Joyce Phipps grew up around money and privilege. She had a London childhood and considered herself a "townie". Joyce attended the Francis Holland School in Central London, and the Christian Science School, Clearview, in South Norwood, and then she was "finished" in Paris where she attended Mlle. Ozanne's finishing school at the age of 17.

Joyce Grenfell at Home – tour of Canada, Washington DC and Lyceum Theatre, New York City, with George Bauer (1956) a b c d e Graham, Virginia Grenfell (née Phipps), Joyce Irene (1910–1979), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004. Retrieved 22 September 2021 (subscription or UK public library membership required) The rest of Grenfell's stage career was in a series of solo shows in London and on tour. Between 1957 and 1970 she gave her show Joyce Grenfell in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States, as well as around Britain and in the West End. Her last live performance was at Windsor Castle for the Queen's Waterloo Dinner in 1973. [38] Last years and legacy [ edit ] During the 1950s and 1960s Grenfell appeared in a number of films including as Miss Gossage in The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), Police Sergeant Ruby Gates in the St Trinian's series, Mrs Barham in The Americanization of Emily and Hortense Astor in The Yellow Rolls-Royce. [20] Away from the theatre, Grenfell served as a member of the influential Pilkington Committee on Broadcasting from 1960 to 1962, and was president of the Society of Women Broadcasters and Writers. [37] In the later years of the war Grenfell toured in the UK for ENSA, sometimes with Addinsell accompanying her at the piano. [25] In late 1943 the head of ENSA, Basil Dean, invited the two to tour troop camps and hospitals in North Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. Addinsell's health was too fragile to permit him to accept, and Grenfell recruited Viola Tunnard, later better known as a close colleague of Benjamin Britten. [26] In 1944 and 1945 they performed in Algeria, Malta, Sicily, Italy, Iran, Iraq, India and Egypt. [19] Post-war work [ edit ]Joyce Irene Grenfell OBE ( née Phipps; 10 February 1910 – 30 November 1979) was an English diseuse, singer, actress and writer. She was known for the songs and monologues she wrote and performed, at first in revues and later in her solo shows. She never appeared as a stage actress, but had roles, mostly comic, in many films, including Miss Gossage in The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) and Police Sergeant Ruby Gates in the St Trinian's series (from 1954). She was a well-known broadcaster on radio and television. As a writer, she was the first radio critic for The Observer, contributed to Punch and published two volumes of memoirs. Victoria Crosses on the Western Front August 1914–April 1915: Mons to Hill 60, Paul Oldfield, Pen and Sword Books Ltd, 2014 In October 1979 she became seriously ill and died a month later, on 30 November 1979, just before her golden wedding anniversary. She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 4 December and her ashes scattered there. On 7 February 1980 a memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey. [2] [39]

In 1941 Grenfell appeared in her first film role, as the American mother in Carol Reed's short documentary A Letter from Home. She made three more films during the war. [20] For BBC radio, together with Potter, she wrote and starred in an occasional radio series called How to …, which ran intermittently from 1943 until 1962 offering humorous advice on how (and how not) to do things. [n 2] In 1943 she made her only attempt at acting in a stage play: she resigned from the cast of a West End production of the American comedy Junior Miss after the first three days of rehearsal, [22] finding that onstage she could only perform looking straight at an audience, and could not "act sideways", [23] although she found some film acting roles "fun to do". [24]Soon after the Windsor Castle show Grenfell was taken ill with an eye condition, which was subsequently diagnosed as cancer. As a convinced Christian Scientist (like her aunt Nancy), she was averse to doctors and hospitals. Her husband did not share her beliefs and prevailed on her to undergo treatment. [10] The eye had to be removed and replaced with a glass one. After this Grenfell did not return to the stage, but gave talks for charitable organisations and appeared frequently on the BBC television programme Face the Music. [37]