Joan Wolfe
Joan Pearl Wolfe was born 11 March 1923. Wolfe's mother, Edith Mary Watts had married a Mr Wolfe, who suffered from an illness believed by his neighbours to be a form of sleeping sickness. He ended his life by gassing himself. Wolfe's mother married twice more; Joan had a sister and a half-sister.
Joan Wolfe lived with her mother in the market town of Tonbridge. They lived modestly in a council house in Lodge Oak Lane. In 1938, aged sixteen, Joan had become engaged to a young man from nearby Tunbridge Wells. Her mother had lectured her sternly about staying out late, but the two did not quarrel angrily. Wolfe's engagement evidently broke down and she began going out with soldiers; although little is known of Wolfe's relationship with her mother, it seems that she was a caring woman driven to her wit's end by her daughter's behaviour and their relationship deteriorated. Wolfe first left home before she was seventeen years old.
Wolfe was young, naïve, muddle headed and prone to flights of fancy. She was brought up as a Catholic and attended a convent school, she was outwardly pious and regularly wore a conspicuous crucifix about her neck, but she apparently lacked any real religious commitment. Having left home, she headed to Aldershot, the home of the British Army and her behaviour became increasingly promiscuous. Wolfe made her way to Godalming, looking for work.
The police intervened on several occasions; Wolfe was repeatedly questioned because she was still a minor. Despite her repeated claims that the police never did anything to help her, she was offered various forms of assistance with varying levels of compulsion. She returned home more than once; always, she drifted back.
Wolfe became engaged to a Canadian soldier: Francis Hearn. Hearn returned to Canada promising to marry her; she wore a ring that he had given her and she sometimes referred to herself as his wife.
On 17 July 1942, the day after Hearn left for Canada, Wolfe met Sangret for the first time in a pub in Godalming. They talked and walked through a local park. They had sex that night and parted company having arranged to meet again. As very often happened, Wolfe did not keep her next date, but Sangret met her again by chance a few days later when she seemed to be on a date with another soldier named Hartnell. The three conversed for some time and then Hartnell left. Sangret and Wolfe met regularly, if unreliably, after that.
On 23 July, Wolfe found herself in hospital. She wrote to Sangret:
| “ | My Dear August,
Well, my dear, I hope I am forgiven for not turning up to see you last night, but I was in the police station five hours and they did not help me. I was walking along the road and suddenly came over queer. I fainted for the first time in my whole life. The brought me to the hospital here. They are going to examine me. I shall know whether I am all right or not then. I hope you will come and see me, as I really want to see you very much and being in bed all day is awful. You can come any night between 6-7 p.m. and Sunday afternoon. Please try and come. I have your picture on the locker beside me. The nurses know you are my boy friend, they told me to tell you to come and see me. You have to tell them my name and ask for Emergency Ward. Well, hoping to see you soon, I will say au revoir. God bless you. Love Joan. |
” |
Wolfe was not ill; she was, apparently, pregnant.
Read more about this topic: August Sangret
Famous quotes containing the words joan and/or wolfe:
“Ah, Marilyn, Hollywood’s Joan of Arc, our Ultimate Sacrificial Lamb. Well, let me tell you, she was mean, terribly mean. The meanest woman I have ever known in this town. I am appalled by this Marilyn Monroe cult. Perhaps it’s getting to be an act of courage to say the truth about her. Well, let me be courageous. I have never met anyone as utterly mean as Marilyn Monroe. Nor as utterly fabulous on the screen, and that includes Garbo.”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“His bill’s so yellow,
his coat’s so black,
that he makes a fellow
whistle back.”
—Humbert Wolfe (1885–1940)