Charles Thomas Wooldridge Charles Thomas Wooldridge Charles Thomas Wooldridge (c.1866 – 7 July 1896) was a Trooper in the Royal Horse Guards who was executed in Reading Gaol for the murder of his wife and who, as 'C.T.W', was the dedicatee of Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol". The son of Eleanor (born c.1827) and Charles Wooldridge (born c.1824), Wooldridge was born in East Garston and joined the Royal Horse Guards in 1886. He married Laura Ellen "Nell" Glendell (1873–1896) in 1894 when his regiment was posted to Windsor. However, as his commanding officer had not given permission for the wedding to
Cork County Gaol would be executed at Victoria Barracks. Republican (anti-treaty) prisoners were held in the Gaol during and after the Irish Civil War (1922-23). On 25 September 1922, a Republican prisoner, Volunteer Patrick Mangan (a veteran of the War of Independence from Lismore), was shot by a sentry as he tried to escape from Cork County Gaol. At 08:00 on 13 March 1923, the Free State Government executed a Republican prisoner named William Healy (born in Lackabawn, Donoughmore in 1900) at Cork County Gaol. On the evening before he faced the firing squad he wrote to his father telling him, "If I