High treason in the United Kingdom sentenced to be shot or hanged for this offence instead of for treason (one death sentence was commuted). Theodore Schurch was the last person to be put to death for treachery, in 1946. He was also the last person to be executed for a crime other than murder. Josef Jakobs, a German spy executed for treachery, was the last person to be executed in the Tower of London. The Treachery Act 1940 was suspended in February 1946, and was repealed in 1967. In June 1945 the Treason Act 1945 abolished the special rules of evidence and procedure formerly used in
To the Last Man (Torchwood) Raynor was also inspired by the issue of World War I soldiers who were executed for cowardice when they were suffering from shellshock. One of the episode's working titles was "Soldier's Heart", an American Civil War term for shellshock. The final title recalls an infamous order from Field Marshal Douglas Haig on 11 April 1918, in response to the German Spring Offensive, which included the phrase: "Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement". This policy led shell-shocked soldiers, like the fictional Tommy, to be sent back to war after a very short recuperation