Joyce Gladwin was born on the 27th of January 1863 in Ardwick, Lancashire, England. Her father was George Gladwin and her mother Margaret Johnson. Joyce had an older sister, Mary Elizabeth (born in 1854 in Taddington, Derbyshire), two brothers, Samuel and Thomas (born in 1858 and 1860 in Ardwick, Lancashire) and a younger sister, Ellen (born in 1866 in Ardwick, Lancashire).

Joyce's father worked at some stage as a corn merchant in Derbyshire, and at another time he worked as a train driver on the Manchester railway. Towards the end of his life he was a railway policeman in Mancester. Joyce's mother at times worked as a maid servant. Sometime between 1854 and 1858, the Gladwin family moved from Taddington in Derbyshire to Ardwick in Lancashire. Their address was 2 Junction Street, Ardwick.

By 1871, even though her parents were still living in Ardwick, Joyce was adopted by Isaac and Elizabeth Roberts of Ardwick. Joyce lived at 26 Peel Street, Ardwick. Joyce's sister Mary was living with a paternal aunt, Joyce Lingard, in Taddington, Derbyshire. Joyce Lingard was a widow, ran a 20 acre farm, ran a grocery store and was the post mistress. The other brother, Thomas, was the only sibling living with the real parents. The younger sister, four year old Ellen, was living with a widowed great aunt, Joyce Woolley of Salford, Lancashire.

In January 1872, Joyce's father died, aged 46. This might account for the "scattered" children during the 1871 census: their father may have been ill. In 1874, Joyce's sister Mary died aged 20, in Taddington, Derbyshire. Joyce's mother, Margaret, went and worked as a servant for Mr and Mrs Arthur Hattersley at 305 Stockport Road, Gorton, Landcashire. In 1881, Joyce's sister, Ellen, was now living with the aunt, Joyce Lingard, in Taddington, Derbyshire.

By the early 1880s, Joyce was working as a maid or a nanny at the Lightoller household in Chorley, Lancashire. The Lightollers family home was called Yarrow Bridge House. One report has it that Joyce was the "French Maid", that is, the person who looked after the clothes and "dressed" the lady of the house.

Frederick Lightoller's first wife, Sarah Jane, had died in 1874, along with two of the children. This left the children Jane, Gertrude, Ethel and Charles Herbert. In 1876, Frederick Lightoller married a second time - to Margaret Barton. Margaret died in 1881. The children Jane and Gertrude were sent to board at a private school in Berkshire. Ethel and Herbert were therefore probably still at home. It seems to be about this time that Joyce was employed at Yarrow Bridge House.

Around 1883, Joyce had a baby, called Janet, in Manchester.

Frederick Lightoller had been "banished" by his family, and left England with his oldest daughter Jane for New Zealand in early 1885.

In 1884, Joyce's mother, Margaret, died in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire. Joyce's brother, Samuel, died aged 27 in 1885, in Cumberland, leaving a wife and three children (one of whom was called Joyce).

It is not known whether Frederick and Joyce had planned it, or if Joyce took matters into her own hands, but she followed Fred out to New Zealand with baby Janet, and they were married in the Auckland Registry Office on the 11th of September 1885.

On the marriage certificate, Frederick is described as a clerk, aged 43, living in Northern Wairoa (the area around Dargaville), and a widower. Joyce is aged 22. Her current address is given as Auckland but her usual address is given as Lancashire. It would seem reasonable to deduce that Frederick travelled to Auckland from Wairoa to meet her ship. It's not unlikely that the ship was the Doric. It left London on the 10th of July 1885 and arrived in Auckland on the 3rd of September - a few days before Joyce married Frederick Lightoller. The Doric was the same ship that Frederick had come out on to New Zealand earlier in the year.

Possibly Frederick and Joyce lived for a time in Dargaville, and then Opotiki, before moving to Waipawa. On the way to Waipawa the horses slipped when crossing the Tutaekuri River. The coach tipped over and the Lightollers lost all their possessions. They attempted (unsuccessfully) to sue the coach driver.

It was ten years before Frederick and Joyce are known to have any more children.

In Waipawa, Ann Lightoller was born in 1894 and died the same year, aged six months. Alice Lightoller was born on Thursday 13th June 1895, and Frederick Lightoller on 13 September 1899. Joyce Lightoller was born in 1901, and Helen Lightoller in 1904.

On the 18th of February 1901, daughter Janet married Charles Henry Nash.

In 1904 Frederick and Joyce moved from Waipawa to Beach Street, Petone, where Frederick worked as an accountant and Joyce as a laundress. Baby Helen died in 1905, aged ten months, and was buried in the Taita Cemetery.

By 1906, they were living at 5 Aurora Street, Petone. In August 1907 Joyce became ill with tuberculosis. She died at home on Saturday 23 November, and was buried at the Taita Cemetery. She was 44 years old. The Minister was J.W. Russell of the Church of England. Janet was 22, Alice 12, Frederick 8 and Joyce 7.