Joan Hughes was a teacher who lived an extraordinary lifeLiverpool nan and teacher Joan Hughes died July 11 at the age of 99, just weeks before her 100th birthday. Pictured, JoanLiverpool nan and teacher Joan Hughes has died age 99(Image: Photo courtesy of Gill Hughes)

A Liverpool nan and primary school teacher who was “always proud to be a Scouser” has died at the age of 99. Born July 5, 1925, Joan Hughes, nee Williams, was born in Blantyre Road, Wavertree, to parents Annie and Ted.

One of five children and twin to Muriel, Joan’s dad died when she was just 12 and despite many obstacles, her mum worked hard to support the family and see the children get as many opportunities as possible. After getting a scholarship and finishing school, Joan join the WRNS (Women’s Royal Naval Service) during the Second World War, before embarking on a career in teaching.

She married her husband John and together they had three children and two grandsons – and Joan never stopped living life to the full. Paying tribute, Joan’s daughter, Gill Hughes, 69, said her mum “lived a full life” and always loved to see others succeed.

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Gill, who grew up in Hunts Cross, told the ECHO: “My mum would tell a tale about the coal man coming round when she was a child, with the sacks on the cart pulled by the horse. There was a young lad barefoot and he always looked blue and cold, so my nain (Welsh for Gran) who had nothing would still bring him in for a cup of soup and a bread roll.

“It was usual to see kids with no shoes back then. The point at which my mum’s dad died, the family had no income and her mum asked for local authority help.

Liverpool nan and teacher Joan Hughes died July 11 at the age of 99, just weeks before her 100th birthday. Pictured, Joan and her twin Muriel as toddlersJoan and her twin Muriel (Image: Photo courtesy of Gill Hughes)

“It was then they did an assessment which was really, very, very strict and there were talks of the two youngest going to the Bluecoat Orphanage. My nain was adamant that wasn’t going to happen, so she took in these lodgers that she’d known through her husband.

“My mum and her twin Muriel spent quite a lot of their off time making sure that ran well. I think mum had a school uniform and a Sunday best – that was it.

“But she had a lot of love in that family. She’d go to the local church who would look after them and take them out for rides in the posh people’s cars and things, so there was an awful lot of security and love, just no money.”

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From childhood, Joan had a love of reading and after attending St Michaels in the Hamlet, she won a scholarship to Blackburne House. Joan had memories of exams being interrupted by air raids and walking to school past the smoking ruins of St Luke’s Church.

Gill said: “One of her teachers in St. Michael’s, when she was about 10, would send her up the road for her lunch at the bakers, to bring back a lunch bag. You couldn’t do that these days.

“She really enjoyed studying and she never changed. She always wanted to read and learn.”

Liverpool nan and teacher Joan Hughes died June 11 at the age of 99, just weeks before her 100th birthday. Pictured, Joan (RIGHT) and her twin Muriel Joan (right) and her twin Muriel (Image: Photo courtesy of Gill Hughes)

When Joan left school, she worked in a civil service office in Rumford Street in central Liverpool, but when she turned 18, she applied to join the WRNS (Women’s Royal Naval Service). Working in the Government Code and Cipher School and based in Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, Joan was assigned to Japanese Cipher work, recording the incoming data for analysis.

Gill said: “I think that instinct to secrecy kept with her. It was pretty repetitive because they were dealing a lot with incoming numbers, so it was about the social life.

“For the first time in her life, she had three meals a day in front of her, didn’t have to worry about what she was wearing, was told when to work and when not to work. She would go to the dance, she loved dancing.

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“She’d meet up with the American soldiers and have a great time and she’d go out with her friends on bikes.” On demobilisation, Joan took the opportunity for one year Emergency Teacher Training, which was designed to fill huge staffing gaps left by the war.

She went to Wharton College in Lancashire, then returned to Liverpool to teach in primary schools. But while attending a night school, she met her husband and fellow teacher, John, and they married at Garston Welsh Chapel in May 1951.

They had three children, David, Gwilym and Gillian and were married for 65 years when John died in 2016 at the age of 92. Gill said: “Mum wouldn’t have managed to teach except for the war.

Liverpool nan and teacher Joan Hughes died June 11 at the age of 99, just weeks before her 100th birthday. Pictured, Joan in the WRNS Joan in the WRNS(Image: Photo courtesy of Gill Hughes)

“There would have never been enough money to set aside for her to take time for teacher training. But because she came back and there was a year emergency training, she said to her mum, I’m going for that.

“That made a huge difference. She taught in what was Chatsworth Street for a while, another one off Smithdown, which isn’t there now.

“She did some training in Springwood Heath now and then she settled for a long time in what was Kingsthorne County Primary, which became Hunts Cross Primary later and then she got the deputy head at Craighurst.

Liverpool nan and teacher Joan Hughes died June 11 at the age of 99, just weeks before her 100th birthday. Pictured, from left, Joan's eldest son David, daughter Gill, husband John, Joan and son GwilymFrom left, Joan’s eldest son David, daughter Gill, husband John, Joan and son Gwilym(Image: Photo courtesy of Gill Hughes)

“Occasionally she’d come across people who’d recognised her. It was really nice when they did.

“She instilled a lot of enthusiasm for learning and finding things out in us too. We always had newspapers and books in the house, we all became real readers.”

In later life, Joan travelled all over the British Isles and resumed learning German, a hobby she began before the war, attending a German class and corresponding with a German pen pal. Joan also persuaded husband John to join her in visiting Germany and taking cruises on the Rhine.

Joan made her last trip to Germany at the age of 90 with her daughter Gill. For the past year, Joan lived in Parkview Care Home near Princes Park and continued her German classes. At Parkview, she loved reading about the history of Toxteth and the surrounding area.

Joan died on June 11 at the age of 99, just three weeks short of her 100th birthday. Family and friends travelled from all over to celebrate her life on the weekend of her birthday.

Liverpool nan and teacher Joan Hughes died June 11 at the age of 99, just weeks before her 100th birthday. Pictured, JoanJoan Hughes taught across Liverpool(Image: Photo courtesy of Gill Hughes)

Gill said: “She was also very proud of being a Scouser. She loved to see Scousers achieve things.

“Whatever we did, if we put the effort in, that was good enough. She didn’t want us to be brilliant at anything – she just wanted us to have made the effort to give us the opportunities.

“She was a very warm woman, very calm, very centred. She was interested in what the other people were feeling and doing.

“She was quite thoughtful, keeping an eye out for neighbours, if they needed anything. I’d like her to be remembered as engaged, interested, curious and compassionate. She enjoyed a full life.”