“Germany Calling, Germany Calling”: The Rise and Fall of Lord Haw-Haw

It’s hard to imagine a time when the voice of a Nazi sympathiser could reach six million British radios in wartime Britain, but for a time, William Joyce—better known to history as Lord Haw-Haw—was a fixture of British homes. With a nasal, jeering voice and upper-crust accent, Joyce became the most infamous English-speaking Nazi propagandist of the Second World War. His story is one of transatlantic origins, ideological obsession, opportunism, and eventual disgrace. In 1946, he was executed at Wandsworth Prison—technically for a lie told on a passport application. But his real crime in the eyes of many was treason.

Let's explore the full trajectory of William Joyce: from Brooklyn-born boy to fascist ideologue, Nazi broadcaster, and finally, the last person in Britain to hang for treason.

Born in Brooklyn, Raised in Galway: A Conflicted Childhood

William Brooke Joyce was born on 24 April 1906 in Brooklyn, New York, the eldest son of Michael Joyce, an Irish Catholic, and Gertrude Emily Brooke, a Protestant from a well-off Anglo-Irish family. His father had acquired US citizenship in 1894, but by 1909, the Joyces had returned to Ireland, settling in Salthill, County Galway.

Educated at the Jesuit-run Coláiste Iognáid between 1915 and 1921, young William grew up in a household that fervently supported the British Empire—his parents were unionists who despised Irish republicanism. In adolescence, Joyce rejected Catholicism for Anglicanism, supposedly after being told that his Protestant mother would be damned. Though he remained nominally Anglican, his later religious views were patchy at best.

During the Irish War of Independence, Joyce aligned himself with the Black and Tans, acting as a scout. His hardline imperialism alienated even some loyalists. It is said that the IRA tried to assassinate him on his way home from school. With the help of Captain Patrick Keating of the Intelligence Corps, he was spirited out of Ireland and enlisted in the Worcestershire Regiment under a false age. He was discharged months later due to rheumatic fever and his true age being discovered.

From Student to Fascist: The Making of an Ideologue

Settling in England in the early 1920s, Joyce initially studied pre-medical sciences at Battersea Polytechnic but left, reportedly for laziness and radical views. He later studied English and history at Birkbeck College, earning a first-class BA and publishing academic work on philology. He was a gifted linguist and mathematician, though he later claimed that his work had been plagiarised by a Jewish scholar.

One of the most striking features of William Joyce was the deep scar running from his right ear to the corner of his mouth—commonly described as a "Glasgow smile" or "Chelsea grin."

This injury occurred on 22 October 1924, during a heated political rally. Joyce was stewarding a meeting in support of Conservative candidate Jack Lazarus in Lambeth during the general election.

The event was disrupted by communists. In the ensuing violence, Joyce was slashed across the face with a razor. He would later claim the assailants were "Jewish communists," feeding into his later antisemitic rhetoric. However, historian Colin Holmes cited Joyce’s first wife as saying it was actually an Irish woman who inflicted the wound.

Regardless of its origins, the scar was both literal and symbolic. It altered his appearance, lent him a sinister air, and was frequently mocked in political cartoons. It would also play a role in the final act of his life—at the moment of his hanging.

By 1928, Joyce was active in the Chelsea Conservative Association but was eventually expelled over sexual misconduct and eccentric behaviour. He married Hazel Kathleen Barr in 1927, with whom he had two daughters, but the marriage dissolved in 1937 amid infidelities and violence.

William Joyce in Berlin.

Climbing the BUF Ranks: Joyce and Oswald Mosley

In 1932, Joyce joined Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) and quickly rose through the ranks. His fierce oratory drew attention, with journalist Cecil Roberts describing him as:

"Thin, pale, intense, he had not been speaking many minutes before we were electrified ... so terrifying in its dynamic force, so vituperative, so vitriolic."

Joyce was appointed Director of Propaganda in 1934 and then Deputy Leader. He led the BUF’s shift from economic corporatism to racial antisemitism. A 1935 speech denouncing the Government of India Bill revealed his ideological fervour, calling its backers a:

“... loathsome, foetid, purulent, tumid mass of hypocrisy, hiding behind Jewish Dictators.”

