CONGRATULATIONS to those who raised money for the blue plaque recognising Lady Rhondda’s act of vandalism by burning the post box on Risca Road.
However, the deed that Newport should be recognising with a blue plaque happened on the 13th September 13, 1940 when a crippled German bomber crashed on 32 Stow Park Avenue killing three of the crew and two children asleep in the house. When the bomber crashed, Malcolm Phillips aged just 17 and sleeping downstairs and his sister Myrtle sleeping in another room downstairs, immediately ran upstairs to ensure the safety of his parents and finding that they were safe ran back downstairs followed by his father to check on his sister. Within seconds of entering her room, it immediately exploded and both Malcolm and his 14 year old sister Myrtle died and are buried together in the Jewish cemetery. Such an extreme act of bravery and heroism by a child should never have been forgotten, nor the fact that you don’t get enemy aircraft crashing on a town every day and this event in Newport’s history is perhaps more of a deserving cause for a blue plaque than some others.

Shaun McGuire,
Newport