A LONG-time Island resident and voluntary worker with a passion for ballroom dancing, Joan Martin, has died aged 97.
Mrs Martin was born in Portsmouth in February, 1920, where her father was a company sergeant major in the Royal Marines.
One of five children, she spent her early years in Gosport but, upon her father’s retirement from the services in 1927, moved to Newport where he became landlord of the Shoulder of Mutton pub.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, she became the seventh woman to join Southern Vectis as a conductress, beginning in October 1940 from Newport depot.
She married Bob Martin at St Paul’s Church, Barton, in 1945 after he returned to England from army war service, which included a period as a prisoner of war in Germany.
Their only child, Cameron, was born in 1949.
Mrs Martin left Southern Vectis in the early 1950s to follow her husband’s job as a prison officer, first to London and later, Birmingham. She returned to the IW with her son in the mid 1960s and rejoined the bus company.
From the 1970s, she worked in a number of roles, including at Brading Waxworks, Colwell Bay Holiday Camp and Newport Bus Station. She also volunteered at the prison, serving teas to visitors.
She joined the Square 2 Square ballroom dance group and was also a member of the Gunville Church Lunch Club.
In her later years, she lived in Carisbrooke before moving to the Polars Residential Home and finally, Inver House, Bembridge, where she died.
She is survived by a nephew and two nieces. Her funeral service was held at the IW Crematorium.