steve reeves photographer

Joan

Joan used to faint at school. After this happened a few times, the doctor was called who said that she was anaemic. She was put on iron tablets and cod liver oil and told to stay at home. Joan wanted to go back to school, but the doctor said that she had to rest and that it didn't really matter whether or not she went to school because she was just a woman. So at 13-years old, Joans' education abruptly ended.

Jobs were scarce in the countryside, but at 15, Joan got work in a sports shop in the town of Lymington. She lived in the attic room above the shop and worked as a housemaid and in the shop itself.

Once a week, she got a half-day off and would cycle the 8 miles home to the hamlet of Bucklers Hard to visit her mum and dad.

She got friendly with a boy called Charlie who worked in the local greengrocers. His mum liked Joan and said she could visit them instead of cycling home if it was raining.

Charlie didn't like working in the greengrocers, and one day he cycled to Bournemouth to join the Grenadier Guards. He was too young to join, but they let him in because he was a 'tall lad.'

Joan and Charlie got married. By their first wedding anniversary, WW2 had broken out. Being a member of the British Expeditionary Forces, Charlie was sent off to France before the regular soldiers.

Joan enlisted into the ATS - Auxiliary Territorial Service. This was the women's branch of the British Army (swipe).

She was posted to Northampton to do her basic training. She learnt to march 'square-bashing.' She was sent to Winchester and then York, where she worked as a cook for the army.

Meanwhile, over in France, Charlie got shot by an enemy aircraft on the way to Dunkirk. He was shot in the thigh. Luckily the bullet didn't hit the bone. Joan still has the bullet. Charlie was at Dunkirk and was ready to board the hospital ship to take him back to England when it was bombed in front of him. He was eventually taken back amongst the flotilla of small ships that came to save the soldiers who were stranded on the beaches of France.

Joan loved the ATS. She loved the camaraderie and the responsibility of it all; she also loved all the cooking. She left when she got pregnant with their first daughter. Charlie went on to serve in North Africa and in Italy. He survived the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy, which cost Allied troops 55,000 casualties.

After the war, Charlie became a painter and decorator, and the couple had 2 more kids, Brenda and Nigel. They moved into their council house in 1962, and Joan still lives there today. Sadly, Charlie died of cancer at just 70.

Joan gets up a 7 and has cereal or porridge every morning. She cooks her main meal from scratch every lunchtime and has something small in the evening. If there's nothing on the telly, she's in bed by 9pm reading. Joan loves reading.

Perhaps it was the discipline of her time in the women's army, but Joan has always been independent and only gave up cycling when she was 85. Her house is immaculate, and she still bakes a cake every week. Fruitcake, sponges, or scones.

Her only regret in life is not finishing school. She would love to have had more of an education and would love to have run her own bakery. One of her 5 grandchildren is now a top patisserie chef (something he must have inherited from Joan). She also has 6 great-grandchildren.

Last year Joan got a letter from a fellow member of the women's army - Queen Elizabeth congratulating Joan on her 100th birthday. Next month she will be 101.