Norah Irene Bartlett

Norah Irene Bartlett was found dead in a lane near her home in Rhydings Park Road, Swansea on the Thursday night of 18 November 1943.

The police stated that Norah Bartlett's death was due to foul play.

She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. There were no external marks of violence on her body other than a few scratches on her face.

It was thought that she was last seen in the company of an American soldier.

The police said that they were anxious to trace the identity of a girl and an American soldier who had been out walking in Rhyddings Park Road at about 10.45pm on the Thursday night and who had been approached by a young lady. It was said that as a result of what the young lady had told them that they both then looked into a front garden on the west side of the street where the American soldier shone a torch on a person lying there.

The police also said that they were interested in tracing a workman who had been carrying firewood and who had entered Rhyddings Park Road from King Edward Road at about 10.50pm on the Thursday. It was said that the workman had been stopped by the same young lady who had asked him to shine his torch on a person that had been lying in a front garden of one of the houses at the lower end of Rhyddings Park Road, third or fourth from the end, on the west side.

Following her murder and an increase in the number of attacks on people in dark streets, Swansea Council was urged at a meeting to apply to the Minister of Home Security for permission to introduce modified street lighting.

Norah Bartlett was later buried in Mumbles Cemetery.

She worked as a canteen worker in Swansea and had lived with her widowed mother at Rhydings Park Road.