Ralph Douglas Binney

Captain Ralph Douglas Binney, C.B., Royal Navy, Retired (14 October, 1888 – 8 December, 1944) was an officer in the Royal Navy.

Life & Career

Gunnery Officer of H.M.S. London 13 February, 1914 to 27 October, 1916.^{[Citation needed]}

He served as Gunnery Officer of H.M.S. Collingwood from 5 April, 1917 to 12 February, 1919.^{[Citation needed]}

The driver of the car, a labourer named Ronald Hedley, was charged and found guilty of murder, the sentence being death by hanging. His accomplice, Thomas James Jenkins, welder, was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years' penal servitude. Hedley was an experienced burglar, having been nicknamed "Silver" for repeatedly breaking into a jewellers named Silver's in Bermondsey. The trial took six days and the two were convicted on 12 March, 1945. Hedley's subsequent appeal was dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeals on 13 April. However, Hedley was reprieved by the Home Secretary on 26 April, two days before his planned execution on 28 April. In October, 1949 the Metropolitan Commissioner of Police appeared before the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment and stated that he believed that the key reason for the rise of armed gangs after the war had been the failure to execute Hedley in 1945.

Bibliography

• "Marriages" (Marriages). The Times. Thursday, 7 November, 1918. Issue 41941, col C, pg. 9.
• "Naval Officer Dragged Under Car" (News). The Times. Saturday, 9 December, 1944. Issue 50012, col C, pg. 4.
• "Obituary" (Deaths). The Times. Monday, 11 December, 1944. Issue 50013, col E, pg. 6.
• "Funerals" (Deaths). The Times. Friday, 15 December, 1944. Issue 50017, col B, pg. 6.
• Thomas, Donald (2006). Villains' Paradise: A History of Britain's Underworld. London: Pegasus Books. ISBN 1933648171.

Service Record

• The National Archives. ADM 196/51.