Foreign News: The End of Amery

When his time came to die for treason, John Amery, 33, rose and shaved himself carefully. The night before, he had taken leave of his parents. Leopold S. Amery, once Secretary of State for India, knew that no power on earth could save the life of his ne'er-do-well son.

When he was ready, John Amery shook hands with a young woman believed to be Una Wing, his actress wife, and with his brother Julian, a captain in a parachute regiment. Later the prison chaplain came into the cell, but Amery had nothing to say to him. He walked alone to the execution chamber, where Hangman Pierrepont was waiting. With a firm step John Amery climbed the gallows.

Outside Wandsworth Prison the young woman and his brother sat waiting in a car. At 9:08 a.m. a warder pinned a notice on the wall: "Judgment of death was this day executed on John Amery."