Huw Edwards pays tribute to victims of Aberfan tragedy which killed 116 children

James Cheng-Morris
·Freelance news writer, Yahoo UK
Updated ·2 min read
The Disaster scene at Aberfan, South Wales At 9.15 am on Friday 21 October 1966, after days of rain, a mining waste tip slid down a mountainside into the village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. It first destroyed a farm cottage in its path, killing all the occupants, before engulfing 20 houses and Pantglas Junior School where pupils had just returned to class after singing 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' at assembly. The toll was 144 dead, 116 of them children A small section of the school roof can be seen on the left of the picture Picture taken by Carl Bruin Picture taken circa 21st October 1966. (Photo by Carl Bruin/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)
The disaster scene in Aberfan, south Wales, on 21 October, 1966. (Getty Images)

BBC news anchor Huw Edwards has paid tribute to the victims of the Aberfan disaster, 56 years to the day since the tragedy which saw 144 people killed.

In a social media post, Edwards called for people to “remember the criminal negligence that caused” the disaster and “shameful response of [the] government and coal board”.

On 21 October, 1966, a colliery slag tip slid down the side of a hill and engulfed a row of houses, a farm and a school in the Welsh mining village.

Of the 144 people who died, 116 were children.

The school, Pantglas Junior School, had been settling into its first lessons of the day when the wave of soil, shale and crushed rock buried the building and those in it.

Aberfan, South Wales, circa October 1966: Picture shows the mud and devastation caused when mining spoil from the hillside high above the town behind came down and engulfed The Pantglas Junior School on 21st October 1966. Rescuers trying to find victims and help, amongst the mud and rubble around the school site The Aberfan disaster was a catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip in the Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil It was caused by a build-up of water in the accumulated rock and shale, which suddenly started to slide downhill in the form of slurry and engulfed The Pantglas Junior School below, on 21st October 1966, killing 116 children and 28 adults. Picture taken circa 21st October 1966. (Photo by Staff/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)
Following a build-up of water in the accumulated rock and shale, it suddenly started to slide downhill in the form of slurry and engulfed a school. (Getty Images)

It came after the National Coal Board ignored repeated warnings that the tip was unsafe.

Mark Drakeford, the first minister of Wales, today said it was “one of the bleakest days” in the country’s history.

“We will always remember those who lost their lives – most of them children.

“The resilience and strength shown by the community who faced the unimaginable is a shining example to us all.”

As well as the negligence of the Coal Board that led to the disaster, the establishment was widely criticised for its response to the tragedy.

Read more: Clock stopped at the moment of Aberfan disaster to be displayed in museum

This included Harold Wilson’s government taking £150,000 from a fund set up to help bereaved families in order to partially pay for the removal of the tip.

In 1997, Tony Blair’s government paid back the £150,000 to the fund, though this didn’t take into account inflation. By 1997, that sum was worth about £1.2m.

Even the Queen was criticised after she left it nine days before visiting the scene, something that was depicted in Netflix series The Crown.

Lord Charteris, the Queen’s former private secretary, once said when asked by royal biographer Gyles Brandreth if the Queen ever felt she had put a foot wrong: “Aberfan. She got that wrong and she knows it.”

However, members of the Aberfan Wives group said last month, following Her Majesty's death, that she "came at the right time”.