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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Elizabeth II waited eight days after the Aberfan disaster to visit the village. The royal reportedly worried that her presence would distract from rescue efforts, especially if there were still survivors. But years later, it was said that the queen’s decision to wait was one of her biggest regrets.At the time, she was 40 years old and had four children, two of whom were young. There was no question that her visit to Aberfan affected her. According to biographer Robert Lacey, Elizabeth’s “gaunt features, etched with grief, were the more moving for being so clearly genuine.”She briefly abandoned her famous “stiff upper lip” for the people of Aberfan, showing clear emotion at the tragic loss of so many children, a historic scene that would later be dramatized in the Netflix series The Crown.HM Stationery OfficeAn aerial photograph showcasing the devastation in Aberfan. Though the queen was criticized for delaying her visit, many in Aberfan appreciated her arrival, including Denise Morgan, who lost her sister in the tragedy. “To me that day, she didn’t come as the Queen, our monarch, she came as a mother, to sympathise, to empathise, to really appreciate what everybody had been through that day,” said Morgan.The queen went on to visit Aberfan multiple times during her reign. On the 50th anniversary of the disaster, she recalled a child she met in 1966 who gave her a posy with a note: “From the remaining children of Aberfan.”In the aftermath of the Aberfan disaster, the government cleaned up the remaining piles of coal mine waste and passed new regulations and safety standards to prevent similar catastrophes in the future.After reading about the Aberfan disaster and the tumultuous aftermath, learn about the New York City smog emergency of 1966 that killed 200 people. Then, read about some more deadly disasters from modern history.
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