TRAITOR HANGED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 288, 17 September 1941, Page 8

TRAITOR HANGED.

BRITISH SHIP’S ENGINEER. SPY IN THE PAY OF NAZIS. LONDON, July 19. George Johnston Armstrong, a 39-years-old British seafaring man, walked down the gangway from his ship when it reached an English port last March, after crossing from the United States. He carried In his head full instructions given him by Nazi agents in America as to how to spy against his ;own country. As his foot touched his native soil a plain-clothes officer went up to him, touched him on the shoulder and after confirming his name, told him that he was under arrest. That was the beginning and the end of George Johnston Armstrong as a spy. Yesterday Armstrong was hanged at Wandsworth gaol for spying against this country—the first British subject to be hanged for treachery in the war. Armstrong, who had an address in Commercial Road, had offered his services to the Nazi spy organisation against Great Britain through the intermediary of a German consul in the United States. As a ship’s engineer he had travelled the world, and was caught up by political intrigues in foreign countries. He had spent a good deal of his time in the United States, where he was closely watched by secret police because of his professed pro-Nazi feelings. He was a suspect, and a rank amateur. Armstrong was tried in camera at the Old Bailey by a jury of ten men and two women, and had the death sentence passed upon him by Mr Justice Lewis. When he appealed he appeared in Court handcuffed. He was driven to the Court in a special car accompanied by special prison officers. His appeal was dismissed. Armstrong was hanged, and not shot because he was a civilian.