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.
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[1] 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.[2] 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.[3][4]