Joan Rice (1) (1919–2009)

Joan Rice, née Bawden, came from a middle-class family and attended secretarial college before going to work for the Asiatic Petroleum Company (Shell). But she was restless and longed for a chance to see the world. At age 19, at the outbreak of World War II, she enlisted in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). She kept a diary that covers her service as a secretary at RAF Station, Hendon, to a job as a photographic interpreter for military intelligence, to postings in Egypt and Palestine as a commissioned officer in 1942. It was published in 2006 as Sand in My Shoes: War-time Diaries of a WAAF, which became a bestseller. In Egypt, she met Hugh Gordon Rice, a British officer she would marry. Their first son was the lyricist and author Tim Rice. Joan went on to write many short stories and articles that appeared in publications such as Punch and The Times. She also appeared several times as a guest on the BBC 4 radio program The Woman's Hour
.