Robert Rice Howard (known as "Nosey Bob" Howard) (c. March 1832 – 3 February 1906) was an Australian executioner. He was employed as a hangman for the colony of New South Wales from 1875, initially as an assistant hangman. Howard held the position of senior executioner from 1877 until he retired in 1904. Throughout a career spanning twenty-eight years, Robert Howard assisted or supervised the execution of sixty-two persons in New South Wales. Howard had a facial disfigurement, resulting in the loss of his nose, that occurred while working as a cabman in the mid-1870s. His missing nose and lengthy high-profile career as an executioner led to him being generally known, in newspapers and common parlance, as 'Nosey Bob'.

Biography

Early life

Robert Rice Howard was born in about March 1832 in the village of Marham in Norfolk, England, to Henry Howard and Mary Ann (née Rice).Family records, Ancestry.com. His father worked as a coachman and Robert followed in his father's profession.Rachel Franks (2022), page 11.

Howard later claimed to be related, "in a very distant way", to the Duke of Norfolk, and had "running in his veins 'all the blood of all the Howards'".A Sensitive Executioner, Evening News (Sydney), 20 June 1879, page 3.

Emigration to Australia

Robert Howard and Jane Townsend were married in 1858 in Lewisham in south-east London. The couple's first three children were born in England. In the 1861 census Robert and Jane Howard and their first born, a daughter named Mary Ann, were living at Bermondsey and Robert's occupation was recorded as "Coachman - Domestic Servant".1861 England Census, National Archives, London; Class: Rg 9; Piece: 319; Folio: 149; Page: 4; GSU roll: 542614; Enumeration District: 06 (Bermondsey, St. James, county Surrey). In 1862 the family was living at Tetbury, in county Gloucestershire.

In the mid-1860s Robert and Jane Howard and their three young children, Mary Ann (aged 5), Emily (aged 3) and an infant named Edward, emigrated to Australia. They departed from England in November 1865 aboard the Legion of Honour and arrived at Brisbane in the colony of Queensland in February 1866. Robert Howard was recorded as a butcher on the immigration records.Immigration Indexes, 1848-1972, Queensland Archives; page 280, QSA No.: 18474, Microfilm: Z1957; M1696.Immigration Records: Passengers and Crew, 1852-1899, Queensland Family History Society.

The couple's fourth child was born in Brisbane in 1867, after which the family relocated to the colony of New South Wales. In 1868, Howard was recorded as a cabman in Sydney. The couple's fifth child (a boy named Sidney) was born in 1869 at Parramatta. A sixth child, William, was born in Sydney in 1872.

A Sydney cabman

By the late 1860s, Howard was working as a cabman in Sydney, driving a horse-drawn vehicle for hire. He was a success at his job, becoming a cab proprietor as well as a driver.Old Mudgee Hangman, Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative, 25 February 1915, page 6.Rachel Franks (2022), page 12. One reference states that he was the proprietor of a hansom cab, from which he "earned a respectable living" and had a reputation for being "clean, capable and punctual".Casual Chronicles in the Early Days by 'Old Chum', Truth (Brisbane), 14 November 1915, page 16. Howard was considered to be polite and well-presented to his customers despite the "long hours and physical demands of keeping a cab and horse". Howard built up a profitable clientele amongst the wealthy residents of suburbs such as Darling Point and was often called upon as cabman for Government jobs.Howard's Holocaust: Nosey Bob's Diamond Jubilee, Truth (Sydney), 20 January 1901, page 5.

In 1873 an incident occurred, involving a coach possibly being driven by Robert Howard, which was conveying the Governor of New South Wales and his family. On the evening of 14 July Sir Hercules Robinson was riding, with his wife and children, in a carriage drawn by two horses on their way to attend the theatre. As the carriage descended a hill in Elizabeth Street, the pole-chain gave way and startled the horses, causing them to bolt. One of the wheels hit a rut and the driver of the vehicle, named Howard, was thrown from his seat. The coach was eventually brought to a standstill without further incident. A newspaper report of the accident attributed "no blame" to Howard, who received injuries to his knees from the fall and "had to be conveyed home in a cab".Accident to Sir Hercules Robinson and Family, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July 1873, page 4.

