The execution

The execution
On 17 November 1922, the morning of the execution, Taffy was taken out of his cell, handcuffed and marched to the gallows. He started singing the Red Flag, the anthem of early socialists and communists in South Africa. He was joined in the song by strikers Herbert Hull and David Lewis, also sentenced to death for shooting Lieutenant Twentyman Taylor of Military Intelligence. A fourth man was also hanged that day - Carel Stassen, who had murdered two blacks. As the accused walked to the gallows, all the prisoners joined in the song, and it was only once the song finished that the hangman placed the nooses around the men's necks. The funerals of Taffy, Hull and Lewis were attended by over 10 000 people at Brixton Cemetery. The ceremony began and ended with the singing of the Red Flag. In 1997, the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust located Taffy's grave in the cemetery and placed a granite headstone on it. At the time, Flo Bird, chairman of the Trust, advertised for relatives of Long, and an elderly woman, not a relative, responded. She had a postcard of the funeral procession. Asked why she had kept the postcard, she said: "I kept it because they killed an innocent man." Bird adds: "Smuts was determined to kill an Englishman for killing an Afrikaner." Taffy left his 18-year-old wife, Maria Elizabeth, whom he had married 16 months before his death, and six-month-old baby, Samuel Thomas.\

On 17 November 1922, the morning of the execution, Taffy was taken out of his cell, handcuffed and marched to the gallows. He started singing the Red Flag, the anthem of early socialists and communists in South Africa. He was joined in the song by strikers Herbert Hull and David Lewis, also sentenced to death for shooting Lieutenant Twentyman Taylor of Military Intelligence. A fourth man was also hanged that day - Carel Stassen, who had murdered two blacks.

As the accused walked to the gallows, all the prisoners joined in the song, and it was only once the song finished that the hangman placed the nooses around the men's necks.

The funerals of Taffy, Hull and Lewis were attended by over 10 000 people at Brixton Cemetery. The ceremony began and ended with the singing of the Red Flag.

In 1997, the Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust located Taffy's grave in the cemetery and placed a granite headstone on it. At the time, Flo Bird, chairman of the Trust, advertised for relatives of Long, and an elderly woman, not a relative, responded. She had a postcard of the funeral procession. Asked why she had kept the postcard, she said: "I kept it because they killed an innocent man."

Bird adds: "Smuts was determined to kill an Englishman for killing an Afrikaner."

Taffy left his 18-year-old wife, Maria Elizabeth, whom he had married 16 months before his death, and six-month-old baby, Samuel Thomas.\