Joan Hocquard | |
Hocquard on her 111th birthday in 2019. | |
Birth: | 29 March 1908 London, England, UK |
Death: | 24 October 2020 Poole, Dorset, England, UK |
Age: | 112 years, 209 days |
Country: | UK |
Validated |
Joan Eileen Hocquard (née Reynolds; 29 March 1908 – 24 October 2020) was a British supercentenarian who was the oldest living person in the United Kingdom, a title she previously held jointly with Bob Weighton until his death on 28 May 2020. Her age is validated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG). She was the last surviving British person born during Henry Campbell-Bannerman's tenure as Prime Minister.
Biography[]
Joan Hocquard was born on 29 March 1908 in London, England, and spent some of her youth in Kenya, where her father was a colonial officer in charge of shipping on the Great Lakes in east Africa. Her brother was born there in 1913. After attending a boarding school in Sussex, she got a job as a cook in a French hotel near Geneva in Switzerland. Just before World War II started, she returned to England, where she met her husband, Gilbert Hocquard, who shared her love of sailing and travelling. During the war, she drove ambulances in London before moving to the south coast of England (near Eastbourne) with her husband. The couple travelled across Europe in a camper van and went on yachting holidays until her husband’s death in 1981. Following his death, she moved to a flat in Lilliput. In 1987, she met a widower Kenneth Bedford at the Bournemouth Gramophone Society, who was 20 years her junior. They never married, but started living together in Poole, Dorset, England.
In March 2018, Hocquard celebrated her 110th birthday and became a supercentenarian.
Following the death of 111 year-old Hilda Clulow on 24 December 2019, Hocquard became the oldest living female, as well as the joint-oldest living person, in the United Kingdom. She shared this title with Bob Weighton of Alton, Hampshire, England. Following Weighton's death on 28 May 2020, Hocquard became the sole titleholder.
Joan Hocquard died on 24 October 2020 in Poole, Dorset, England, UK at the age of 112 years, 209 days. Following her death, then-111-year-old Lilian Priest became the oldest living person in the United Kingdom.
Hocquard's age was verified by Waclaw Jan Kroczek and Oliver Trim, and (posthumously) validated by the GRG on 30 November 2020.
References[]
- 2020 validations Gerontology Research Group
- Joan Eileen Hocquard Gerontology Research Group
- One of our favourite customers!! The inspiring Ms. Joan Hocquard... Giggi Gelateria on Facebook, 26 September 2012
- Oldest living woman in UK Joan Hocquard turns 112 Bournemouth Echo, 29 March 2020
- 112th birthday video report BBC News, 29 March 2020
- Joan Hocquard: Oldest person in Britain dies aged 112 BBC NEWS, 25 October 2020
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