Maternity campaigner honoured with plaque

THE 21st Purple Plaque for Wales will be unveiled today to mark the lifelong work of Ethel May Hovey, a campaigner for maternity care.

- BY NANCY CAVILL

The plaque will be unveiled on the site of the Nant y Glyn Maternity Home, a home she founded in 1938 in Colwyn Bay, where many babies were born until the late 1970s.

Ethel was born in Sheffield in 1871, and came to Fae Colwyn when her sister was made head of girls’ school Coleg Penrhos.

Ethel’s main role in the school was to act as a “matron”, looking after the welfare of the girls. This became a theme throughout her long campaign, over 40 years, to support women and girls in the town that became her home.

She joined the Colwyn Bay Urban Area Council in 1910, and in 1919 became its first elected female councillor.

Ethel also joined the Committee for the Welfare of Women and Girls in 1910 and spent the next 40 years campaigning for better support and care particularly in maternity care.