Pritchard, Edward William, 1825-1865 (doctor; assistant naval surgeon)
Dates
- Existence: 1825 - 1865
Biography
Edward William Pritchard was born in Southsea, Hampshire, on 6 December 1825. He served in the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon, and sailed around the world on e.g. HMS Victory, HMS Calypso, and HMS Hecate.
In 1848, his naval tours took him to the Pitcairn Islands.
By 1851 Pritchard was married. He then resigned from the Navy and became GP in Yorkshire, but in 1859 he left under a cloud, and in debt, and moved to Scotland... to Glasgow.
In 1863, a fire at the Pritchard home killed a female servant though there were suspicions around the manner of her death. In February and in March 1865, Pritchard's mother-in-law then wife died in suspicious circumstances at the new family home in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. The poison antimony was found in the bodies of both women.
Edward William Pritchard was convicted of murder in Edinburgh in July 1865, and he was hanged in front of thousands of spectators at the Saltmarket end of Glasgow Green at 8 a.m. on 28 July 1865, becoming the last man to publically executed in Scotland.