Joyce Brook: A Remarkable Life of Sportsmanship and Service

We have interviewed many interesting and worthy people over the years for our Equestrian Legend feature, but none deserve the status of legend more than Joyce Brook.

The fact that she turned one hundred on the 14th of November 2023 is enough to claim legend status, but add to that her exciting and interesting life as an accomplished horsewoman, Military operative, Champion tennis and table tennis player, teacher, organiser and judge; you begin to understand the extent of Joyce’s accomplished life so far. In 2012, Joyce and her late husband Bob were inducted into the EA Hall of Fame, and in 1997, Joyce (and Bob) won an Equestrian NSW Services to Sport award for Showjumping and, in 2003, an award for her services to Eventing.

Most of us remember Joyce, always Mrs Brook, never Joyce then, as an older woman and tireless judge who was exacting on the rules. When you are young, you tend to think that older people were born that way and were never young with the same interests in life. But just a glance at the accompanying photos of Joyce, you see a beautiful young athletic girl and horsewoman no different from us all at that age.

Joyce was the second youngest of Arthur and Alice Lavender’s 12 children. She was born in 1923, the year they commenced building the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the year Vegemite was invented. Joyce was eight years old by the time the bridge was completed. Alice and Arthur had a farm just out of Bellingen on the NSW Mid-North Coast. Joyce inherited two things, especially from her parents, the first being the sort of strength that enables a woman to bear 12 children at the beginning of the twentieth century, and also, that Arthur had the reputation of being the best horse trainer in the district.

“Everything was done with horses then,” comments Joyce, who would ride to and from school every day. That’s about nine kilometres each way every weekday, with riding really the only option to go anywhere. That constitutes hours in the saddle and an invaluable and now unavailable learning process. World War II broke out in 1939, and when Joyce was a late teenager, she joined the Land Army and worked in a munitions factory in Amberley. Joyce moved to Sydney and worked as a wool classer before she followed three brothers into the Army, joining the AWAS (Australian Women’s Army Service) in June 1943. Before she did that, Joyce had one last association with horses before her Army service. She took the train from Willoughby on the Lower North Shore to Camden, bought a horse and rode it all the way back and across the still quite new Harbour Bridge, a distance of roughly 75 kms.

Military life suited the young woman, where she was one of the first group of women to be trained on anti-aircraft guns. Joyce went on to have Military Police training, studying military and civilian law. In a 1944 report, Joyce’s supervisor stated; ‘Although young, she has plenty of common sense and, with her bright, cheery personality, should have no difficulty in handling people.’ It was also commented in a later assessment that; ‘She exercises a quite firm control of the troops.’ Perfect training for organising showjumping, one might think?

Joyce returned to the farm at Bellingen in 1946. Back with the horses, Joyce was keen to attend the short local show circuit of Bellingen, Dorrigo and Coffs Harbour Shows. “I would ride one and lead two,” adds Joyce. She competed in everything she could and was successful. It was at the local show that Joyce met Bob Brook through Gertie Brook, his sister. Gertie, of course, is famous for being the first woman to win the Warwick Gold Cup Campdraft. Although very much a sought-after dance partner at the local dances, Bob won the day, and they were married. “They were queuing up to dance with her,” says family friend Lance Rose.

Joyce and Bob had three children: Geoffrey, Stephen and Colleen. There were some serious sporting genes there, too, on both sides of the family, with Geoff becoming a pilot, Steve driving racing cars and Colleen an international jumping rider. “Mum instilled in us to get in and have a go,” says Colleen. Whilst raising three children, Joyce started the Bellingen Pony Club and was an accredited pony club instructor, as well as organising tennis coaching for the kids. Joyce was also on the Bellingen Show Committee but would not join the Women’s Committee because all the women were allowed to do was make sandwiches, and she did not want to do that. They tried to stop her from being involved with organisation and management, but they failed. That would surprise no one who knew Joyce in later life.

“As I got better, mum encouraged me to have lessons to improve, and she and dad would drive me all over the country in a truck and caravan to do the shows,” remembers Colleen. “Mum had the horse knowledge, and dad was the tactician. We didn’t know a lot about jumping, but we all learnt as we went along. When I got my truck licence and mum and dad were not needed for driving duties, dad became a course designer and mum a judge. They would drive all over the country, officiating at all the major shows and events. She and father loved their association with showjumping, and they used to spend many evenings having rule discussions. Mum always liked to know what she needed to do; ‘you always had to be ready.’ And she did her best to try and educate people along the way. She could have two stopwatches going, do the pencilling and the judging and have the results ready as soon as the competition finished. They got three for the price of one.” And she took her own lunch.

During the 1980s, Joyce and Bob took over Horseworld at Maraylya and ran it for about four years. At that time and up to Sydney 2000, it was the SIEC of its day, running major events like the Sydney CDI, Australian World Cup Finals and the Grand Nationals. Many people will remember the Tuesday and Wednesday showjumping nights that gave many of the well-known names today a start in the sport. Bob would do the courses, and Joyce, the organisation. After that, they were in demand as course designer and judge and were one of the first, if not the first, husband-and-wife CD/judge teams. Bob died 12 years ago, but Joyce has kept going, all the while helping to train the next generation of officials. The current EA Steward General, Jan Golding, used to sit in on judging days with Joyce. “She would grab someone out of the crowd,” says Colleen; ‘are you doing anything?’ And new officials would commence their training.

Joyce only stopped because of COVID, and that was just three years ago. “I don’t think anyone thought about her age; it was just Mrs Brook judging,” continues Colleen. “She really enjoyed it and loved judging rings three and four, the little kids, to help them understand the rules and also help train aspiring judges.” Joyce was always well presented, especially in the hat department, and she inspired that sense of good presentation, good behaviour and a knowledge of the rules.

Joyce has led a very full and active life, so why did she devote so much time to equestrian sport? “She was always a horsey girl,” says Colleen, “Always loved horses, so she chose to be involved in equestrian sport as opposed to umpiring tennis.”

The anticipated greetings arrived on the occasion of her hundredth birthday from King Charles, the Governor General, the Prime Minister, the Governor of NSW, etc, etc. With just her hearing diminished a little, the question to which we all want to know the answer is, how did you do it? “I was too busy,” says Joyce. Always moving forward with something that needed doing; always the first there and the last to leave.

Many thanks to Colleen and the Brook family for their assistance with this article.

Article: Anna Sharpley.