1952 was Shrewsbury’s busiest year for hangings since 1836.
43 year old Harrold Huxley would be the first of two men to hang at Shrewsbury during 1952, the only year since 1836 where there was more than one execution.
Huxley had been convicted of the murder of his mistress, 32 year old Ada Royce in the village of Holt, near Wrexham in Denbighshire on Saturday the 29th of December 1951. It was a somewhat peculiar relationship that had been going on since 1945.
Ada was married to Charles Royce and lived with him. She had three children, the youngest, Anthony being by Huxley, for whom he paid Ada maintenance. Before Christmas 1951 Ada wanted to end the affair and told Huxley so. On Christmas Day he borrowed a shotgun and two cartridges from a friend on the pretext of shooting a pheasant.
On the fateful Saturday, Ada went out to the Gredington Arms pub for a drink with her sister-in-law, Ellen Royce.
Huxley was drinking at a separate table so Ada and Ellen moved on to the White Lion. Huxley followed them there and sent a message to Ada saying he wanted to talk to her. She refused and the two women left the pub together to walk home along Castle Street. Huxley approached them and tried to speak to Ada. Ellen saw Ada’s brother, William Bithell and went over to speak to him.
Huxley took the opportunity of the women separating and fired a single shot at close range into Ada’s chest, killing her. William Bithell went to help his sister and Huxley fired the second cartridge into his own chest. However a lot of the pellets were stopped by the metal buckle of his braces and he survived, being released from Wrexham War Memorial hospital on the 11th of February 1952.
Huxley was tried at Ruthin on the 19th and 20th of May 1952, before Mr. Justice Croom-Johnson. His defence was that the shooting was an accident and that he only took the gun to scare Ada. However the prosecution was able to produce a note written to his mother apologising in advance for what he had done and for trying to take his own life. Given the clear premeditation the jury found him guilty.
Given the use of a gun to commit the murder, there would typically be no reprieve. Huxley’s appeal was dismissed on the 23rd of June, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard commenting that “it was the clearest case of murder for the oldest of motives”. Justices Parker and Slade concurred.
As Ruthin no longer had an execution facility, Prisoner 1041, Huxley was transferred to Shrewsbury. He was duly hanged by Albert Pierrepoint, assisted by Harry Allen at 8.00 a.m. on Tuesday the 8th of July 1952. He weighed 142 lbs. and was given a drop of 7’ 7”.
The execution suite at Shrewsbury was converted from the original governor’s house and is a two story building, standing just to the right of the main gate. The upper two windows are the gallows room the lower windows are the drop room and the last window on the right is the autopsy room.


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