Joyce, William ‘Lord Haw-Haw’

1906–1946

   Possessing a style and personality totally different from his Pacific equivalent TOKYO ROSE, William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) subjected the British population to propaganda that was a curious mixture of fact and fiction with a preponderance of the latter. Amusing but vicious, Joyce did all that was possible to undermine the confidence of the Allies beginning each broadcast with. ‘This is Jairmany calling,’ a parody of his publicschool accent. His mother was English and his father Irish. He was born in Brooklyn in New York City and moved to England in 1921. At the outbreak of war he and his wife went to Germany where he offered his services to the Nazis. Just after the end of the war he was arrested at Flensburg by the British and was taken to London to be tried at the Old Bailey for high treason. His only defense was that he was an American citizen and therefore not legally able to perform acts of treason against Britain. The prosecution however stated that for the first nine months of the war he had a British passport and therefore did owe allegiance to the crown. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. All appeals were turned down and he was executed in 1946.