Charles leads silent tribute to mark
FIFTY years after one of Britain’s most devastating post-war civilian tragedies, Prince Charles yesterday led tributes to the victims of the Aberfan landslide disaster.
In the South Wales village once described as death’s dark vale, the heir to the throne met survivors and relatives of the 116 children and 28 adults who died when 150,000 tons of coal waste slid down a hillside and engulfed Pantglas Junior School.
The mud and slurry from the Merthyr Vale Colliery had become dislodged after days of heavy rain.
Charles, who was a 17-year-old sixth-former at the time, recalled the world’s horror as half a generation of children in the village near Merthyr Tydfil was lost on October 21, 1966.
The Prince of Wales, who laid a wreath at the cemetery and planted a tree in the villages’s memorial garden before meeting families, told them: “Anyone who is old enough can remember where they were when they heard the appalling news.
“I was at school in Scotland, having just returned from school in Australia, and can never forget the feeling of utter despair as I heard of the unspeakable tragedy.”
He added: “No one should have to bear the losses you suffered. But no one could have borne those losses with greater strength or courage.” The Prince read out a message from the Queen, who was initially criticised for waiting eight days to visit the village but shed tears when she did.
She has since returned three more times, and praised the community for its “indomitable spirit”.
She wrote: “I well remember my own visit with Prince Philip after the disaster, and the posy I was given by a young girl, which bore the heartbreaking inscription, ‘From the remaining children of Aberfan’.”
Survivors wept as they observed a minute’s silence and some who met Charles told how they never spoke