Ethel Maddocks – Child Victim of the Swansea Three Night Blitz

Early Life

William John Maddocks and Gladys May Phillips
marriage certificate
St. John's Church, Swansea

Ethel Maddocks was born in 1929 in Swansea, the daughter of William John Maddocks and Gladys May Phillips, who married in 1927 at St John’s Church, Swansea. She grew up during the interwar years in a close‑knit working‑class family.

1939 Register

1939 Register 

By the time of the 1939 Register, the Maddocks family were living at 39 Elgin Crescent, Swansea. Ethel’s father, William, worked as a hat maker at the Blind Institute, while her mother, Gladys, undertook household duties. Ethel, then ten years old, was still in school.

The Three Night Blitz

Swansea became a major Luftwaffe target during the Second World War because of its docks, oil storage facilities, and industrial works, and the most devastating attacks came during the Three Night Blitz from 19^th to 21^st February 1941, when the town endured relentless bombing intended to cripple its industrial capacity and break civilian morale. Over the course of the three nights, hundreds of high‑explosive and incendiary bombs fell across the town, igniting fires that raged through the centre and destroyed shops, homes, and public buildings, leaving entire streets reduced to rubble. More than 230 people were killed, with thousands more injured or displaced, and by the end of the raids Swansea was almost unrecognisable, its smoke and flames visible for miles along the coast.

Injury During the Raid

On the first night of the Blitz, 19^th February 1941, Ethel was injured at 46 Scyborfach Street, one of the areas hit hardest by the bombing. Many families were caught in their homes as the raids began, and the tightly packed terraced streets offered little protection from collapsing buildings and incendiary fires.

Emergency Hospital, Whitchurch, Cardiff

Following her injuries, Ethel was transferred to the Emergency Hospital at Whitchurch, Cardiff, one of the principal wartime medical centres in South Wales. Originally opened in 1908 as a large psychiatric hospital, Whitchurch had been adapted during both world wars to treat military and civilian casualties. Its extensive wards, operating theatres, and supporting facilities made it a key site for the long‑term care of those injured in air raids across the region. During the Second World War, it received bombing victims from Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, and the wider South Wales area, providing specialist treatment, surgery, and rehabilitation.

Death

Despite months of medical care, Ethel’s injuries proved too severe. She died on 10^th October 1941 at the Emergency Hospital in Whitchurch, aged just twelve. Her death stands as a poignant reminder of the toll the Blitz took on Swansea’s civilian population, particularly its children, and of the long shadow cast by the devastation of the Three Night Blitz