ENGLISH TRAITOR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 227, 8 July 1941, Page 8

ENGLISH TRAITOR.

SENTENCED TO DEATH. FIRST SINCE WAR BEGAN. LONDON, May 19. The first Englishman to he sentenced to death as a traitor since war began is George Johnson Armstrong, a 39-year-old engineer. He was driven away from the Old Bailey in a elosolygunrded prison van after a two-day trial behind locked and curtained doors.

Mr, Justice Lewis pronounced sentence after putting on the black cap. The sheriff’s chaplain recited a formal “Amen” as at the conclusion of a murder trial. A jury of ten men and two women returned the verdict of guilty. The usual Court officials saw the final scene, but the public and press were excluded.

The only 'detail made public was that Armstrong was charged with- two offences under the Treachery Act. He was committed from Bow Street Police Court oh March 19. Tin's is the fifth sentence of death passed under the Treachery Act of last year. The first on Mrs Dorothy Pamela O’Grady, of Sandown, Isle of Wight, was reduced by the Court of Criminal Appeal to one of 14 years’ penal servitude for offences under the Official (Secrets Act. Three spies who entered Britain to listen to careless talkers and to radio military secrets to Germany wore hanged in December. During the last war, 19 men were sentenced to death as spies. One was a British citizen. A number of women spies also were sentenced to death, but the sentences were commuted. ,