Joyce Constance Gladys Helleur (née Carpenter, 15 October 1923 − 9 June 2016) was a New Zealand diver, who represented her country at the

1950 British Empire Games The 1950 British Empire Games was the fourth staging of what is now called the Commonwealth Games. It was held in Auckland, New Zealand between 4 and 11 February 1950, after a 12-year gap from the third edition of the games. The main venue was ...

Early life and diving career

Born Joyce Constance Gladys Carpenter, Helleur was born on 15 October 1923. She took up diving when a junior swimming championship was being held in

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

: at the suggestion of the pool superintendent, Harry Davy, she entered the diving competition. She went on to win the New Zealand national women's diving championship twice, in 1944 and 1950. Carpenter worked as a physical education instructor. On 9 January 1950, shortly before the

, she married William Alfred Helleur, an attendant at the Newmarket Olympic Pool in Auckland, just nine days after first meeting him at the national swimming championships. At the 1950 British Empire Games, she finished seventh in the women's 3 m springboard.

Later life and death

Helleur was involved in the establishment of a new free kindergarten in the Nelson suburb of

Tāhunanui Tāhunanui is one of the suburbs of Nelson, New Zealand. It lies between Port Nelson and Nelson Airport and is the site of the main beach for Nelson with a shoreline on the Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and ...

in the early 1960s. She also taught children at the King George V Memorial Health Camp in Marsden Valley,

Stoke Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom. Stoke may refer to: Places United Kingdom The largest city called Stoke is Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. See below. Berkshire * Stoke Row, Berkshire Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stok ...

. An accomplished amateur

golfer Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, Helleur won the Nelson provincial women's

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

title in 1968 and 1969. Helleur died on 9 June 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Joyce 1923 births 2016 deaths Sportspeople from Nelson, New Zealand New Zealand female divers Commonwealth Games competitors for New Zealand Divers at the 1950 British Empire Games New Zealand female golfers