September 1, 1892 - Stanley Cross
State executioners occupy an unusual place in the history of institutional violence — authorized agents of a legal system, yet defined by the same lethal finality as those they were charged to dispatch. Cross worked within Britain's capital punishment apparatus during a period that included wartime spy executions, and the recorded miscalculations of drop lengths introduce a note of procedural failure into what the system required to be precise and controlled.
From Wikipedia
Stanley William Cross was an English executioner from Wormwood Scrubs. His career lasted from 1932 to 1941, during which he carried out four hangings as a chief executioner and assisted at 20 others.
Cross, an ex-serviceman, received training at Pentonville Prison in 1932. He assisted in his first hanging on 8 June 1933. Over the next few years, he usually worked as an assistant to Thomas Pierrepoint. He was finally promoted in 1940 and carried out his first commission as chief executioner on 31 July 1940. He also executed two German spies, Jose Waldeburg and Carl Meier, in December. However, Cross apparently miscalculated his prisoners' drop lengths.
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