§ Mr. Pagetasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether he will now issue the instruction to prison governors with regard to executions, together with any subsequent amendments;
(2) if he will now publish the information in his possession concerning the execution of Mrs. Thompson; and if he will state how far the conduct of that 190W execution has caused amendments to be made to the rules for the conduct of executions.
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeBefore the execution the Governor of Holloway Prison, who was also the Medical Officer, in accordance with the discretion vested in him, gave Mrs. Thompson sedatives. At the time of the execution the Governor considered that it would be more humane to spare her the necessity of walking the few yards to the execution chamber, and although he thought that she could have walked with assistance, he had her carried and she was supported on the scaffold. Apart from this, nothing unusual occurred. Having examined all the information available, I am satisfied that there is no truth in the allegation that Mrs. Thompson "disintegrated as a human creature" or that she "fought, kicked and screamed and protested her innocence to the last, and that it required about five men to hold her down whilst being carried to the gallows and having the noose put over her," or in the story that her "insides fell out."
No incident occurred during the execution of such a nature as to call for any change in the instructions to governors—and in fact no change was made in consequence of it. These instructions have always been treated as confidential, and I am not prepared to depart from the practice of my predecessors in refusing to publish them.