This week the victims and survivors of the disaster will be remembered. You're NOT the only one! It found that the National Coal Board (NCB) was completely to blame for the disaster, despite the fact that, while giving evidence to the tribunal, NCB chairman Lord Robens had claimed that the avalanche was caused by water from unknown springs underneath the tip. … The Davies Inquiry rejected the charge of “callous indifference” levelled at the NCB bosses, but did lacerate Robens and the NCB for “a terrifying tale of bungling ineptitude”, with “a total lack of direction from above”. On Friday 21st October 1966, 240 children aged 7-10 arrived at Pantglas Junior School, in Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. After the Davies Report had savaged the NCB for its “terrifying tale of bungling ineptitude” as the root cause of the 144 deaths, the NCB offered compensation to bereaved families. This article first appeared in the November 2016 issue of BBC History Magazine. On Friday October 21, 1966, a tragic disaster hit the … Let’s sketch the back story. Another decisive intervention they made was when the government hounded the Disaster Fund trustees into paying nearly 10% of the total Fund – £150,000 – towards the  cost of removing the other six tips. On Friday the Welsh Assembly will fly its flags at half mast and a minute's silence will be observed at 9.15am, the time when the avalanche started. Conscious of the need to respond to the public shock at the scale of death, and probably personally shaken by the scenes of devastation on his visit to Aberfan on the day, Harold Wilson and his Labour government ordered an immediate Tribunal of Inquiry, appointing Welsh barrister and Privy Councillor, Lord Justice Edmund Davies, as its chair. Approximately 150,000 cubic meters of mining debris from waste tip No. Several times, the ladies and gentlemen of the Charity Commission intervened to dictate how these funds were used – despite clearly being donated to help the devastated families and community in the small Aberfan village. Much has changed since 1966, but far too much has remained the same. And not a single one of them, not even Robens, suffered any sanctions for their gross negligence, leading to the slaughter of innocents in Aberfan. His testimony is important – and comforting for bereaved parents and families – because it suggests that most of the children died instantly and did not suffer for long. A preventable disaster was allowed to happen, wiping out a generation in this Valley of Death. Persuading an undecided voter. That gives us a glimpse of the culture prevailing in nationalized industries: saddled by debt caused by obscene over-compensation to previous capitalist owners; run by remote, bureaucratic, totally unaccountable dictators like Robens; and used as cheap suppliers to the still-dominant private sector of capitalist Britain – “blurring the edges” where necessary, including on health and safety. Miraculously, some children survived. Then they rushed to the school and began frantically clawing at the rapidly re-solidifying slurry. The absence of a law that holds company chief executives personally responsible for deaths due to the negligence they’ve presided over is a huge gap in health and safety law – which continues to let culpable bosses off the hook, even now, 50 years on from Aberfan. In 1965, a petition against the tip was raised by mothers in the village, and presented to Merthyr County Borough Council by the school head-teacher, Ann Jennings. And we kept asking questions all the time.”, Marilyn remembers how her husband Bernard had been digging all morning, hoping to find their daughter. Lord Robens ruled the National Coal Board like a personal fiefdom. By 23:00 that evening, Mr Husson was still in Aberfan when Prime Minister Harold Wilson arrived. © 2020 BBC. The children and staff of Pantglas Junior School were about to start their lessons on the last day before half-term. Parents' accounts of … After the landslide stopped, local residents rushed to the school and began digging through the rubble, moving material by hand or with garden tools. Moments later he was was pinned beneath a collapsed wall of the school, debris piled high around him. Cold, cruel, calculated lies by those in power. He was introduced to Phil Thomas as part of a new BBC documentary, Devastated: Just the rooftops can be seen above the debris in the aftermath of the disaster five decades ago. Oktober 1966 im Bergarbeiterdorf Aberfan nahe Merthyr Tydfil in Südwales insgesamt 144 Menschenleben forderte, 116 davon Kinder. MULTIPLE WARNINGS IGNORED – FOR YEARS BEFORE. The story was put together by a local clergyman and was verified and signed by both the little girl’s parents as correct.-source: Barker, J.C. “Premonitions of the Aberfan Disaster.” Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, December 1967: page 24 . I still have nightmares and sometimes suffer from deep bouts of depression.'