A retired teacher who as a child watched her royal neighbour being wheeled out in her pram has celebrated her 100th birthday – with a card from the grown-up version of that baby, the Queen.
Joan Rackley, who taught at Polehampton Infants, Twyford, lived her early life near Buckingham Palace, in Belgravia. Her father was butler to a household in Eaton Place.
Joan’s daughter Patsy Smith said: “Our mother said she remembers seeing the nanny wheeling out the royal baby. The Bowes-Lyon family, the Queen Mother’s, were neighbours.
“The Queen’s 100th birthday card was from the very baby our mother saw being wheeled round London.”
The family’s royal experience continued when they moved to Mapledurham House estate, west of Reading, where Joan’s father, Frank Burr Enfield, continued his work as a butler.
“Queen Mary came to visit Mapledurham. She was served afternoon tea by my grandfather, who saved the day when an outdoor paraffin tea stove nearly overturned on the royal visitor,” said Patsy.
Joan went to Henley Grammar School, excelling at sports, becoming hockey and tennis captains. She failed to get her deportment [conduct and behaviour] award when she slid down the banister rail, landing on a member of staff.
Leaving school in 1938 she worked as an untrained teacher and then, after war broke out, at the Ministry of Food at Reading Town Hall. She sent out ration books and fire watched on the town hall roof during air raids.
Later she joined the Women’s Land Army at Suttons Seeds, Earley, helping produce seeds so everyone could dig for victory growing vegetables. She enjoyed looking after the working shire horses Laddie and Jolly.
Her family are interested in tracing other Land Girls in the photo. Email this newspaper at [email protected] to be put in touch.
After the war Joan trained to teach and, in 1948, married Ted Rackley, a Post Office engineer from Caversham who had served in the REME. They lived at Charvil where they loved gardening. Joan taught at New Town Primary and the former Grovelands Primary in Reading.
She later went on to teach at Polehampton Infant School for 16 years until retirement in 1980. The couple’s three children all went to the school, the girls going onto Maidenhead High and Robert to Maidenhead Grammar.
Patsy was assistant head at Furze Platt Junior School until her retirement, Linda, now Linda Deacon and a retired teacher, is in Sussex and Robert, a transport manager, is in Yorkshire.
Patsy’s husband, Chris, taught mostly in Maidenhead, as a violin teacher travelling between schools and deputy director of East Berks Music Centre, and then later as a class teacher at Alwyn Infant School.
Joan was an active supporter of Girl Guiding in Twyford. After Ted’s death in 2002 Joan eventually moved to a bungalow behind Polehampton Infants.
To celebrate her 90th birthday she had a flying lesson and piloted a light aircraft over the Sussex coast, having never been in a plane before.
She remained active but, with the onset of dementia, she moved in 2014 to Harwood House Nursing Home in Cookham Dean.
Due to lockdown restrictions, she celebrated her 100th birthday on Sunday at an online Zoom meeting with her family including some of her nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She was shown a specially made slideshow of old photos set to some of her favourite war time songs.
