About Joan Born in Portsmouth on the 15th of December 1918 to Jeanette and Frederick, Joan grew up in Worthing where she went to the local grammar school for girls. There, she excelled at music and sports, took part in school plays and concerts, and captained her House tennis, hockey, netball and stoolball teams. Upon leaving school, she went to Whitelands Teacher Training College, and in 1939 began her first teaching job in Edmonton near Enfield. After the war she moved to Gravesend with her close friend, and fellow teacher, Hilda. In 1963, they jointly bought a bungalow in Tunbridge Wells, where Joan would remain for the next forty-five years. They both loved to travel and went abroad every year, as well as exploring England whenever time and budgets permitted. Joan's passion for music is already a noticeable presence throughout her war diary. It would go on to permeate her life both at home and at work, where she became the Head of Music at the Royal Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Girls. Hilda died very suddenly in 1974, leaving Joan devastated. She continued to teach and travel, and had a broad circle of friends and an active social life. She became a conductor to various local choirs, took up water colour painting, and went on educational cruise holidays. She did not learn to drive until in her forties, but then became a very enthusiastic car owner, and a proud member of the Institute for Advanced Motorists. In her mid-eighties, Joan began to develop dementia. Having always been fiercely independent, the added confusion caused by the disease made her belligerent about home care, and in 2008 she was admitted into a local nursing home, where she remains today.

ABOUT JOAN'S ARCHIVE