The Tower of London is one of the most infamous prisons and castles in the world. It has a
rich history of execution, torture and brutality being the site where three of England’s
Queens would lose their heads. Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey all made
the walk to Tower Green to meet the executioner who would take off their heads. It became
a place where notorious criminals such as Guy Fakwes were tortured using devices such
as The Rack, which would inflict such pain onto a suspected criminal. But despite the
fortress being almost 1000 years old in places, it was involved in taking lives in conflicts
which changed the world forever.
During both of the world wars, the Tower of London was a place where executions took place,
and it was where a number of German spies would be shot in the firing range there. The
final execution took place during the Second World War, with Josef Jakobs being shot dead.
But during the First World War, there were many other executions that took place, with
11 people making their way to the execution chamber. But things were different, the executioner
wouldn’t be an axeman, but it would be a firing squad made up of British soldiers.
Join us today as we look at ‘the BRUTAL world war 1 executions of the Tower of London.’
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The Tower of London is remembered as a place of executions where a number of important
Tudor figures and noble people were beheaded on the scaffold. But despite being the place
where the Princes in the Tower were murdered, and a place where kings and queens stayed
for centuries, during the First World War the Tower had a very important role to play
in administering justice in Britain. The Tower by the 1900s had become a popular tourist
attraction, however it never ceased in its function as a garrison to house soldiers,
as a prison to hold the most high profile prisoners and also as an execution site.
As the war raged on, the Tower was still used in this capacity and it was even open to visitors
during the conflict despite being home to a number of prisoners. In fact one of the
most important roles the Tower had was as a base to train recruits from different groups
including the Royal Fusiliers. Within days of the announcement of war breaking out, many
young men who worked close to the Tower came there to enlist and to join the war effort.
Many joined with their friends and work colleagues, and there were huge queues to enlist inside
of the Tower’s moat. Many groups of soldiers were then mobilised to go and fight, and soldiers
were garrisoned at the Tower of London and were then deployed to the front lines. Many
different battalions passed through the Tower, but as soon as war broke out there was a real
problem in Britain with spies.
The fear and threat of spies and espionage was real inside of Britain as it’s enemies
sought to get intelligence which would give them the heads up against the British. Many
German spies were deployed to Britain and many of them had been given hardly any training
before they were involved in carrying out espionage and acts of sabotage. Because of
this, a large number were captured relatively easy. In 1915, the British Army HQ for the
London District wrote to the Constable of the Tower of London, and he said that as the
Tower had a rich history of execution, torture and imprisonment, that the fortress would
play a pivotal role in the executions of spies. It was suggested that the Tower would play
a very important propaganda rule for being the site where a number of German spies would
be executed, as it was seen as the crown taking the lives of the countries enemies, and the
Tower of London’s reputation was worldwide. Bringing this centuries old fortress back
into action with executing the most serious of criminals would be an interesting development
in it’s story. In total the Tower would take the lives of 11 enemy spies during the
First World War.
The first of these POWs to be imprisoned at the Tower and to be executed there was Carl
Hans Lady a German naval officer. After the war broke out, he came to Britain and was
involved in a network of spies that were sent to different parts of Britain. He could speak
very good English and maintained his disguise as an American. Lady went to Scotland, and
was then ordered to observe and watch information on a group of warships anchored near a Royal
Navy base closer to Edinburgh. He was then to report back, but when he was tried he claimed
that the spy work made him uneasy and that he was not fit to be a spy. Interestingly
also, he had previously worked on the Hamburg-America shipping line before World War 1 broke out,
and was rather well known in international circles.
Lody was one of these spies with no proper training, and quickly he was captured and
his identity confirmed before he was tried in London. He was placed on trial at Middlesex
Guildhall on the 20th October 1914, and it was said he did not look like a dangerous
spy. Many witnesses were brought to testify including the owner of the boarding house
where he was staying, and she could not even identity him well. He did not reveal who had
sent him to England, but he was found guilty and as an enemy spy was sentenced to death.
