A former secretary and Ashburton farmer’s wife is celebrating her 100th birthday on today (Monday February 2).

Joyce Amery is marking the occasion with a small gathering at Indulgence Tearooms in Newton Abbot and she will enjoy a party this Saturday (February 7) at Dainton Golf Club.

Although born in Bodmin, Cornwall, Joyce maintains she is a Devonian, having moved to Ashburton when she was just six weeks old.

Educated at Greylands Primary School in Ashburton and Totnes Grammar School for Girls, Joyce’s feisty nature was evident from a young age and she often refused to wear the required school uniform summer straw boater and winter beret.

A keen sportswoman, Joyce played hockey and netball at shool and had a particular love of tennis. She would cycle from Ashburton to Buckfast to play with friends and now enjoys watching tennis on TV.

She is also a keen cricket fan and she grew up watching her father play for Ashburton where she used to help with the teas and do the scoring – although, Joyce’s daughter Mary recounts, ‘she was unable to attend away matches to score for the team, as females were not allowed to travel’. Joyce maintains her passion for the game and enjoys watching local teams from her son John’s car, making what Mary describes as ‘her usual pithy comments’.

After leaving school, Joyce started secretarial training but was called up at the age of 18 and sent to work for the Admiralty in Bath. On her days off, she visited the local hospital where she wrote and read letters for blinded servicemen.

After the war she returned to Devon to complete her secretarial training in Newton Abbot before taking a job at Newton Abbot Urban District Council.

She then met a young Ashburton farmer, Richard Amery, better known as Dick. They were married in 1952 and lived on Waye Farm. Their son, John, was born in 1953, followed, five years later, by daughter Mary.

Joyce gave up work after marrying Dick to help on the farm but continued to make use of her secretarial skills at Ashburton Young Conservatives group, the Young Wives group and Ashburton Primary School Parent Teacher Association (PTA).

Sadly, Dick’s health deteriorated in the late 1970s so Joyce became more heavily involved in farm life while also taking on a part-time role with Rendells in the sale rooms in Ashburton. She later moved to Rendells’ Newton Abbot office where she worked as a receptionist until she retired at the age of 70.

After Dick passed away in April 1981, Joyce moved her family to Newton Abbot. She now lives in Highweek where she is cared for by son, John.

Around twelve years ago, Joyce started showing early signs of dementia and her health further deteriorated when Covid hit and she had to spend more than three weeks isolated in hospital after falling and breaking her leg. She is, however, made of stern stuff, having survived a broken hip followed by a broken knee in the 1990s and a breast cancer diagnosis when she was 85.

Despite her dementia, Joyce continues to enjoy life and her sparkle shines through in her dry sense of humour. She loves watching life from John’s car on Teignmouth seafront and Dartmoor and she regularly attends the Totnes Memory Café and the Young at Heart singing group for past members of Newton Abbot and District Musical Comedy Society.