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Picture source: Barry Taylor

The Red Lion was situated on Old Portsmouth Road. This pub has now been converted into two cottages.

The Unknown Sailor was an anonymous seafarer murdered in September 1786 at Hindhead in Surrey, England. He is first recorded as visiting the Red Lion Inn at Thursley as he was walking back from London to join his ship at Portsmouth on September 24, 1786. There he met three other seafarers, James Marshall, Michael Casey and Edward Lonegon. He generously paid for their drinks and food and was last seen leaving for Hindhead Hill with them. The three seafarers murdered him and stripped him of his clothes. The three then made their way down the London to Portsmouth road (now the A3) and were arrested a few hours later trying to sell the murdered sailor's clothes at the Sun Inn in Rake (not the Flying Bull in Rake as some versions of the story have it). Six months later they were tried at Kingston assizes and two days after that, on Saturday 7 April 1787, they were hanged in chains on a triple gibbet close to the scene of the crime in Hindhead.

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Picture source: Barry Taylor