Execution

The first public execution at Darlinghurst Gaol was in 1844 when John Knatchbull was hanged for murder. John Trevor Kelly was the last man hanged in New South Wales, in August 1939, at Long Bay Gaol, Sydney. The last person to hang in Australia was Ronald Ryan in Victoria in 1967. Not all gaols had gallows; in NSW, hanging prisons were Darlinghurst, Dubbo, Broken Hill, Grafton, Long Bay, Berrima, Bathurst, Tamworth, Maitland and Armidale. Some current gaols, including Long Bay, still contain remnants of scaffolds.

A challenging aspect of the medical role was the requirement for the prison surgeon to be present at the execution and, if acting as the Coroner, to perform the autopsy after death. Newspaper reports often included extensive detail of these events, even including what the prisoner had eaten for breakfast before the “melancholy procession” to the gallows.

At Darlinghurst Gaol in 1848, the executioner was paid 3s 6d per day; the surgeon was paid 5s per day and dispenser paid 3s per day.

Wagga Wagga Advertiser, 15 th June 1893