SWINDON was rocked this week when two bombs fell during an air raid on Sunday, October 20, killing 10 and injuring several others.

Houses in Rosebery Street took a direct hit, while a second bomb dropped in the middle of an adjoining road.

Gas from a fractured main caught alight but was swiftly dealt with by the fire fighting services.

“The situation provided a severe test for the various ARP services and police, but they all acquitted themselves remarkably well,” reported the Advertiser.

“Demolition and rescue squads, as well as first aid parties and medical men were at hand extricating residents trapped deep down in the wreckage and attending to the injured.”

Residents were commended for their great fortitude and the calm way in which they responded to the emergency.

Neighbours told of lucky escapes and coincidences, such as the elderly couple who were discovered uninjured asleep in their armchairs in a downstairs room.

Another couple had gone to visit their son and daughter-in-law who lived across the other side of town so were not at home when the bombs dropped.

And two young girls were rescued from beneath a wrecked house, saved from certain death by fallen beams which had supported the debris.

Those who died were named as Olivia Annie Thorne, 47, and her 12-year-old son Maurice, of 115 Rosebery Street; William James Pinnock, 62, and his wife Sarah, 60, of number 116 and James Brooks 47, a GWR ARP warden, his wife Beatrice, 45, and their son Norman, 17, who lived at 117 Rosebery Street.

Mrs Nellie Page, of nearby Graham Street, was also killed while visiting friends.