Dame Joan Marsham (1888–1972 )was born Muriel Joan Warry at 19 Montague Street, Marylebone, London, on 4 January 1888. Little is known of her early life before her marriage on 2 February 1911 to Sydney Edward Marsham (1879–1952), a stockbroker, and the youngest son of Charles Marsham, fourth earl of Romney.
Joan Marsham was a committed Anglican, and the primary arena for her life of public Christian service was the national women's auxiliary of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). The YMCA's desperate need for volunteers for war work during the First World War led it to turn to women to undertake the work formerly done only by men. Marsham founded with Princess Helena Victoria the women's auxiliary, which formally came into existence in 1918. Marsham's war work resulted in her being made an OBE but it was during the succeeding decades that she clearly became 'the driving force and inspiration' of the auxiliary. In 1931 she was elected its chairperson, a position she did not relinquish until her death in 1972.
During the Second World War, Joan Marsham was responsible for the half-million women throughout the world working for the YMCA by providing canteens in army camps, air stations, and devastated areas. As R. E. Roberts, the general secretary of the national council of the YMCA, said at her funeral, 'her chairmanship was no sinecure for she was personally responsible for the recruitment of hundreds of women who served through the YMCA in every military zone overseas'. She continued in this work after the war as the women's auxiliary staffed canteens for the armed forces throughout the world, most notably during the Berlin airlift.
Marsham's energy and management skills were also deployed in the Girl Guide Association. After serving as the chairperson of its executive committee from 1938 to 1948, she continued to apply her financial and organizational acumen to the association. She was one of the founders, in 1948, of the Girl Guide Club in Belgrave Square, and was involved in its administration until her death. She also chaired the Personal Service League and the British War Relief Committee of America. In 1945 she was created DBE.
She died at the Westminster Hospital, London, on 13 March 1972 after collapsing at the Girl Guide Club. Her funeral was at St Michael and All Angels, Sunninghill, Berkshire, eight days later.
Sources: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry accessed 15 June 2017 from:
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/52041.
