Biography of Joy

Joy was interviewed in Bexhill in the Nursing Home she currently resides in. 

Joy is 91, born in April 1931. She is a cockney, an only child, born in Plaistow in East London.

She was evacuated to Somerset aged 7, during the Second World War. She was homesick so she was sent back to London and all the bombing.

Their flat was bombed in the war while she was in the Andersen Shelter in the garden, the house still stood but all the glass was blown out. The shelter was shared between 3 families. There was room for the children and the mothers but the men had to stand outside.

She left school at 14 (1945) and went to work in a shoe factory. Her role in the factory was as a “skiver”, she worked on the conveyor and small pieces of leather came to her and with a tool she has to make parts of it thinner to enable other girls down the line to do the stitching.  She enjoyed the job.

She met her husband Pete at the factory, he worked on the same conveyor. She was married at 19, in 1950. They moved in with Pete’s parents in Greys in Essex.

After the shoe factory, Joy did a variety of jobs during her working life, she worked as a courier on the coaches in the UK and transporting men from the army camps in Germany home to the UK. She worked as a silver service waitress, a cleaner and she was a driver.

Her favourite job was as a driver, driving Daimlers and vans for the government. She had to wear a uniform. She got marks against her as she was often seen driving without her hat on!

She was delivering mail to the embassies and red boxes to number 10, Downing Street, “you had to guard those boxes with your life. I knocked the door and asked for a signature,  I never gave up a box until I had his moniker on my paperwork!”.

There were a number of women doing the job. A good few of them were lesbians.  Joy was quite naïve about that sort of thing despite being in her late 20’s.

15 years ago, when she was 76, she decided to move down closer to her beloved Hastings.

They found a flat in Magdala House, for the over 65’s in Rye. Sadly after only 6 months in Rye Pete died.  Joy did not consider leaving Rye after his death as she like it so much.

For 10 years Joy worked in the RNLI charity shop. She loved listening out for the languages the visitors were speaking as she had “picked up a lot of the lingo” when she worked as a courier on the coaches. She didn’t like Germans “because of the war”. She loved the job as she loved to be around people.

She loved to look after many of the old people in Rye and often cooked hot meals for other residents in Magdala House (despite her being in her 80’s)

Joy had played bowls when she lived in Grays and carried on once she came to live in Rye. She played and was fixtures secretary at the Winchelsea Bowls club. Only in 2022 did she sell her bowls.

She joined the knitting group in St Mary’s church and was soon running the show! Ordering the wool from a shop in Hastings and getting a good discount (which none of the other ladies could secure!).  She organised everyone and loved being at the centre of everything.

In 2022 she (at her own request) moved into a nursing home in Bexhill where she is, bedridden, today.

Joy had a daughter, Carol, who is estranged. Joy seems unsure if she would want to make up now after 25 years.

 

Audio of interview with Joy