Women in Focus

Joyce Allingham’s (1913-2001) name is often overshadowed by that of her sister, the crime novelist Margery Allingham (who wrote, among others, the series of Campion detective stories). Joyce was a well-known figure in her own right, with her work as a wartime wireless telegraphist in the Wrens and her post-war social life in the village of Tolleshunt D’Arcy. Those two areas form the basis of most of her filmmaking from the 1930s through the 1950s that is held at the East Anglian Film Archive.

Joyce Allingham c.1989. Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 11 February 1989

Emily Joyce Allingham was born on 25th June 1913, daughter of Herbert and Emily Allingham, and sister of Philip and Margery. The Allinghams were a literary family who lived in London and various locations across the East of England through Joyce’s childhood; but she clearly felt most at home at her sister and brother-in-law’s D’Arcy House, in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex, a location she returned to whenever she could and in which she would live from the 1950s until her death in 2001.

Her early life is unclear. One obituary claims she went on the road with her brother Philip as an itinerant “huckster and fortune-teller”, with Joyce’s “good looks and nimble intelligence” being a considerable asset to the duo (Johnson, 2012: 13). Yet in the same time-period (mid-to-late 1930s) she was also using her Zeiss Ikon 16mm cine camera to film scenes in and around her sister’s new home, offering a glimpse of the middle-class society life they enjoyed.

Films such as Cricket Parties (c.1935-50) or Chapel v Tolleshunt D’Arcy (c.1930s) feature social gatherings for cricket games, parties in the grounds of D’Arcy House, and large outdoor feasts for friends and cricketers alike. 

Her life took a significant detour when the Second World War began. She joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRENS), trained as a wireless telegraphist, and was posted to different locations including naval stations in Dover, South Africa, and Singapore. In her book The Oaken Heart (1941) Margery relates that Joyce was eager to go abroad, how they worked together to pack up her kit, while chatting to their Granny about warfare (Allingham 1941).

Confirmed as Third Officer in the WRENS in August 1945, two years later Joyce produced A Day in the Life of a Wren (1947), a recruitment film for the organisation. The film features a female commentator who narrates over scenes of Wren officers in Portsmouth: showing the accommodation, different offices, day-to-day work routine and leisure activities (tennis, swimming), and an evening dancing at the local NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) club.

The film also had its own soundtrack: this would have been a novelty for Joyce, whose personal films were silent (as most amateur filmmaking was until the early 1960s), and demonstrates how the Naval Service trusted and supported Joyce’s filmmaking talents at this stage.

Sea Rangers (c.1930). Courtesy of the East Anglian Film Archive

After leaving the WRENS, Joyce “embarked on a varied career that included dog-breeding, photography and publishing” (Johnson, 2012: 13): her permanent move to Tolleshunt D’Arcy may have been a pragmatic one (to look after elderly relatives and help her sister) but it brought her back to a favoured location and gave her new purpose.

She took over the family business, P & M Youngman Carter Ltd. (established in her sister’s married name), dealing with her brother-in-law to protect and guard her sister’s reputation. Living in D’Arcy House in the 1950s gave Joyce the opportunity to produce smaller local and family films, albeit now using a Bolex camera and 16mm Kodachrome film stock that allowed her to capture images of that world in full colour. 

Titles from this period show her renewed focus on local places and people: Tolleshunt D’Arcy Flower Show (1952) includes images of “competitors laying out produce and arranging flowers… her sister [Margery]… looking at the colourful plants, fruit and vegetables" (Cleveland, 2011: 24); Tolleshunt D’Arcy in Coronation Year (1953) collates the life of a small village with shots of the church, signpost, flags, the local pub and shops, populated with all the village people Joyce knew so well, before moving to the coronation parade itself; a trip to the circus, which came to the village in 1953, provided the focus for Robert Brothers’ Circus in Tolleshunt D’Arcy (1953) and its footage of lions, black bears, a boxing kangaroo as well as the circus organisers and local residents (Cleveland, 2011: 238-239).

Circus Story (1953). Courtesy of the East Anglian Film Archive

Joyce’s careful shepherding of her sister’s public life can partly be seen in Margery Allingham at Home (c.1955), which records elements of her sister’s life in and around D’Arcy Hall; but does not reveal Margery’s growing mental and physical health problems (Russell, 2009). Much of Joyce’s time in the late 1950s and early 1960s would be spent looking after Margery, both as her sister and someone responsible for protecting her work. Joyce was also tasked with ensuring Margery’s husband Pip was not ‘inconvenienced’ by Margery’s growing ill health, something Joyce managed until Margery’s death in 1966 (Russell, 2009).

After Pip’s death a few years later, Joyce left D’Arcy House for The Studio, a bungalow nearby which was full of reminders of her sister and brother-in-law’s careers as writers and illustrators. She was involved in the Margery Allingham Society; was actively involved in the 1996 organisation of the Margery Allingham room at the Maldon & District Museum; as well as being an angel investor in various West End plays.

Roger Johnson described her as the grande dame of Tolleshunt D’Arcy, a woman who was “polite and gracious… no doubting her authority… [with] a robust sense of humour.” The impression of Joyce is one of service: to her country in her WRENS role; to her family; and particularly to her sister’s memory. 

The bulk of Joyce’s filmmaking occurred in the period of the mid-1930s to the early 1960s. The majority of the Allingham Collection held at EAFA is uncatalogued; 103 reels exist of which 3 have been digitised. There are suggestions of post-1950s films (or, at least, reels that contain post-1955 footage) but until the full collection is explored this chapter of her filmmaking career is particularly obscured.

Filmography

Sea Rangers (c.1930)

Cricket Parties (c.1937-50) Watch via EAFA.org 

Chapel v Tolleshunt D’Arcy (c.1930s)

Circus Story (1953) Watch via EAFA.org 

A Day in the Life of a Wren (1947)

A Technical Job for Me (c.1948)

Tolleshunt D’Arcy Flower Show (1952)

Coronation Year (1953)

Flower Show (1953) Watch via EAFA.org 

Tolleshunt D’Arcy in Coronation Year (1953) Watch via EAFA.org 

Robert Brothers’ Circus in Tolleshunt D’Arcy (1953)

Margery Allingham at Home (c.1955)

Bibliography

Allingham, Margery. 1941. The Oaken Heart. London: Michael Joseph Ltd.

Cleveland, David. 2011. Films Were Made: A Look at Films and Film Makers in the East of England 1896-1996, Volume 2 Local History. David Cleveland: Manningtree.

Johnson, Roger. 2012. ‘Some memories of Joyce.’ The Penny Farthing, no. 69, pp. 12-15.

Jones, Julia. 2009. The Adventures of Margery Allingham. Pleshey: Golden Duck.

Russell, Steven. 2009. ‘Queen of Crime lived and breathed Essex.’ East Anglian Daily Times. March 12. [Online] Available at: https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/21805376.queen-crime-lived-breathed-essex/  [accessed 19 December 2022].