Colchester – Site of Shooting of Charles Lucas and George Lisle

This memorial notes where Sir Charles Lucas (1613-1648) and Sir George Lisle (1610-1648) were shot on the orders of Sir Thomas Fairfax, the Parliamentarian General. The two men were shot in the castle yard on 28 August 1648, following the surrender of the town to Parliamentary troops during the Civil War. The men were buried at St. Giles’s Church in the town and after the restoration of the Monarchy, there was a commemoration ceremony and the actions of Fairfax were rejected by many. Lucas was given a posthumous peerage in 1666 and the decision to shoot them was seen as a miscarriage of justice, even for the period. Lisle had said to the firing squad “now rebels, do your worst” and Lucas was equally brave.

This memorial stone was unveiled here behind Colchester Castle, where the men were killed, on 20 October 1892 at a ceremony attended by Henry Laver.