Joyce Grenfell

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 a volume of memoirs.

Born to an affluent Anglo-American family, Grenfell had abandoned early hopes of becoming an actress when she was invited to perform a comic monologue in a West End revue in 1939. Its success led to a career as an entertainer, giving her creations in theatres in five continents between 1940 and 1969.

Life and career

Early years

Born in Montpelier Square, Knightsbridge, London, Grenfell was the daughter of an American socialite, Nora Langhorne (1889–1955), one of five daughters of Chiswell Langhorne, an American railway millionaire, and of the architect Paul Phipps (1880–1953), the grandson of Charles Paul Phipps and a second cousin of the diseuse Ruth Draper, in whose professional footsteps she followed. The Phipps family were wealthy clothiers, whose success allowed them to join the gentry of their native Wiltshire. Nancy Astor was one of her maternal aunts; Grenfell often visited her at the Astors’ home of Cliveden and lived in a cottage on the estate, a mile from the main house, in the early years of her marriage.

Joyce Phipps had an upper middle-class London childhood. Among her friends was Virginia Graham, with whom she kept up a lifelong correspondence, and who wrote Grenfell's biography in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''.Graham, Virgini
Grenfell (née Phipps), Joyce Irene (1910–1979)
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press 2004. Retrieved 22 September 2021 Grenfell attended the Francis Holland School in central London, and the Claremont Fan Court School, in Esher, Surrey. She then went to a finishing school in Paris at the age of 17, After this she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, but found the hard work of learning the craft of acting less glamorous than she had imagined and left after a single term. She supposed at the time that this "was the finish of my dreams of becoming an actress". In May 1928 she was presented as a débutante at Buckingham Palace.

In 1927 she had met Reginald Pascoe Grenfell (1903–1993), a mining executive and later a lieutenant colonel in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. They were married two years later at St Margaret's, Westminster and remained together until her death nearly 50 years later. They were a devoted couple: Reggie Grenfell looked after his wife's financial and business affairs, and his encouragement gave her strong support. After she became a celebrity she unobtrusively made sure that he was never seen as a mere adjunct to her. They were unable to have children of their own.Obituary: Reginald Grenfell
''The Independent'', 3 April 1993

First professional years

In the late 1930s Grenfell contributed verses to ''Punch'' and helped to entertain her aunt's guests at Cliveden. After one lunch, J. L. Garvin, the editor of ''The Observer'', engaged her as the paper's first radio critic.Hampton (2003), p. 95 At an informal supper given by the BBC
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