Kate Middleton and Prince William Visit Aberfan, Where Mining Tragedy Killed 116 Children
The Prince and Princess of Wales headed to Aberfan in South Wales to pay their respects to the families who lost children in the 1966 disaster
Kate Middleton and Prince William are paying respects to the Welsh village that lost a generation of children in one of the darkest days in Britain's peacetime.
On Friday, the Prince and Princess of Wales headed to Aberfan in South Wales, where on October 21, 1966, 116 children aged between 7 and 10 lost their lives when their school was engulfed in 150,000 tons of mud and slurry — loosened by heavy rain and springs underneath — from the local coal waste dump. A total of 144 people died in the disaster.
The couple spent time at the Aberfan Memorial Garden, which sits on the former site of the Pantglas Junior School. The garden, a place for the bereaved families and survivors to reflect and remember their loved ones, was opened by the late Queen Elizabeth in 1974 on one of several visits she made to the Welsh village following the tragedy.
Prince William, 40, and Princess Kate, 41, — who wore a Catherine Walker & Co. jacket and earrings by Emily Mortimer — were guided around the site by a survivor and spent time with some of the "Aberfan Wives," relatives of the children who lost their lives during the disaster. They also met trustees from the Aberfan Memorial Trust who do maintenance of the garden.
Related:Inside the Harrowing Aberfan Mining Disaster — and Its Effect on Queen Elizabeth
When King Charles (then the Prince of Wales) visited Aberfan on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy in 2016, he said in a speech, "Anyone who is old enough can remember where they were when they heard the appalling news about the Aberfan disaster. I was at school in Scotland, having just returned from a period at school in Australia, and I can never forget the feeling of utter despair as I heard of the unspeakable tragedy that had befallen your community . . . Aberfan showed the world the darkest sorrow, but also the most shining selflessness: a spirit which endured not just for the time of crisis, but for a lifetime."
The disaster was also the subject of an episode in The Crown's third season. Queen Elizabeth didn't visit the site of the tragedy until eight days after it occurred, despite her husband, Prince Philip, going sooner. The monarch's delay in going to Aberfan attracted criticism — and years later, her former private secretary Lord Charteris said he felt he had given her poor advice.
"We told her to stay away until the preliminary shock had worn off," he said, according to the BBC, adding that it was the biggest regret of her reign.
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Friday was the second of two days in South Wales this week for the Prince and Princess of Wales. On Thursday, Prince William and Kate spent time with mountain rescue teams who work in the hills and valleys of the nearby Bannau Brycheiniog National Park and visited a local rugby club in Dowlais.
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