Joan Edith Nash was born in Devonport (Devon) in 1921. Her parents, George Nash and Florence Chandler died at an early age in 1930 and 1931 respectively, and Joan and her brother George (born in 1925, died in 2009) became orphans. After a short stint in an orphanage, Joan was given a new home with her aunt Edith Hill, first in Petersfield (Hampshire) then in London.
She joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service during WW2 where she worked in signals. She met Pierre De Poortere, then training as a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force in Leamington Spa (Warwickshire) where they were both stationed. They became engaged in 1943 and married in Hanwell, West London, in 1944.
At the end of the war, in 1946, they moved to Tangier, Morocco where Pierre’s family lived. They had three children, Michel, Anne and Christine. Joan and Pierre lived in Tangier until his retirement in 1981 when they moved to Brussels.
Pierre died in 2012 and Joan came back to England to live near Anne in Bognor Regis (West Sussex) where she spent her last few years. She died just before her 98th birthday.
She will be missed by her three children Michel, Anne and Christine, her seven grand-children Marc, Stephen, Etienne, Catherine, David, Gabrielle and Christopher, and her fifteen great-grandchildren Milo, Hamish, Loki, Angus, Ali, Rémy, Dougal, Adam, Theo, Toby, Astrée, Aisha, Maya, Alazne, Aritz.
