Joy Hockey Awarded the MBE

I am really pleased to pass on the society’s congratulations to Joy. This considerable honour is in recognition of over 70 years work in furthering the cause of conservation in the Wallasey area. She was instrumental in setting up one of the first conservation areas on the Wirral in Wallasey. Apart from her local work she has sat on Wirral wide conservation committees attending countless meetings where she always sought to encourage all those involved in the cause of preserving the Wirral.

Part of that work was fighting for the cause of Flaybrick. As far back as the 1980’s she took photographs that were to prove invaluable in planning the conservation of the chapel fabric. She joined our society in the mid 90’s and has been a trustee since 2004.

The 90’s were a very difficult time for me as there were few people willing to help the cause then and I always appreciated the great deal of encouragement she gave me. In more recent years she still attends our meetings even though she is in her 90’s and has long standing eyesight problems.

I have always been impressed by her fortitude. Despite her eyesight problems, which affect her reading vision, she continues to read all the many sets of minutes that she receives from the organisations she supports.

In 2005 we were under siege from vandals and needed to pay £145 a weekend for security. I think she paid for two weekends and she continues to give us very generous financial support to this day.

I am sure you will all wish her well for her trip to the palace at the end of January, when she will become the third person from our society to be awarded the MBE alongside Valerie Doodson and Angus Tilston.

You can read the Wirral Globe article about Joy’s award here.

By John Moffat

Posted in News.