Joyce Shrubbs

Joyce Shrubbs (1927–2021) joined the British military Royal Observer Corps in 1944 and retired in 1992 as its Assistant Commandant with the rank of Observer Captain. She was the only woman officer to ever hold this senior rank in the organization.

Early and family life Joyce Taylor was born on 6 April 1927. She had five siblings and the family lived on a farm near Swineshead in Bedfordshire. One older brother was killed in an air attack in 1940 and this encouraged her to join up.

She married George Shrubbs and they had two children. She died 2 July 2021 at a residential home in Flitwick.

Military career Shrubbs joined the Royal Observer Corps in 1944 when she was 17. After the end of the Second World War, the Royal Observer Corps was closed down in May 1945, but she re-joined when it re-started in 1947 to address possible nuclear threats from the Cold War.

Stubbs was involved with the Royal British Legion and by 2015 she was vice-president for Bedfordshire. She was earlier awarded the Royal Observer Corps Medal, with a second clasp in 1981.