Photo: David Wilson, credit St John’s Ambulance
St John Ambulance Cymru is today remembering the 144 people, 116 of them children, who lost their lives in the Aberfan disaster on 21 October 1966. The charity also honours everyone who rushed to help, among them its own volunteers and a young man with a new van who drove its nurses to the village.
At 9:15am on Friday 21 October 1966, a colliery spoil tip slid down the mountainside above Aberfan. It engulfed Pantglas Junior School, a farm and houses on Moy Road.
Within half an hour, St John Ambulance Brigade members from the local colliery were digging at the scene. Members from the Aberfan, Merthyr Vale, Troedyrhiw, Treharris and Merthyr Divisions quickly followed. There was no time for uniforms or armbands. They dug just as they were.
They worked alongside miners, the mines rescue service, the police, the fire brigade, the armed forces, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the civil defence service and hundreds of local people. Offers of help reached St John headquarters from across Wales and England.
Over the following week, more than 200 St John men and women served at Aberfan. They staffed five rest-centre posts, a Forward Medical Aid Unit and posts at the site and the tip. Nurses from the Merthyr Nursing Division covered wards at St Tydfil’s Hospital so hospital staff could go to the village. On the day of the funeral, members offered the bereaved a steadying arm.
David Wilson’s story
David Wilson was 23 and working in his family’s roofing business. That day his former Scoutmaster, Herbie Gibbs, a St John Superintendent who had taught him first aid as a boy, phoned him. Could they borrow his brand-new van to take St John nurses to Aberfan?
“I said, yeah, fine,” David recalls. “The van was full of nurses.”
They found around 100 cars queued to get into the village. A policeman jumped onto the side of the van and guided them through. The nurses went into the school. David, given wellies and a spade, joined the hundreds of men digging through the night and into the next day.
When he collected the nurses to take them home, he could hear them in the back of the van. “I could hear them sobbing,” he says. “Obviously they’d seen a lot.”
David, now 83, has returned to Aberfan for the anniversary service three or four times, quietly, without telling anyone of his part. “I’ve never, ever forgotten it,” he says. “I was pleased that I was able to help, to be of some assistance.”
Richard Lee, Chief Executive of St John Ambulance Cymru, said:
“Sixty years on, our thoughts are first with the families of Aberfan and the community who still carry this loss. We’re proud and humbled that our volunteers were among the many who went straight to help that day, even though, as our Chief Commissioner said at the time, their own children were among those involved. David’s story reminds us that people from every walk of life stepped forward. We thank him for trusting us with it.”
St John Ambulance Cymru will be in attendance at the Community Centre in Aberfan on Wednesday to display items related to the disaster and commemorate those who aided in the relief effort. David Wilson will also be in attendance on our stand
