It was not a job everyone wanted but British officials strived to uphold high standards when filling the post of hangman.

They rejected applicants in 1938 including the chatty, the morally dubious and the morbid to keep executions dignified, documents released Thursday by Britain's National Archives showed.

The need for an alert, swift mind and healthy body also provoked concern among prison officials as to whether one of Britain's longest serving hangmen, Thomas Pierrepoint, was still up to the job after reaching his 70s in 1940.

Pierrepoint, who came from the country's best-known family of hangmen, served for 37 years and executed more than 300 men and women.

The documents show prison governors and medical officers were asked to observe him after a complaint from one prison in 1940 that Pierrepoint no longer seemed to be fit for duty.

"In Dr Landers' opinion Pierrepoint was getting past his job; he was uncertain and it was doubtful whether his sight was good," the governor of Wandsworth prison wrote in December 1940.

However, most subsequent reports mentioned only minor concerns and Pierrepoint was kept on due to shortages during World War Two.

"Owing to wartime difficulties of replacements and favorable reports from other prisons, the Commissioners are inclined to allow Mr. Pierrepoint to continue to act," the prison commission concluded in July 1943. But it noted that "particular attention should be paid to his technique."

The records of applications for a post of executioner in 1938 show the commission was not impressed by some candidates.

"He appears to have a somewhat morbid interest in the work, aroused through having a friend who carried out many executions in Arabia," Brixton police said of one failed applicant.

Another candidate, Daniel Clifford of Fulham, was rejected when an assistant executioner warned the prison commission he was too talkative when drunk.

"He lets his tongue run away from him when in drink and as I know him he is not to be trusted with any business concerning the above duties," he wrote.

One hopeful was turned down for appearing "nerve-strained" while butcher Arthur Clifford Gill was unsuccessful after being described as "a man of loose morals."

The search for executioners came to an end in 1964, when Britain abolished the death penalty.