Researcher/historian Phil Dawes found out more about Joyce Amphlett:
"As you
know, Marian Joyce was the daughter of a wealthy farmer. She was educated at home in
1901 and 1911. The house in which the family lived in 1911 had 4 servants and
16 rooms.
Joyce
married Harold Mence Gardner at Upton (Malvern) in 1920. Her sister married in
1921.
She became elusive after that. As her husband was a forestry student ( he too was the son of a wealthy local farmer) I thought they might have gone abroad and they did: to Kenya. Harold worked his way up the Colonial Civil Service ladder to become Conservator of Forests, Kenya by 1938. He was also appointed to the legislative council in 1933.
Harold
was already in Kenya as a young forestry officer when WWI broke out. He fought
in the East Africa campaign but became ill from malaria and returned to
forestry.
After
the war he must have returned home often enough to meet up with local girl
Joyce.
They
were on holiday in the UK in 1939 at census time. Harold was staying with her
parents - several servants were listed. Joyce was almost certainly there too
but her record is 'officially closed' for some reason.
They
were good Christians and helped to found and build St. Francis Church in
Nairobi. This is explained on their remembrance plaque in that church.
When
Harold died in 1979 the “Nairobi Standard” newspaper published a fairly lengthy
biography. It mentions Joyce and their five surviving children and fifteen
grandchildren.
Joyce
died in 1985."
And Steve Millward has found a reference to one of their children - Charles Amphlett Gardner - being made a District Officer in Fort Hall, Kenya on 14th July 1959.
And Steve Millward has found a reference to one of their children - Charles Amphlett Gardner - being made a District Officer in Fort Hall, Kenya on 14th July 1959.
