A WWII veteran has celebrated her 105th birthday at a Surbiton care home.

Joyce Greathead was joined by family and friends at Royal Star & Garter on her special day on Wednesday (6 May).

The charity provides loving, compassionate care and support to veterans and their families living with disability or dementia, from Homes in Solihull, Surbiton, High Wycombe and Worthing.

Joyce was born in 1921, less than three years after the end of WWI. She lived in London and at the age of 21 joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), where she trained as a Wireless Operator.



joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), where she trained as a Wireless Operator (Credit: Royal Star & Garter)

She served for three years until 1946, at bases including RAF Westcott and Hinton-in-the-Hedges.

Now a great-grandmother, she recalled: "I was sometimes stationed in the Tower Control where the operator kept in touch with the pilots while they were training – they were learning how to map-read and fly across the country. At other times I was working in wireless headquarters."

Joyce demobbed in 1946 and worked in a bank. It was there that she met John, and the couple married in 1952. She moved to Royal Star & Garter in 2025.

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She spent her birthday with family and friends, including her son Richard and daughter Jill, at the Home. She also received a birthday card from Their Majesties The King and Queen.