King Charles has pardoned Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, who was executed in 1955 for the murder of her lover David Blakely. The pardon, announced by Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy in the Commons, replaces the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment to recognise what Lammy described as a profound injustice.
Pardon announced after 70 years
Lammy told MPs: “We hope this brings a measure of peace to Ruth Ellis’s family, who have carried the weight of what happened to her for over 70 years.” The pardon does not declare Ellis innocent but acknowledges failures in her trial and the context of domestic abuse she suffered.
Ellis, a nightclub hostess, shot Blakely outside The Magdala pub in Hampstead, north London, in April 1955. She was convicted and hanged at Holloway Prison on July 13, 1955, at the age of 28.
Early life in Croydon
Before the killing, Ellis lived in Sanderstead, Croydon, with George Johnson Ellis, a dentist known as the “Mad Dentist.” She moved into his home on the corner of Sanderstead Hill and Purley Downs Road in 1950 after meeting him at the Court Club in Marylebone. George, a talented musician, struggled with severe alcoholism and was admitted to Warlingham Park Hospital in Surrey that year.
The couple married after his discharge and settled in Sanderstead while George worked at a practice in Southampton. The relationship deteriorated due to his drinking and physical abuse. George accused Ellis of infidelity and assaulted her multiple times. Ellis also suspected George of having affairs with patients during his hospital stays. They divorced in late 1951, months after the birth of their second child, Georgina.
Return to work and meeting Blakely
At 25, with two children to support—the eldest from a relationship with a married Canadian soldier when she was 17—Ellis returned to work as a West End hostess. She met David Blakely in 1953 at the Little Club in Knightsbridge.
Dr Graham Aird, 78, and his wife Pat Hamilton, 79, now own the Sanderstead dental practice that was once George Johnson Ellis’s. Hamilton told MyLondon: “We didn’t even know when we bought the house, so when we came to view it, the previous owner said, ‘This was Ruth Ellis’ house.’ I found it really interesting, so I bought a book straight away.”
Hamilton added: “I think they should pardon her because she was abused. The dentist was an alcoholic and a horrible man. She didn’t mean to kill him, I don’t think. Sure, she wanted him dead, but the man [Desmond Cussen] made her do it. Therefore, it wasn’t murder; it was homicide.”
Impact and legacy
The case became a landmark in the campaign to abolish the death penalty in Britain. Ellis’s execution was the last for a woman in the UK, and capital punishment was later abolished for murder in 1965. Her remains were originally buried in the prison cemetery at Holloway, then exhumed in 1971 and reinterred at St. Mary’s Churchyard, Amersham, Buckinghamshire.