Lady was at the Tower of London, and was held within its walls in the Wellington barracks,
before and after his trial. But after gas death sentence was passed, the Major of the
Tower of London was told to make quick and secret arrangements for the execution to take
place within the walls of the Tower of London. The War Office approved the Tower as the site
of Lody’s execution, and it was to be carried out on the 6th November 1914.
Whilst imprisoned in the Wellington barracks, Lady wrote home and stated, ‘My dear ones,
tomorrow I shall be shot here in the Tower. I have had just judges and I shall die as
an officer, not a spy. Farewell, God Bless you.’ He also wrote to the Commanding officer
of his guards and thanked them for the kind and respectful treatment whilst he was a prisoner
at the Tower. On the morning of his execution he was taken from his cell by an officer,
and he said ‘I suppose that you will not shake the hands with a German Spy?’ His
officer replied, ‘No but I will shake hands with a brave man.’ The Tower’s chaplain
based in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, the burial site of Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell
and many other high profile executed people then read the burial service and accompanied
Carl Hans Lady along with an armed guard to his site of execution.
A Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater who saw Lody’s final walk stated, ‘'The Chaplain, in his
nervousness, made to turn left, which was the wrong way. Instantly Lody took a quick
step forward, caught the Chaplain by the right arm, and, with a polite and kindly smile,
gently guided him to the right – the correct way...A few moments later the procession disappeared
through the doorway of the sinister shed, and shortly after that came the muffled sound
of a single volley.' Lody had been taken into what was known as ‘the sinister shed,’
a miniature firing range at the Tower which was used to practice shooting by the soldiers
based there. This firing range was used to train those with different sights on rifles,
and it became the site of the execution. Today it still remains at the Tower and is away
from view, but this became the place of Lody’s execution and became the place where the final
people executed at the Tower were killed.
It is a short way away from the traditional site of execution, Tower Green where the Tudor
queens were beheaded. But this small hut was where 11 spies would be executed by the firing
squad. The executions all followed the same manner as Lody’s. He was taken into the
range, and was then told to walk down the end of the range where he was then secured
to a chair and a blindfold was placed over his eyes. He could not move from the chair,
and then the firing squad were readied. Many had been given blanks as they would not know
if the soldiers carrying out the execution were the ones who carried out the fatal shot.
The firing squad would then fire straight into the condemned, and then the officer in
charge would go and check along with the doctor that they had been killed. If not, a coup
de grace would be administered. Carl Lady was then buried in a common grave in a cemetery
in East London.
Carl Hans Lody was the first of 11 spies who were executed within the walls of the Tower
of London. Those who were executed inside the firing range were, Carl Frederick Muller,
executed 23 June 1915; Haicke Petrus Marinus Janssen and Willem Johannes Roos, executed
30 July 1915; Ernst Waldemar Melin, executed 10 September 1915; Augusto Alfredo Roggen, executed
17 September 1915; Fernando Buschmann, executed 19 October 1915; George Traugott Breeckow,
executed 26 October 1915; ‘Irving Guy Ries’, executed 27 October 1915; Albert Meyer, executed
2 December 1915 and Ludovico Hurwitz-y-Zender, executed 11 April 1916. All of those were
executed in the same manner by firing squad and all of them were convicted of spying for
the enemy. The First World War executions at the Tower of London were the first to be
conducted in 170 years at the Tower of London.
But it wouldn’t be the final executions that took place as during the Second World
War, there was one more German spy executed inside the firing range. Within the same walls
that Henry VIII’s wives lost their heads, the British would inflict brutal justice onto
those spies who were found to be damaging their war effort. The Tower of London which
became first a site of execution during the Medieval period was brought back into service
in bloody fashion, and 11 times the firing squad based there shot through a convicted
spy during the First World War. Most of these were poorly trained, and were inadequate spies,
but nonetheless were considered dangerous enemies during a conflict that changed the
world.
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