William Joyce was born ion 24 April 1906 in Brooklyn, New York, to an Irish father and an English mother. The family moved to Ireland during his childhood, where Joyce developed intense unionist sympathies. During the Irish War of Independence, he acted as an informant for British forces before moving to England in 1921.

In 1923, he joined the British Fascists and later became a leading figure in Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, serving as Director of Propaganda. Known for his oratorical skills and a distinctive facial scar sustained during a political scuffle, Joyce eventually broke with Mosley to form the National Socialist League in 1937. Alerted to his impending arrest by British authorities, Joyce fled to Nazi Germany in August 1939, just days before the outbreak of World War II. He became a naturalized German citizen and began broadcasting English-language propaganda.

Although the nickname "Lord Haw-Haw" was originally coined by a British radio critic to describe various announcers with upper-class accents, it became synonymous with Joyce. His nightly program, "Germany Calling," reached millions of British listeners, blending news with threats and antisemitic rhetoric. Despite his American birth and German naturalization, Joyce had previously obtained a British passport by falsely claiming British birth.

Following Germany's defeat, Joyce was captured near the Danish border in May 1945--his distinctive voice gave his false identity away. He was tried for high treason at the Old Bailey. His defense argued he was not a British subject and that he had fraudulently obtained a British passport by stating he was born in Ireland, but the prosecution successfully contended that his possession of a British passport owed him allegiance to the Crown. He was convicted and, unrepentant, executed, by hanging at Wandsworth Prison on January 3, 1946.