From glamour model to nightclub manager - who was pardoned killer Ruth Ellis?

The last woman to be executed in the UK has received a posthumous conditional pardon more than 70 years after her death - but who was she?

Nightclub hostess Ruth Ellis, from Rhyl in Denbighshire, was hanged after being convicted of murdering her lover, David Blakely.

Since then, Ellis' family have fought for her conviction to be overturned, saying Blakely physically and emotionally abused her before she killed him.

Announcing that the King had granted the pardon on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said it did not mean Ellis was innocent, but "replaces the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment to recognise a profound injustice in this exceptional case".

Ellis worked as a glamour model in London in the 1940s and 50s, and was linked to several venues in the capital's nightlife scene, before reportedly living and working as the manager at the Little Club in Knightsbridge until 1954.

She was convicted of murdering Blakely on 10 April 1955, and hanged at London's Holloway Prison on 13 July that year.

Ellis shot Blakely outside The Magdala pub in Hampstead, London, following a tumultuous relationship involving infidelity on both sides.

She had an abortion, which was illegal in the UK at the time, and was physically abused by the racing driver who punched her in the stomach during an argument, leading to a miscarriage.

The day before she was executed, she wrote to George Rogers, the Labour MP for Kensington North at the time, who had campaigned for her to be pardoned.

In the letter, she appeared resigned to her fate, saying she was "quite well".

The letter was written on prison paper with her name, prisoner number and the date at the top.

Ellis thanked Rogers for his efforts to help her. He had visited Ellis in prison and received her agreement to an appeal to the Home Secretary for clemency - or leniency - but it was denied.

She also said Rogers would speak to her solicitor following her death and know "the truth".

At the time of Ellis' execution, the British public was already questioning whether capital punishment had a place in the 20th Century and, two years after her hanging, legal changes saw diminished responsibility introduced as a defence.

Lammy said: "For 70 years, the family of Ruth Ellis have fought for her story to be heard.

"We cannot change what happened 70 years ago, but we can recognise that this was an exceptional case.

"Today's conditional pardon is an act of mercy. We hope it brings some measure of peace to Ruth's family."

Laura Enston, Ellis' granddaughter, said: "Today, justice has finally been done... this pardon does not undo what happened 71 years ago, it does not restore the lives that were broken - the children left behind, the years lost.

"But it says, formally and finally, that Ruth should not have been executed. That the justice system failed her. That acknowledgement matters profoundly to our family.

"We hope Ruth's story serves as a lasting reminder that the justice system must reckon with the abuse that drives women to the edge."