BUF activity in West Sussex under Joyce became particularly intense, supported by figures like Norah and Dudley Elam. However, his extremism began to alienate Mosley. By 1937, Joyce was dismissed during BUF staff cuts, his departure triggering the formation of his own group, the National Socialist League.

Despite ideological overlaps, Mosley later denounced Joyce as a traitor. Yet, Norah Elam would later state that Joyce should not have been hanged, as he was Irish, not British.

Germany Calling: Joyce Becomes “Lord Haw-Haw”

On 26 August 1939, shortly before war broke out, Joyce fled to Germany with his second wife, Margaret Cairns White, a fellow fascist and activist. There, through contacts like Dorothy Eckersley, he secured work as a broadcaster for Nazi radio. His first broadcast came on 6 September 1939. He was naturalised as a German citizen in 1940.

The Daily Express critic Jonah Barrington coined the nickname “Lord Haw-Haw” for the affected, aristocratic voice he heard on Nazi broadcasts. The term was initially misapplied to another speaker, possibly Wolf Mittler, but by 1940 it had stuck firmly to Joyce.

Joyce began to relish the role. He introduced himself on air as:

“William Joyce, otherwise known as Lord Haw-Haw.”

The broadcasts opened with the now-notorious phrase, “Germany calling, Germany calling,” and often featured jeering commentary, exaggerated claims, and predictions of British defeat. At his peak, Joyce reached an estimated six million regular listeners. For many, he was both a grim source of information and a darkly compelling curiosity.

The Voice of Treason

While officially listening to Joyce’s broadcasts was discouraged in Britain, it remained legal. Civilians tuned in to hear Nazi perspectives, sometimes morbidly fascinated by his knowledge of British troop movements and POW names. Urban legends proliferated about Lord Haw-Haw’s seeming omniscience—rumours suggesting he had access to British informants or was orchestrating sabotage.

Joyce wasn’t limited to radio. He wrote propaganda leaflets, tried to recruit British POWs to the Waffen-SS’s British Free Corps, and authored Twilight Over England, a treatise comparing decadent capitalist Britain to the alleged utopia of Nazi Germany.

His broadcasts continued even as the Allies advanced, though they took on an increasingly desperate and drunken tone. On 30 April 1945, the day of Hitler’s death, Joyce signed off with:

“Heil Hitler and farewell.”

Capture, Trial, and Execution

On 28 May 1945, Joyce was captured by British forces at Flensburg, near the Danish border. Intelligence officer Geoffrey Perry, a German-Jewish émigré, recognised his voice. Joyce was shot in the buttocks while reaching for identification and was brought back to London.

Tried at the Old Bailey in September 1945, Joyce faced three counts of high treason. Though born in the US, he had acquired a British passport fraudulently, which the prosecution argued entitled him to British protection—and thus made him subject to British treason laws.

As historian A. J. P. Taylor drily noted:

“Technically, Joyce was hanged for making a false statement when applying for a passport, the usual penalty for which is a small fine.”

Despite appeals, including one to the House of Lords (with Lord Porter dissenting), the conviction held. On 3 January 1946, William Joyce was hanged at Wandsworth Prison by famed executioner Albert Pierrepoint. His was the last execution for treason in British history.

Joyce’s final words reportedly included:

“In death as in life, I defy the Jews who caused this last war … I am proud to die for my ideals.”

Joyce’s execution was unremarkable in one respect—Pierrepoint was a consummate professional. But due to the pressure exerted on his neck during the drop, the scar that had defined his appearance for over two decades split open. Blood reportedly poured down his cheek as his body was left to hang.

Legacy and Reburial

Joyce’s remains were interred in an unmarked grave at Wandsworth. But in 1976, after a campaign by his daughter Heather Iandolo, they were reburied in Galway. He received a Roman Catholic Tridentine Mass despite religious ambiguity in life.

Heather, who died in 2022, publicly condemned his Nazi activities while remembering him as a warm father.

To some, William Joyce remains a traitor and propaganda tool of a genocidal regime. To a small number of neo-Nazis, he is a martyr. But for most, he is a chilling reminder of how ideology, disenchantment, and delusion can lead a man from the lecture hall to the gallows.

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