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Last woman hanged for murder in Great Britain On this day in 1955, Ruth Ellis becomes the last woman to be executed in Britain. Ellis was executed because she murdered her abusive boyfriend who caused her to have a miscarriage. During her trial, Ellis admitted to the murder and was sentenced to the death penalty. Despite of thousands of petitions being signed to forbid the execution, Ellis was still executed. Eventually in 1965, the death penalty for murder was forbidden in England, Scotland, and Wales. Do you think Ellis’ sentence was right? Nightclub owner Ruth Ellis is convicted of murdering boyfriend David Blakely on July 13, 1955. Ellis was later executed by hanging and became the last woman in Great Britain to be put to death. Ellis was born in Rhyl, Wales, in 1926. She left school as a young teenager, had a child and worked a variety of jobs, eventually becoming a nightclub hostess. In 1950, she married dentist George Ellis, with whom she had a second child. The marriage was sho...