Albert Pierrepoint - Early Life

Early Life

Albert Pierrepoint was the middle child and eldest son of Henry and Mary Pierrepoint. He was influenced by the side-occupation of his father and uncle; as an 11-year-old he wrote, in response to a school "When I grow up ..." exercise, "When I leave school I should like to be the Official Executioner". He spent his school summer holidays at the home of his Uncle Tom and Aunt Lizzie in Clayton, his own family having moved to Huddersfield when Henry ceased to be an executioner, and he became very close to his uncle. While Tom was away on business, his aunt would allow the boy to read the diary Tom kept of his executions. In 1917, at the age of twelve, he began work at the Marlborough Mills in Failsworth, near Oldham, earning six shillings a week. Following Henry's death in 1922, he took charge of Henry's papers and diaries, which he studied at length. Towards the end of the 1920s he changed his career, becoming a drayman for a wholesale grocer, delivering goods ordered through a travelling salesman. In 1930 he learned to drive a car and a lorry to make his deliveries, earning two pounds five shillings (£2.25) a week. On 19 April 1931, Pierrepoint wrote to the Prison Commissioners offering his services as an Assistant Executioner to his uncle should he or any other executioner retire. Within a few days he received a reply that there were currently no vacancies.