During the period that Howard worked as a cabman in Sydney, he had an accident involving a kick to his face by a horse, that left him disfigured without a nose.Rachel Franks (2022), pages 13-14. A typical account of the cause of his deformity states: "The facial disfigurement was the result of an accident – a kick from a vicious horse, which literally smashed the nose beyond the possibility of repair".The Finisher of the Law, Truth (Sydney), 18 July 1897, page 5. One account states that Howard "lost his nose by a horse kick in a Bligh-street livery-stable".Hangman Howard..., Australian Workman (Sydney), 14 August 1897, page 3. The accident had a profound effect on Howard's life, as thereafter his "business as a cab-owner fell off". It was said that ladies from upper-class Sydney suburbs "shrank from employing him" because of his facial deformity, and he began to suffer cruel jibes from fellow cabmen, leading to his determination to "change his mode of obtaining a livelihood". The historian Rachel Franks has proposed that the loss of Howard's nose may have come about from a condition known as saddle-nose caused by syphilis.Sophie Kesteven & Ann Arnold (2022), Nosey Bob was Sydney's longest serving hangman but he always treated those he dispatched with dignity, ABC News website, Australian Broadcasting Corporation; accessed 3 October 2023.Saddle Nose, Cleveland Clinic website; accessed 3 October 2023.

In May 1874 Howard was fined twenty shillings, plus costs, for "furious driving", in addition to a further penalty of ten shillings with costs on a charge of using obscene language.Summons Sheet, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 May 1874, page 2. Three months later he was again charged with using obscene language and fined ten shillings.Water Police Court, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 August 1874, page 8. In May 1875 Howard was fined forty shillings in the Central Police Court in Sydney for "having by furious driving endangered public safety".Central Police Court, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 May 1875, page 6. Howard's court appearances during this period were possibly a result of him being under extreme financial pressure. By mid-year 1876 Howard had changed careers and taken up the role of assistant hangman.Rachel Franks (2022), page 16.

Assistant hangman

The roles of hangman and assistant hangman were positions within the Sheriff's office of the New South Wales Department of Justice. In the mid-1870s the senior hangman in New South Wales was a man named John Franks, who had been a deserter from the United States Navy. He was also a violent drunkard.Central Police Court. - Wednesday, Empire (Sydney), 30 April 1874, page 3.Rachel Franks (2022), pages 21-22. In April 1876 Franks was discovered in Hyde Park in a moribund condition; he was taken to the Sydney Infirmary where he died, aged 26 years, from "intermittent fever and debility" brought about by "habits of drunkenness and dissipation".Notes and Events, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 29 April 1876, page 2. After the death of Franks the assistant hangman, William Tucker, was promoted to senior executioner. With the position of assistant hangman vacant, Robert Howard was employed in that role in June 1876.Rachel Franks (2022), page 23.

The hanging of George Pitt

Howard's first role as Tucker's assistant was in the execution of George Pitt, who was hanged within the precincts of Mudgee Gaol on 21 June 1876. Pitt had been convicted of the murder of the widow, Mary Ann Martin, who kept a public-house named the Travellers' Rest Hotel on the road between Gulgong and Mudgee (about five miles from Gulgong, near 'Guntawang' station). George Pitt was a young farm labourer who murdered Mrs. Martin on Christmas night in 1875, in the passage outside her bedroom, by cutting her throat with a knife.Howard's Holocaust or Death-Doings at Darlinghurst. No. IX. by 'Old Chum', Truth (Sydney), 3 October 1897, page 2.The Guntawang Murder, Sydney Morning Herald, 31 December 1875, page 2. Pitt was tried in the Mudgee Circuit Court in April 1876 and sentenced to death.Provincial: Mudgee, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 29 April 1876, page 562.

The gallows erected within Mudgee Gaol were located at the north-west corner of the men's yard. The structure was about sixteen feet high (extending two feet above the gaol wall), with a pit dug underneath, five feet deep. A weight was attached to the trapdoor so that, when the bolt was drawn, "the door would be kept from swinging about". The trapdoor was padded with bags in order to cause as little noise as possible when it opened. The top of the gallows was enclosed with canvas, to conceal the execution from the general public outside of the gaol walls. On the morning of the execution Pitt was brought from his cell, accompanied by the Deputy Sheriff and the attending Anglican minister, and followed by the hangman, William Tucker, and his assistant, Robert Howard. The correspondent for the Australian Town and Country Journal commented that the assistant hangman was "a new hand", who "was recognised as having once been in good circumstances in Sydney". After the Deputy Sheriff gave the order to proceed, the principal hangman adjusted the rope, during which Pitt called out: "Tell me if I am standing straight". The prisoner then refused to give Howard his handkerchief, even though he had previously requested that it be handed to his mother. When the order was given, Turner drew the bolt, "launching the unhappy man into eternity". The body was cut down after twenty minutes and a formal inquest held.Execution of G. Pitt – The Guntawang Tragedy, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney), 24 June 1876, page 9.

Michael Connolly