An Act to make further provision for the trial and punishment of treachery.
Citation
3 & 4 Geo. 6. c. 21
Introduced by
Sir John Anderson, Home Secretary (Commons) Viscount Simon, Lord Chancellor (Lords)
Territorial extent
applied to anything done:
by a British subject elsewhere than in a Dominion[a], India, Burma, or Southern Rhodesia
by any person anywhere subject to military law
by any person in the United Kingdom, or on any British ship or aircraft[b]
Dates
Royal assent
23 May 1940
Commencement
23 May 1940
Expired
24 February 1946[c]
Repealed
1 January 1968[1] (all other than with respect to Scotland and Northern Ireland[2]) 18 July 1973[3] (Scotland and Northern Ireland[4])
Other legislation
Repealed by
Criminal Law Act 1967 (c. 58), s. 10(2) and Part 1 of Schedule 3; Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973, s. 1(1) and Part V of Schedule 1
Relates to
Treason Act 1945
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
The Treachery Act 1940 (3 & 4 Geo. 6. c. 21)[5] was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom effective during World War II to facilitate the prosecution and execution of enemy spies, suspended afterwards, and repealed in 1968 or 1973, territory depending. The law was passed on 23 May 1940, in the month after Nazi Germany invaded France and Winston Churchill became prime minister.[6]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
^Criminal Law Act 1967, section 12(1)
^Criminal Law Act 1967, section 11(1)
^Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973. The repealing provision came into force on the date of royal assent because the contrary was not specified.
^The repealing provision extends to the remainder of the United Kingdom, because the contrary was not specified.
^Treachery Act 1940, 3 & 4 Geo. 6. c. 21 – via Wikisource.
^HM Prison Service – Prison Service News (Magazine)
and 23 Related for: Treachery Act 1940 information
The TreacheryAct1940 (3 & 4 Geo. 6. c. 21) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom effective during World War II to facilitate the prosecution...
to deal with traitors more expediently. The TreacheryAct1940 created a new capital felony called treachery. Seventeen people were shot or hanged for this...
to be executed under the TreacheryAct1940. Only four other British subjects are known to have been executed under this Act; saboteur Jose Estelle Key...
check up on Schmidt. Richter was charged with espionage under the TreacheryAct1940. He was tried in camera at the Old Bailey and found guilty on 24 October...
the internment of people suspected of being Nazi sympathisers. The TreacheryAct1940 received Royal Assent in Britain. The musical revue Keep Off the Grass...
4 January 1946) was a British soldier who was executed under the TreacheryAct1940 after the end of the Second World War. He was the last person to be...
Theodore Schurch, a British soldier who had been found guilty under the TreacheryAct1940. Joyce was the last person to be executed in Britain for treason;...
Anvil Books Ltd, Tralee, Ireland, pg 33. "TREACHERY BILL". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 22 May 1940. The Times Documentary History of the War. 1917...
Kingdom during the Second World War. Convicted of espionage under the TreacheryAct1940, Jakobs was sentenced to death and shot by a military firing squad...
Armstrong (1902–1941), first British citizen to be executed under the TreacheryAct1940 George Armstrong (actor) (1962–2023), English actor Sir George Carlyon...
later described as a "rapid, secret" hearing. He was found guilty of treachery and executed at Wandsworth Prison on 7 July 1942 by hanging. The execution...
executions under the TreacheryAct1940. Meier and Waldberg sailed in a fishing trawler across the English Channel on the night of 3 September 1940. Carrying a...
the Realm Act 1914, and 16 spies were executed during the Second World War under the TreacheryAct1940. Whereas the 1866 Naval Discipline Act made "All...
conducted under the TreacheryAct1940 were against individuals from among those who had come to the islands from Britain in 1939–1940 for agricultural work...
crimes had been committed barely a month before the TreacheryAct1940 was passed. The TreacheryAct imposed death sentences for acts which aided the enemy...
in London on 10 December 1940. Kieebom was hanged on 17 December 1940. These were the first executions under the Treason Act. The spies were sent to Britain...
Treason Act 1800, as amended, gave the consequences of treason. The British TreacheryAct1940 was only passed as a law in the UK on 23 May 1940. The only...
(1921–1942) attended 1933–37. Youngest person to be executed under the TreacheryAct1940. Captain Thomas Henry Tizard (1839–1924) – Oceanographer, Hydrographic...
Vict. c. 98) The TreacheryAct1940 (3 & 4 Geo. 6. c. 40) The Treason Act 1945 (8 & 9 Geo. 6. c. 44) The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 (c. 20) (amends...
Powers (Defence) Act1940, giving the government full control over all persons and property. 23 May – Parliament passes the TreacheryAct1940 to facilitate...
crimes had been committed barely a month before the TreacheryAct1940 was passed. The TreacheryAct imposed death sentences for acts which aided the enemy...
execution by firing squad following conviction for an offence under the TreacheryAct1940. 16 August – HMS Mercury Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals...
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