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Charles Thomas Wooldridge

In Reading Gaol Wooldridge told the prison chaplain that he was filled with grief and remorse at having killed his beloved wife, and resisted attempts at a reprieve (including a recommendation for clemency from the jury that convicted him) by petitioning the Home Secretary Sir Matthew White Ridley for the sentence to be allowed to be carried out.

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Charles Thomas Wooldridge (c.1866 – 7 July 1896) was a Trooper in the Royal Horse Guards who was executed in Reading Gaol for the murder of his wife and who, as 'C.T.W', was the dedicatee of Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

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Wilde was imprisoned in Reading Gaol when Wooldridge was hanged there on Saturday 7 July 1896; the two never met but Wilde would observe the condemned man during silent exercise periods in the prison yard, known as the 'Fools' Parade'.

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