New Delhi: William Joyce was a peculiar, and also interesting character who was given the nickname Lord Haw-Haw. If the name sounds strange, as it is bound to be, then there is another trivia about him which is already clear from the headline: He was the last person who was executed in the UK for treason.
What did William Joyce do?
William Joyce was a fascist born in the US and a Nazi propaganda broadcaster during World War II. After growing up, he moved to Ireland from New York and later went to England. During the Irish War of Independence, Joyce worked as a courier for military intelligence personnel in County Galway. He was suspected to have been involved in the abduction and murder of On 14 November 1920, Catholic priest and republican sympathiser Michael Griffin. Later he joined the Worcestershire Regiment and was transferred to England. However, he was discharged after a few months since he was underage.
William Joyce and Fascism
Joyce became interested in fascism during his stay in England and worked for the British Fascists of Rotha Lintorn-Orman but never joined the group. On October 22, 1924, communists attacked him and gave him a permanent scar with a deep razor slash across his right cheek. In 1932, Joyce joined the British Union of Fascists (BUF) of Oswald Mosley. His rise through the ranks in the Fascist part of England was steady before he moved to Germany before the beginning of World War II where he took German citizenship in 1940.
In Germany, Joyce began to work as a newsreader and rose through the ranks to become his station’s best-known propaganda broadcaster. In September 1939, the radio critic Jonah Barrington of the Daily Express said that Joyce spoke ‘English of the haw-haw’, which led to his nickname Lord Haw-Haw. By the end of 1939, Joyce had become the most prominent broadcaster of Nazi propaganda and he was famous in Britain as well.
We all know how Hitler was defeated in World War II. On April 30, 1945, he recorded his final broadcast during the Battle of Berlin. He was drunk, slammed the UK government and warned everyone about the Soviet Union’s ‘menace’. His final words were ‘Heil Hitler and farewell.’ Joyce was captured at the end of the war and the UK convicted him of high treason in 1945. He was sentenced to death and was hanged in Wandsworth Prison on January 3, 1946. He was the last person to be executed for treason in the UK.
William Joyce was a fascist born in the US and a Nazi propaganda broadcaster during World War II. After growing up, he moved to Ireland from New York and later went to England. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
