With her mother's approval, Wolfe became engaged to an affluent young man from Tunbridge Wells shortly before her 16th birthday in 1939. Reportedly, Joan's fiancé lavished his attention and affections on her, although later the same year, while still engaged, Wolfe first ran away from home. On this first occasion, her mother reported her daughter missing to police, and Joan was discovered approximately one month later in the town of Aldershot. She was driven back to Tunbridge Wells by her fiancé's mother, although shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Wolfe chose to call off her engagement and instead travel to London to train as a storekeeper in an aircraft factory.