Women in Kenya - Obit ...... Joyce, née Shaw, was born in Stapleton, England in 1902, the 11th in a family of 12 children, her father being the Rev. W.H. Shaw. After WW1 the Shaw family came out to Kenya to a soldier settlement farm, Lamuria, at Ngobit, a cattle ranch with dairy, where the cheese of the name Lamuria, was made and young Joyce helped by working in the dairy. It was during the 1920's when she first met Kate Challis and the two girls used to go riding across the Naro Moru plains together on their Somali ponies - no escorts needed in those days! However it was whilst out riding that she met her future husband, Maurice Vernon from Nanyuki.

In 1927 they married at the then Cathedral of the Highlands in Nairobi and they were together for some 66 years until Maurice died in February 1993. In the early days of the depression, life was hard and entailed many moves, from Laikipia to Meru, to Nairobi in the KAR and then up to Kitale until the start of the 1939 war, when Maurice was recalled into the Royal Navy. Joyce managed to join him in Aden and then Colombo where she worked in the WRENS before returning to Kenya to join her sister Catherine Shaw who was matron at the Officers Convalescent Home at Chiromo, Lady Macmillan's home, where Joyce did the catering.

The three daughters Daphne, Jix and Cherry, when not attending the Kenya High School, were welcomed into the homes of the various Shaw relations for their school holidays during those war years. After the war it was back to Kitale again for several years before transferring to the Naivasha County Council. Joyce had been an early member of the Trans Nzoia branch of the EAWL where she was secretary to the then D.V.P. Mrs Marjorie Pharazyn, and she later joined the Naivasha branch. In 1962 the Vernons retired to spend almost 10 years in Spain and Majorca where they were very happy until Maurice lost his sight, when they returned to Kenya to live at Karen for a further 10 years. During this time Joyce became a member of the Karen/Langata branch of the EAWL until 1982 when she and Maurice moved to Australia to join their daughters Daphne Spence and Cherry Lindsay and their husbands and families who live in Wagga Wagga, N.S.W. In the course of their many moves Joyce always managed to make a lovely home where all the family and their very many friends were always made most welcome. She was never known to complain but gave selflessly of her love, always helping others and being a wonderful mother to her 3 daughters and their families and 7 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren.