'Profound injustice': Last woman executed in UK pardoned by king

Ruth Ellis was the last woman executed in the UK in 1955. (AP Photo)

The last woman executed in the United Kingdom will receive a conditional pardon due to a "profound injustice".

Ruth Ellis, a mother of two, was hanged in 1955 for shooting dead her lover outside a London pub.

Her family, who have argued she was a victim of abuse, say justice has "finally been done".

The last woman executed in the United Kingdom will receive a posthumous conditional pardon from King Charles III due to a "profound injustice", the country's deputy prime minister has confirmed.

Ruth Ellis, a 28-year-old nightclub hostess, was hanged in July 1955 for shooting dead her racing-driver lover David Blakely as he left a London pub.

Ms Ellis was a mother of two children, who were aged three and 10 at the time.

Her execution provoked a public outcry and helped swing public opinion against the death penalty.

The case gripped Britain and was turned into the 1985 film Dance with a Stranger, starring Miranda Richardson and Rupert Everett.

The family of Ruth Ellis have long campaigned for her to be pardoned for murder. (AP Photo)

For decades, Ms Ellis's family has argued that she was a victim of abuse and that if the case were tried today, it would likely have resulted in a charge of manslaughter, not murder.

"I have the honour to say that his majesty the king as accepted our advice to grant Ruth Ellis a conditional pardon," UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told parliament.

Four of Ms Ellis's grandchildren made an application to Mr Lammy last year, highlighting the "repeated and long-standing sexual, emotional and physical abuse Ellis suffered" at the hands of Mr Blakely.

Granddaughter Laura Enston said justice had "finally been done".

"Ruth was a victim of sustained and brutal abuse. Her children -- our mother and uncle -- never recovered. The shadow of Ruth's execution has fallen across two generations," she said in a statement.

"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."

The single mother from a modest background showed no emotion during her trial, and the jury took just 14 minutes to find her guilty.

Elizabeth Woolcock is recognised as the only woman ever to be hanged in SA.

"She inadvertently played up to that sort of cold-blooded killer persona that she'd been portrayed to be, but knowing what we know now about trauma and slow-burn provocation, Ru