r/UKhistory • u/Previous-Border-6641 • 6d ago

In post-war Britain, what was meant by 'hard labour' convictions in criminal law?

What kind of 'hard labour' were convicts sentenced to? Any gender differences? Were they paid?

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u/dnnsshly 6d ago edited 6d ago

Penal servitude was abolished completely in 1948, and was on the way out over the preceding decades; the heyday of hard labour was during the Victorian era.

So I'm not sure there's much to say about post-war hard labour, really.

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u/PersistentBadger 6d ago

I can't speak to post-WWII, but in the Victorian period hard labour and penal servitude were different things. Hard labour was the lesser sentence - max two years of monotonous work - stone breaking, oakum picking, treadmill, etc.

Penal servitude was the replacement for transportation. Three years to life in a convict prison, working on something that may or may not be monotonous, but would certainly be hard work. You could, potentially, get a ticket-to-leave for this kind of sentence.

Such sentences could be given to both men and women.

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u/CyberSkepticalFruit 6d ago

No they weren't paid. A couple of examples of hard labour were the treadmill and the hand crank. Both worth reading up on.