THE funeral has taken place at Penmount Crematorium in Truro of the Rev Joan Glover who died at the Royal Cornwall Hospital on September 23 aged 82. The bearers were Messrs John Bilkey, Jacob Care, Chris Eva and Chris Oates.

The Penmount service was followed at Helston Methodist Church by a celebration of Joan’s life. Both services were led by the Rev Danny Reed assisted by the Rev Steve Wild. Mrs Margaret Bilkey was the organist.

Joan grew up at Higher Pentire, Degibna. She attended Gunwalloe Elementary School and then went to Mrs Cox’s Private School before gaining a place at Helston Grammar School. Aged14 she left there and went to Edgehill College in Devon. After she left school she joined the Helston and St Keverne Young Farmers Club. During that time she became the club’s secretary and represented the county in stock judging at the Dairy Show in London.

Later Joan went to London to train as a nurse at The London University College Hospital. However, she returned home before qualifying. She went on to become a missionary stationed in Honduras/Belize Central America.

At the celebration of her life, Mr Wild spoke about Joan’s calling to become a local preacher and a Wesley deaconess. She trained at Ilkley College in Yorkshire and served in Sheffield, Swansea and north Devon and eventually she became one of two women who were first to be ordained as Methodist ministers in Cornwall.

Maggi Patchett, representing The Belize/Honduras district of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and The Americas, read a eulogy that had been read out at Joan’s memorial service in Belize, where she had served two terms - first in the southern district of Toledo, where she was the only white woman, and then in the district of Corazal.

The eulogy recorded: “Joan was indeed a woman of God, practising what she preached. She touched lives spiritually, financially and emotionally. She was a one in a million woman, well respected by all the macho men in Toledo.”

When she returned home the first time, Joan trained to become a minister and served in north Devon, Hunstanton Norfolk, Truro and Cranfield. During this time she married Ian Glover, but sadly Ivor died when they were living in Cranfield. Joan then returned for her second term in Belize.

After retirement Joan returned to Helston and served in the Helston circuit before deciding to emigrate to Belize. While there she built a retirement home in Toledo but, due to ill health, she was forced to return to the UK, so she donated her home to the Belize/Honduras district to be used as a manse for ministers assigned to the Toledo circuit.

Back in the UK, she lived in Minehead and later came back to Cornwall and lived at the Abbeyfield House in Mullion. She later moved to Abbeyfield at Camborne.

After two falls and stays in hospital she went to live at Chyponds Residential Home in Newlyn.