This paper describes a pulsed electron gun that can be used as an FEL, as an injector for electron linear accelerators or for rf power generation. It comprises a 1 to 5 MeV, 1 to 2 ns pulsed power supply feeding a single diode, photoexcited acceleration gap. Beam quality of a {approximately}1nC charge in {approximately}1 GV/m field was studied. Computations of the beam parameters as a function of electrode configuration and peak electron current are presented together with descriptions of the power supply, laser and beam diagnostics systems