It has been approximately 80 years since Joan Fuller served as a radar operator during the Second World War, but her sacrifices have finally been recognized.
When the war began, Lucie Anna Joan Fuller (née Belmar), who was born on Jan. 15, 1918, was in her early 20s. She is now 108-years-old and living at Wellington Terrace Long Term Care Home in Fergus, Ont.
During the war, she was part of the British Armed Forces’ Women’s Auxiliary Force and played a vital role in the detection and plotting of Britain’s air defense network. She was primarily stationed at R.A.F Castlerock in Northern Ireland. Later, she monitored air traffic over the English Channel and Thames Estuary.
“It was quite exciting,” Fuller recalled.
After the war, she met her future husband who immigrated to Canada and invited her to join him there once he was established. She left England in 1947.
Experts believe that choice, and the move to a new country, meant she never got the proper recognition she was due.
“I don’t know if she ever knew about it, or if she didn’t care to apply,” Beau Harper, founder of Soldier Search, said. “I know her husband was also a British veteran and he got his medals. So it’s a bit of a mystery.”
Solider Search, a not-for-profit organization, provides resources to veterans and their families to help uncover stories that may have become lost or murky. They also help people like Fuller receive their honours and medals.
On Thursday Fuller, surrounded by family and friends, was finally given her 1939 – 1945 War Medal. According to the Canadian War Museum, the medal was given to all members of the British and Commonwealth forces and merchant marine who served for 28 days between Sept. 3, 1939 and Sept. 2, 1945.
“My husband got his [medal] within a reasonable time. I never heard of anything, but apparently they were looking for me. But I had hopped off to Canada,” Fuller said.
Fuller lived a busy life during that time. She and her husband married in Canada, adopted three kids and she now has three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. She lived in the Burlington area before moving to her current home at Wellington Terrace at the age of 107.
With so much else going on in her life, the medal was long forgotten.
“No. I hadn’t thought about it at all,” she said.
Harper met Fuller during a Remembrance Day Ceremony and once he learned her story, he got to work making sure Fuller would finally receive her medal.
“I’ve done a lot of research to find out if there’s anyone older, that’s ever been older than Joan, to receive this medal, because there have been millions of these medals awarded for veterans’ service in the Second World War. I can’t find any. I think Joan is the oldest out of all those millions,” Harper said.
Harper got in touch with British authorities to find out how he could get Fuller her medal.
“The Ministry of Defense in the U.K. expedited a parcel to me,” he said.
The parcel also included a pin to help commemorate Fuller’s service. The medal and the pin were presented to Fuller on Feb. 12, 2026.
“I think it’s lovely because now she’ll have a medal to go with her husband’s medals,” Felicity Barrington, Fuller’s daughter, said.
Fuller said she still loves England and would visit every year if she was younger and had the money. But, she added Canada is where her family and friends are.
As for how others can follow in her footsteps and surpass 100-years-old, Fuller didn’t have any poignant insights.
“I haven’t a secret,” she said. “No.”
