursday 24th November 1881, two old paupers were sitting in front of a fire at a Devizes workhouse. The two men began to quarrel after Gerrish told the other man, Stephen Coleman, that it was his turn to get warm, but when Coleman refused to move, Gerrish withdrew a red hot poker from between the bars on the grate and thrust it into his neck. Coleman died instantly and Gerrish was charged with his murder. After being convicted, he was hanged by William Marwood in Devizes on the 31st January 1882 at the age of seventy.