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William Joyce was born on 24 April 1906, in New York, in 1909 his family returned to their native Ireland, his father was a staunch supporter of Britain, and with partition in 1922, his parents fearing retribution by Irish nationalists moved to England, William had gone the previous December. For a while Joyce was an active and prominent member of the British Union of Fascists, but became disenchanted with Oswald Mosley's leadership.
Joyce who would later be put on trial in England as a traitor, he was as previously stated an American citizen, therefore technically not a traitor, however in 1938 he obtained a British passport, claiming to be a British subject by falsifying details, in doing so, Joyce had unwittingly signed his own death warrant.
On August 26 1939, William Joyce and his wife left England, destination Berlin, being a pro-Nazi sympathiser, he had been tipped by a contact in the British security service that he was on their list as a potential fifth columnist, likely to be detained on the outbreak of war which was on the brink. Around three weeks after his arrival in Berlin he had joined the English-language service of the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft a state owned broadcasting company under the direction of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. Joyce's accent, a mix of Yankee twang and Irish brogue gave him a very distinctive voice when broadcasting, his opening words “Jairmany calling, Jairmany calling” earned him the nickname of Lord Haw Haw. His broadcasts were an instant hit, in the early months of the war when he was in competition with a heavily censored and staid BBC, Joyce attracted an audience of around 9 million listeners. A report commissioned by the UK government in December 1939, found that two-thirds of the public listened to Joyce at least occasionally. Joseph Goebbels the Propaganda Minister, reported to Hitler about Lord Haw Haw's success, he went on to describe Joyce as “the best runner in my stable”, as a reward for this achievement, he was awarded a pay rise, and promotion to chief commentator, with his own programme “Views on the News”.
At the start the British public seem to regard Joyce with a certain amount of amusement and curiosity. However the UK authorities did not see the funny side, the BBC's Director-General was warned in late 1939, that Joyce's well constructed broadcasts were having a negative effect on public morale, his rumours, some of which appeared to be fact-based, were being spread by normally responsible people, and were causing cases of genuine alarm.
There were times when a Joyce broadcast had a direct impact, his warning that a factory in the English town of Peterborough was to be hit by the Luftwaffe, caused terrified workers to stay at home, causing production to halt, some began to believe that he knew the precise location of bombing raids, however this was most unlikely, but Joyce was able quite often to report on news items prior to their release by the BBC. During this period Joyce's wife also broadcast to Britain
Cheered on the German occupation of much of Europe, Joyce looked forwarded to the day when the could return to a Nazi Britain. In September 1944 Joyce was awarded the Third Reich War Merit Cross First Class, but by this time Germany was loosing the war, and although he never lost his faith in Hitler, a growing sense of doom and foreboding affected him, and he started drinking heavily, thereafter his broadcasts were often delivered through an alcoholic haze, and he became a shadow of his previous self.
In March 1945 Joyce and his wife were evacuated from Berlin, he delivered his last broadcast in a drunk state from Hamburg on April 30 1945. After the war had ended, Joyce went into hiding close to the Danish border, on May 28 1945, he approached two British soldiers who were looking for firewood and offered in English to show them where they might find some, one of the soldiers named Geoffrey Perry recognised his voice, saying to him “would you be William Joyce by any chance”, Joyce at that moment reached inside his pocket, the soldier probably fearing a weapon, shot him in the thigh, it is interesting to note that his captor was a German Jew who had changed his name to Perry, he was sent to Britain with his brother in 1936 by his parents to shield them from Nazi persecution.
James Joyce was charged by the British with committing treason, he was found guilty in September 1945, despite a number of appeals, he was hanged on 3 January 1946 in Wandsworth Prison in London.
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