September 19th, 1945: The controversial finding of guilt and sentencing to death of William Joyce whose propaganda broadcasts from Nazi Germany earned him the nickname "Lord Haw Haw"

Photo of William Joyce when he was a member of the British Union of Fascists.

William Joyce, a former member of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, had been charged under the ancient English law of ‘Giving aid and comfort to the King’s enemies’. He had also assisted Germany "in her war against our country and our King".

The prosecution argued that he committed the relevant offences between September 19th, 1939 and July 2nd, 1940 when he was in possession of a British passport before he became a naturalised German citizen.

A jury of 10 men and 2 women found him guilty at the Old Bailey.

However, many have argued that he was unjustly convicted in a show trial by a vengeful British establishment.

1. Joyce, who was Irish, had been born in the United States.

2. The British passport which he had applied for and used in the 1930s had been acquired fraudulently.

Joyce was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on January 3rd, 1946. 

He was 39 years old.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2024).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.