After immigrating to Cape Town, South Africa, with her husband in 1919, Newton-Thompson became involved in organizing community initiatives such as free meals for schoolchildren and the first birth control clinic in the city.
[2] Nettelfold was active in the British women's suffrage movement, and one of her roles involved protecting suffragette leader Christabel Pankhurst as a personal bodyguard.
[2] In 1924, Joyce Newton-Thompson spearheaded the creation of the first local free meal programs for schoolchildren, which was supported by the government for a time before the responsibility was shifted onto a volunteer organization.
[3]: 197–198 They established a birth control clinic in Observatory, which served equal numbers of white and black women but maintained racial segregation policies in its service delivery.
[2] The following year, she voiced her support for a national Van Riebeeck festival celebrating the history of European settlers in South Africa, successfully persuading the council to contribute £75,000 to the project.