Campaign to honour dinner lady Nansi, the Aberfan hero
ACAMPAIGN is to be launched to recognise one of the heroes of the Aberfan disaster, whose bravery saved the lives of five children.
On the morning of October 21, 1966, Pantglas Junior School dinner lady Nansi Williams was collecting dinner money from pupils when she heard a deep rumbling noise.
When the school started to shudder she realised something terrible was happening, and told the five children who had been queueing up to give her their dinner money to get on the floor. She then flung herself on top of them.
When 150,000 tonnes of waste from one of the huge spoil tips on the mountainside above the village smashed into the school, Nansi was killed instantly. She was 44. The children she shielded all lived.
Now Dai Powell is campaigning to have Nansi’s act of bravery recognised.
“I was only five at the time when she died,” he said. “She was my father’s cousin, but I called her Aunty Nansi. She was also my godmother. They give medals to singers and sports stars, but true heroes go unrecognised. I am trying to set up a campaign to get her some recognition for her bravery on that terrible day.
“I’d like to be able to see her given a posthumous award, because so few people have known her story. I’ve only just begun talking to people about this, but I’m hopeful people will be receptive to it.”
Karen Thomas was one of those schoolchildren shielded by Nansi from the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip which killed 116 children and 28 adults. She visits Nansi’s grave every year on the anniversary of the disaster to place flowers and to give thanks to the woman who saved her life.
Speaking to BBC Wales on the 50th anniversary of the disaster in 2016, she told how she and four other children had gone to pay their dinner money to Nansi in a corridor.
“At the other end of the hall glass started coming down the corridor from the head mistress’s room and Nansi the dinner lady jumped on top of us,” said Karen. “The wall I think more or less pushed us all together and she took the full impact.”
The five children were found trapped, but alive beneath the body of the dinner lady.
“We were shouting at the dinner lady and I was trying to pull her hair to see if we could have a response from her because she wasn’t saying anything to us,” added Karen. “I just thought to keep trying to pull her hair to wake her up, we just didn’t know what was happening because we couldn’t hear anyone else. It was just our voice and our screams that we could hear.
“It’s only down to Nansi that I’m here today. I’ll never be able to thank her.”
For Dai, 57, who attended a different junior school on the other side of the village, Nansi’s story means a great deal.
“I can only just remember her but her story has been passed down through the family,” he said. “Nansi was married but didn’t have any children.
“She was born in the Aberfan Cemetery House, and that’s where I lived. My father was a sexton there.”
He remembers being in the house when the funerals of those who had died in the disaster were taking place.
He said: “It’s all so vivid. I can still remember it. It’s still so hard to believe it happened.”