Who was Cecil Havers? Judge who sentenced Ruth Ellis to death by hanging
CECIL Havers was a former soldier and judge who oversaw the Ruth Ellis case, which ended in her execution.
He appears in the ITV drama A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story that dramatises the controversial nightclub manager’s life.
Fighting for justice
Cecil was born in Norwich on November 12, 1889, and attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
He played for the men’s doubles team at the university and even competed at Wimbledon.
When the First World War began, Cecil was commissioned as a temporary second lieutenant before rising up the ranks to become a temporary captain in 1919.
He retired from the army in 1939 after reaching the age limit for military service.
After leaving the army, Cecil became a King’s Counsel in 1939.
He became a High Court judge in 1951 and oversaw the Ruth Ellis case in 1955.
The Ruth Ellis case
Ruth Ellis was a nightclub manager, who worked in Knightsbridge.
After surviving an abusive upbringing, she gave birth to her son at the age of 17.
She moved to London and became an escort before marrying an abusive dentist named George Johnston Ellis.
Ruth divorced George after giving birth to their daughter Georgina in 1951.
The nightclub manager began dating racecar driver David Blakely in 1953.
Ruth had a miscarriage in 1955, caused by Blakely punching her in the stomach, causing her to shoot him to death on Easter Sunday that same year.
She admitted to her crime immediately and plainly said “it’s obvious when I shot him I intended to kill him” in court.
Sadly, the jury took twenty minutes to convict her of murder and she became the last woman to be hanged.
Her execution sparked a wave of protests which sparked the decision to outlaw capital punishment in the UK.
The last execution took place in 1964 when the murderers Gwynne Owen Evas and Peter Anthony Allen were hanged.
Under Harold Wilson’s Labour government, the death penalty was finally abolished in 1969.
Ruth’s remains were exhumed in the 1970s, like many other executed women at Holloway Prison, and were moved to Buckinhamshire.
She was buried three miles from Blakely.
A bid to save Ruth
Nigel Havers, Cecil’s grandson, opened up about how the trial affected his grandfather.
According to him, Cecil was desperate to save Ruth from the death penalty.
He said: “I know it upset my grandfather enormously,
“He wrote a letter to the home secretary expressing she did not deserve to be hanged.”
Cecil believed that Ruth’s attack was a crime of passion, but he received a “blunt refusal” to his bid to save her.
The actor adds: “I have very fond memories of my grandfather. I adored him really.
“He was a kind-hearted man and I do know he had great sympathy for Ruth.”
Nigel believes that Ruth’s refusal to say that Desmond Cussen gave her the gun, as well as her insistence that she wanted to kill Blakely, sealed her fate.
Sadly, Cecil died on May 5, 1977, 22 years after Ruth’s execution.
A Cruel Love
Ruth’s tragic story is dramatised in the ITV series A Cruel Love; The Ruth Ellis Story.
Cecil is played by his own grandson Nigel in the thrilling series, starring opposite Lucy Boynton who plays the ill-fated nightclub manager.
The series kicked off on March 5, 2025, but viewers can stream the entire series on ITVX.