Ellen Joyce

The Hon. Ellen Joyce CBE CStJ born Ellen Rice (12 January 1832 – 21 May 1924) was a British organiser of women's emigration from the UK. She started and ran the British Women's Emigration Association. Life She was the eldest child of Francis Rice, 5th Baron Dynevor and Harriett Ives Barker. Her younger brother was Arthur Rice, 6th Baron Dynevor. Her father was an Anglican clergyman and the vicar of Fairford. Ellen Rice married the Reverend James Gerald Joyce (1819-78) on 20 September 1855. He was rector of Stratfield Saye from 1855 until his death, but his interests were in archaeology and he led excavations at Calleva Atrebatum where he discovered the Silchester eagle in 1866. He and Ellen had one son Arthur Gerald Joyce in 1856. In 1883 the Girls' Friendly Society appointed Joyce as their "emigration correspondent". Joyce had been one of the GFS's seventy-five founding associates and she wanted to support emigration, but she was aware of the risks that girls would be exposed to. Parties of women travelling with the GFS were given "anchor crosses" to place on their luggage.