Joyce was the young­er of two child­ren born to Har­ry (Hen­ry) Tor­rens An­stru­ther, Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment and his wife (lat­er Dame) Eva An­stru­ther (née Han­bu­ry-Tra­cy). She spent her child­hood in Whit­church, and was ed­u­cat­ed pri­vate­ly in Lon­don. In class, she used to sit be­hind Eliz­a­beth Bowes-Ly­on (the fu­ture Queen Eliz­a­beth, the Queen Mo­ther) and would oc­ca­sion­al­ly dip the long tresse­s of “roy­al” hair in­to the ink-well. In lat­er life, when quizzed about this by an An­stru­ther fam­i­ly mem­ber, the ever-tact­ful Queen Mo­ther de­clared that she could re­call no­thing of it!

Struther con­trib­ut­ed twelve hymns to Songs of Praise (Lon­don: 1931). Her other works in­clude:

• Betsinda Dances and Other Po­ems, 1931
• Sycamore Square and Other Vers­es, 1932
• The Modern Struw­wel­pe­ter, 1936
• Try Any­thing Once, 1938
• Mrs. Min­i­ver, 1939
• The Glass-Blow­er and Other Po­ems, 1940
• A Pock­et­ful of Peb­bles, 1946

Sources

Hymns

1. Daisies Are Our Sil­ver
2. God, Whose Eter­nal Mind
3. High o’er the Lone­ly Hills
4. Lord of All Hope­ful­ness, Lord of All Joy
5. O Saint of Sum­mer, What Can We Bring for You?
6. Round the Earth a Mess­age Runs
7. Sing, All Ye Christ­ian People!
8. Unto Mary, De­mon-Haunt­ed
9. We Thank You, Lord of Hea­ven
10. When a Knight Won His Spurs, in the Stor­ies of Old
11. When Ma­ry Brought Her Trea­sure
12. When Ste­phen, Full of Pow­er and Grace