The teenager who tackled the Bristol Blitz turns 100

A teenager who volunteered to be a fire watcher during the Bristol Blitz has spoken about her experiences – as she celebrates her 100th birthday.

Joyce Weaver was 15 when the Second World War broke out and just 16 when, in the winter and spring of 1940-1941, Bristol suffered 548 alerts and 77 air raids which killed 1,299 people, were seriously injured about the same number and destroyed over 80,000. houses.

For teenage Joyce, it meant long nights armed with a bucket of water and a pump, trying to put out the incendiary bombs that the Luftwaffe rained down on her part of South Bristol.

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She worked during the day in Robinson’s paper bag factory, just off East Street in Bedminster – and now lives just round the corner at the St Monica Trust Retirement Village, off West Street – but the nights when the fascist planes bombed Bristol will be remembered for a long time. .

“I remember coming down Coronation Road on the bus early in the morning and all the Bristol docks were on fire,” she said. “Another time I was going to work after a bomb had been thrown on the White Horse Pub in the night and there was a tram on top of the roof.

The war brought a dramatic end to what she described as a “very happy” childhood. She was born at home in Beauley Road in Southville – her father was a qualified engineer – and when she was four the family moved to what was then the village of Bishopsworth, where new development in the 1930s eventually made it part of Bristol .

She went to the new Cheddar Grove School in Bedminster Down and then to Marksbury Road School in Bedminster, but admitted she was “not a very good scholar” and struggled with geometry in particular – once getting just four out of 40. in a geometry exam – to the dismay of her engineer father.

But she said her childhood was “very happy” and “we always seemed to have everything we wanted”.

After leaving school he went to work for Robinsons – the factory building is still there with the Robinson’s name at the top, although it has since been converted into flats. She earned ten shillings for what was a long, 48-hour work week. “It worked like that for an hour, but I loved it,” she said.

“My aunt was a foreman there and any dirty job she always gave me. They put in new accounting machines when the firm moved due to bomb damage and asked me if I would like to learn, so I did,” she added.

She met her husband, Bert, while babysitting his sister. He was a merchant seaman who took part in the Normandy landings, taking supplies after D-Day to support the troops as they invaded France.

After the war, the couple bought a home in Southville and raised three daughters there and remained for 65 years. She lost Bert in 1980 and remained in her home in Southville until she was 90, when she moved to the Monica Wills House.

Her 100th birthday on June 2 was marked with a surprise party attended by family, friends and staff at her West Street home.

“I never got carried away with anything and just went for it. I think it’s all in the genes and keeping active,” she said. “My grandfather was 90 years old when he was killed cycling home after playing whist.

“Bert died in 1980 and I’ve been on my own ever since. I have a nanny who only comes twice a week and our girls are so good. Whoever enters puts the vacuum before going home. It’s a wonder I still have a tuft on the carpet!” she added.

Monica Wills Village manager Claire Chambers said Joyce had been a much-loved member of the community there for the past ten years.

“Joyce was one of the first people to give her name when the Monica Wills House was built and it’s amazing to think that she can see her old home, where she went to school and where she worked from her apartment balcony. ” she said.

“Joyce has been a much-loved part of our community for the past ten years and it was wonderful to be able to throw a surprise party in her honor and celebrate her long life with her many friends and colleagues from St Monica’s Trust here at Monica. Wills House,” she added.