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This stroy was gathered and submitted to the WW2 Peoples war by Oliver Murphy

Dudley Persse Joynt
Flight Lieutenant, 609 Squadron
Royal Air Force
Missing, presumed dead 31 May 1940

Dudley Persse Joynt (son of Ethel Joynt and Dudley Persse Joynt of 19 Newgrove Avenue, Sandymount) came to Belvedere in September 1924 from CUS and settled in easily. He was a well-rounded boy who enjoyed both sport and dramatics, both of which he continued after he left school.

On 6 December 1924, Dudley Persse Joynt was received into the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Dudley was a good rugby player - he played scrum-half with the side which won the Junior Cup in 1925 (see picture). He continued his rugby career after leaving the college, playing with Monkstown Senior and later captaining Shannon Buccaneers. Dudley was also an accomplished cricketer. He was on the 1926 Senior Cricket XI which got to the final, but lost to Masonic.

Both as a pupil and a past pupil, Dudley enjoyed the world of drama. He played numerous parts in school productions. He is praised in one Belvederian for his skill in playing Armand, the blunt-speaking sailor in Labiche鈥檚 鈥淢oi鈥�. He also played the role of Philip in 鈥淭he Boy Comes Home鈥�.

After leaving Belvedere, Joynt became a Superintendent of Shell Mex & BP Company Ltd., and was stationed first in the west of Ireland. He was then transferred to Yorkshire, where he remained. In 1936, he joined the Auxiliary Air Force (which later merged with the Royal Air Force). When war broke out, he became a full time fighter pilot with the RAF.

May 1940 was a bad month for the Allies. Denmark and Norway fell to the Nazis without much resistance. On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded Holland and Belgium. The British Prime Minister Chamberlain resigned. Holland surrendered to the Germans on 14 May. On that same day Germany invaded France.

By 22 May, Britain (under the new Prime Minister Churchill) decided that the battle was lost and to evacuate all their troops from the Continent, through the port of Dunkirk. The evacuation of 345,000 troops began on May 26 and continued for some days.

On 31 May 1940, Dudley Joynt was on patrol duty in his Spitfire over Dunkirk. He did not return from his mission,. He was reported missing, presumed dead. On that day (the peak of the evacuation) over 68,000 soldiers were evacuated, while 28 RAF planes and 38 German aircraft were lost.

Joynt鈥檚 obituary from the 1941 Belvederian closes with the words:

On patrol duty over Dunkirk on the last day of May last year he was seen to dive in his Spitfire to attack a German bomber. He has not returned, nor has any news been received of him since then, so he must be presumed killed in action. To his sorrowing family we extend our deepest sympathy.

Dudley Persse Joynt was 30 at the time of his disappearance. He has no grave, but is commemorated at Panel 4 of the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey.

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