News / People
Bristol Blitz survivor celebrates her 100th birthday
“I remember coming along Coronation Road in the bus early in the morning and the whole of the Bristol docks were on fire,” remembers Joyce Weaver, who has just celebrated her 100th birthday.
“Another time, I was walking to work after a bomb had been dropped on the White Horse pub in the night and there was a tram on top of the roof.”
When the Second World War broke out, Joyce became a volunteer fire watcher, spending her nights looking out for enemy planes dropping incendiary bombs on Bristol.
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Armed with just a bucket of water and a pump, it was 15-year-old Joyce’s job to extinguish the incendiary bombs before they could set fire to homes and factories.
Palmyra Road in Bedminster was badly damaged by bombing in the Bristol Blitz – photo: Bristol Archives
Joyce celebrated her 100th birthday with friends and staff who threw a surprise party for her at her home in St Monica Trust Retirement Village in Bedminster.
She was born at her parents’ home on Beauley Road in Southville before moving to Bishopsworth when she was four years old.
She describes her childhood as “very happy” and that “we always seemed to have everything we wanted”.
Joyce attended Cheddar Grove Primary School and then Marksbury Road School, both in Bedminster Down, although she admits that she “wasn’t a very good scholar” and struggled with geometry in particular.
She once scored only four out of 40 in a geometry test, much to the consternation of her father who was a qualified engineer.
After leaving school, Joyce worked for Robinsons, a printing and bag manufacturing company, where she earned ten shillings for working 48 hours a week.
“That worked out at tuppence an hour, but I enjoyed it,” she said.
“My aunt was forewoman there and any dirty jobs she’d always give them to me. They put in new accounting machines when the firm moved due to bomb damage and they asked if I’d like to learn, so that’s what I did.”
Joyce met her husband, Bert, during the war while she was babysitting for his sister. He was a merchant seaman and took part in the Normandy landings, taking supplies across the English Channel for the Allied invasion.
After the war, Joyce and Bert bought a house in Southville and raised their three daughters.
Joyce lived there for 65 years before moving into Monica Wills House Village in 2014, the year that Bert died.
Joyce, a much-loved member of our Monica Wills House village, has celebrated her 100th birthday!
Her family, friends, and St Monica Trust staff came together to throw her a surprise party.
A survivor of the Bristol Blitz, read more about Joyce here ⬇️https://t.co/IMw5YhxwQm
— St Monica Trust (@St_Monica_Trust) June 4, 2024
Village manager, Claire Chambers, said: “Joyce was one of the very first people to put her name down when Monica Wills House was being built and it’s amazing to think that she can see her old home, where she went to school and where she worked from the balcony of her apartment.
“Joyce has been a much-loved part of our community for the last ten years and it was wonderful to be able to throw a surprise party in her honour and celebrate her long-life with her many friends and St Monica Trust colleagues here at Monica Wills House.”
Main photo: St Monica’s Trust
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