Joan Elizabeth Turville-Petre (10 May 1911 – 9 March 2006) was an English philologist at the University of Oxford who specialized in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse studies.

Life

Joan Turville-Petre (née Blomfield) was the daughter of Sam Blomfield and Kate Barton of Colchester, Essex. In 1930 she began her studies at Somerville College, Oxford University and she maintained a lifelong connection with the college. She was a Tutor and Fellow from 1941 to 1946, a lecturer in English from 1946 to 1965 and an Honorary College Research Fellow from 1965 until her death in 2006. On 7 January 1943, Joan Turville-Petre married Gabriel Turville-Petre, a fellow Oxford academic working in the same field. There were no guests at their wedding, but their friends J. R. R. and Edith Tolkien were there as witnesses. They had three sons: Thorlac Francis Samuel (born 6 January 1944), Merlin Oswald (born 2 July 1946) and Brendan Arthur Auberon (16 September 1948 – 6 December 1981). Joan Turville-Petre died at the age of 94. Her funeral was held at St Michael's, Aylsham on 23 March 2006.

Selected publications