. Over 3,000 attended the mass funeral. The destruction of the coal industry, accelerated by Thatcher in the 1980s, has left industrial deserts with multiple social ills in its wake. The tip has come down on the school"; the fire brigade, based in Merthyr Tydfil, received a call at about the same time. One such account came from Jeff Edwards, who was eight years old at the time that he was trapped by the sludge. He spent the subsequent 52 years covering anything and everything in mid Wales as a freelance photographer and journalist for the three local papers based in the area. And this is from the town folk, the schoolchildren, teachers, miners, parents, to the arrival of the queen and the tribunal which attempted to create new laws. Blur the edges, blur the edges.”. They even spent several days denying the tip slide in 1963 had ever happened! “He was trapped by his feet and we just couldn’t get him out,” recounted Len Haggett, one of the first firemen on the scene. I was shouting for my mum.”, Phil was still in grave danger: a torrent of water from fractured mains was spreading through the slurry. Immediately, the villagers smelt the stench of a cover-up, a whitewash. Anyone who imagines that such a set-up amounts to socialism should remember two words: Aberfan, and Robens. Eventually, after being frustrated and ignored by the government for ages, a more militant wing of the committee, led by local miner Enos Sims, decided on some direct action at the Wales Office in Cardiff. It was 9.15am on October 21, 1966, and roll call was just beginning for the students of Pantglas Junior School in Aberfan, Wales. Participants described how their phones were tapped, with cars following Tip Removal Committee members everywhere they went. Working class people warned of the potential dangers, but the authorities ignored them, with the local Council’s concerns never getting to anybody above the level of local NCB engineers. They set up a Tip Removal Committee, and fought long and hard. But the mood changed with each passing hour as more bodies were brought out. My father, he was crying and I think it was because he was crying, I was crying as well. At 9:25 am Merthyr Tydfil police received a phone call from a local resident who said "I have been asked to inform that there has been a landslide at Pantglas. Then, almost in the blink of an eye, the entire edifice was transformed into a 30-feet-high tsunami of sludge that slid downhill at over 80mph. Within weeks, on 21 October, Mr Husson was back in Aberfan. The Davies Inquiry lasted 76 days, interviewing 136 people, and reported in mid-1967. Ernie Husson, who arrived in Aberfan within 15 minutes of the disaster, retires aged 76. At first they offered an insulting £50 per fatality! With an almighty roar the black avalanche engulfed everything in its path, including Pantglas Junior School, where lessons had just begun. I want to go and see her.’ ‘No, no,’ he said, ‘you don’t go and see her, she’s fine.’ I said: ‘What does she look like?’ He said: ‘She’s got a tiny mark on her head and she’s sleeping,’ and that was that. Their moving reunion was captured on camera in a scene that, for me, is one of the most poignant in the film. Of course Robens’ calculation was that if the NCB could convincingly claim they knew nothing of the waterlogged base to the tip, and the dangers it posed, they couldn’t be blamed for 144 deaths. Today marks 54 years since the Aberfan disaster, which saw 116 children and 28 adults killed after the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip above the Welsh village of Aberfan. VideoComposer with dementia meets students he inspired, 'The most wholesome thing on the internet', Why Nigerian protesters are upset with Beyoncé, Africa's top shots: Sunrise, ballots and bullets, Biden or Trump? At about 9.15am on Friday 
21 October 1966, spoil tip No 7 – one of seven slag heaps that loomed like 
a mountain range high above the south Wales village of Aberfan – started to move. In the early autumn of 1966, photojournalist Ernie Husson was in the village of Aberfan, covering a story with the head teacher of Pantglas Junior School. "I couldn't talk about the Aberfan disaster for about 20 years after.". They stonewalled the demands to dismantle the tips. Tip slides were fairly common in the Welsh mining valleys for years before 1966. This week marks 50 years since the tragedy. Persuading an undecided voter, Lockdown: 'I cycled every street in my 5km radius' VideoLockdown: 'I cycled every street in my 5km radius', Disney's real-life Snow White dies at 101, .css-orcmk8-HeadlineContainer{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}Rare green puppy 'Pistachio' born in Italy.css-1dedj2h-Rank{-webkit-align-self:center;-ms-flex-item-align:center;align-self:center;color:#B80000;margin-left:3.125rem;}1, Epstein: Ghislaine Maxwell denies witnessing 'inappropriate' activities2, LGBT students attacked in university Zoom meeting3, Coronavirus: France extends overnight curfew as cases surge4, Boris Becker accused of not handing over tennis trophies to pay debts5, The Countdown: Debate masks, Jennifer Lawrence and 60 Minutes6, Goldman Sachs to pay $3bn over 1MDB corruption scandal7, US election 2020: A guide to the final presidential debate8, Poland abortion: Top court bans almost all terminations9, Nagorno-Karabakh: Nearly 5,000 dead in conflict, Putin says10.