The Loss of a Generation…

At 9.15am on Friday, 21 October 1966, the eyes of the world turned in horror to the tiny coal mining village of Aberfan in Wales. Even today, recall of the name of Aberfan still brings tears to the eyes of older people.

With a roar, many thousands of tons of colliery waste swept down from a huge spoil-heap on the western side of Aberfan. This massive breakaway from the tip overwhelmed two farm cottages on the mountain side and killed their occupants. It crossed a disused canal and overwhelmed a railway embankment. It engulfed and destroyed a school and eighteen houses; then came close another school and other dwellings in the village before it finally stopped. A deathly silence followed.

The story of the 1966 Aberfan disaster is well chronicled in books, poems, websites and even in folk songs. However, nowhere on the Internet is there a comprehensive list of those who lost their lives in the horrendous events of that October morning. This reflected the view of the community of Aberfan who felt that their loss was private to the individual families concerned. The moving memorial in the village is a corporate expression of commemoration of the lives of those who died.

In the ensuing 40-plus years, we have lived through the terrible events of 9/11 in the USA, with their London counterpart subsequently. In services of commemoration of those events and others like the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I, one of the most moving parts has been the simple, unembellished reading out of the names of people who died. The events became personal and not abstract moments in history.

These pages are sensitive to the historical wishes of the community but more than 40 years have elapsed and the world has changed. I have listed the names of those who died and included eye-witness accounts and several moving photographs with the objective of making a personal commemoration and tribute to the 144 people who paid the true price of coal.

Paul Dicken
aberfan@hiraeth.org.uk

These pages are dedicated to the memory of the 116 children and 28 adults who died in the Aberfan disaster of 21 October 1966 and to their families and friends left only with precious memories.