A twist to the Joyce story

On Monday, we published an article about Joyce's clocks in Whitchurch. We were immediately contacted by two readers telling us that William Joyce, the infamous Lord Haw-Haw who broadcast German propaganda during the war, was a cousin of the family.

One reader, Geoff Farr, even remembered one of his broadcasts when he said: "The clock at Winford is five minutes slow", the sort of ruse he used to infer there were German spies or Fifth Columnists in the area keeping the Germans informed.

While there is no evidence that William Joyce was a visitor to Audlem – indeed his links with the Whitchurch branch of the Joyce family are by blood (he was a cousin) rather than geographical – readers may be interested to read a little about the infamous traitor.

He was born in New York but lived in Ireland and then Britain for much of his life. In 1932, Joyce joined the British Union of Fascists (BUF) under Sir Oswald Mosley, and swiftly became a leading speaker, praised for his power of oratory. In 1934, Joyce was promoted to the BUF's Director of Propaganda and later made deputy leader. As well as being a gifted speaker, Joyce gained the reputation of a savage brawler.

Joyce was sacked from his paid position when Mosley drastically reduced the BUF staff shortly after the 1937 elections, after which Joyce promptly formed a breakaway organisation, the National Socialist League.

In late August 1939, shortly before war was declared, Joyce and his wife Margaret fled to Germany and he became a naturalised German citizen in 1940.

In Berlin, Joyce could not find employment until a chance meeting with a fellow Mosleyite got him an audition at the Rundfunkhaus ("broadcasting house"). He was recruited immediately for radio announcements and script writing at German radio's English service.

The name "Lord Haw-Haw of Zeesen" was coined in 1939 by a Daily Express radio critic but this referred initially to another propagandist . When Joyce became the best-known propaganda broadcaster, the nickname was transferred to him.

Initially an anonymous broadcaster, Joyce eventually revealed his real name to his listeners; and he would occasionally be announced as "William Joyce, otherwise known as Lord Haw-Haw". Although listening to his broadcasts was officially discouraged (but not illegal), many Britons did tune in. At the height of his influence, in 1940, Joyce had an estimated six million regular and 18 million occasional listeners in the United Kingdom.

The broadcasts always began with the announcer's words "Germany calling, Germany calling, Germany calling". These broadcasts urged the British people to surrender and were well known for their jeering, sarcastic and menacing tone.

Joyce recorded his final broadcast on 30 April 1945. Rambling and audibly drunk, he chided Britain for pursuing the war beyond mere containment of Germany and warned repeatedly of the "menace" of the Soviet Union. He signed off with a final defiant "Heil Hitler and farewell".

On 28 May 1945 Joyce was captured by British forces. Spotting a dishevelled figure, intelligence soldiers engaged him in conversation in French and English. After they asked whether he was Joyce, he reached for his pocket (actually reaching for a false passport). Believing he was armed, they shot him through the buttocks, leaving four wounds.

Joyce was then taken to London and tried at the Old Bailey on three counts of high treason. During the processing of the charges Joyce's American nationality came to light, and it seemed that he would have to be acquitted, based upon a lack of jurisdiction; he could not be convicted of betraying a country that was not his own.

However, the Attorney General successfully argued that Joyce's possession of a British passport, even though he had mis-stated his nationality to get it, entitled him to British diplomatic protection in Germany and therefore he owed allegiance to the king at the time he commenced working for the Germans. It was on this basis that Joyce was convicted of the third charge and sentenced to death.

He was hanged at Wandsworth prison, the penultimate person to be executed for a crime other than murder – the last person was hanged the following day for treachery at Pentonville prison by the same executioner.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.