Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Joan was the only daughter of John and Gwendoline Clucas of Malvern, Adelaide in South Australia. The Clucas family was involved with the Adelaide Rowing Club and it is likely that it was a mutual interest in rowing that led to Joan meeting her future husband William (Bill) Henry Field. Bill enlisted in the RAAF in January of 1941 and was posted to Point Cook in Melbourne. Joan married Bill on 26 June 1941 in Melbourne.  Bill trained as a pilot and was assigned to the 13 Squadron flying Lockheed Hudson aircraft. In the weeks following the bombing of Pearl Harbour, on 17.12.1941, Bill and the rest of the crew of Hudson A16-64 were reported missing in the Celebes, Dutch East India on 19/1/1942, the aircraft being shot down by a Japanese Zero fighter plane whilst on a reconnaissance mission. Apart from losing her husband in WW2, Joan's brother John Bevaliqua Clucas of the 8th Division Signals AIF, (and her only sibling), was captured at the fall of Singapore and kept by the Japanese as a POW at Changi and later at Sandakan in Borneo whee he died of illness on 19 May 1945. No doubt it was against this back drop of grief and loss that Joan probably made the decision to enlist in order to help the Australian war effort. She married twice but it is understood that she did not have children.

Husband details: William Henry FIELD, Sgt, RAAF. Service no: 407786.

Brother: John Bevilaqua CLUCAS, Pte, 8th Division Signals AIF. Service no: SX10201