Reading Gaynor Madgwick’s experience of the Aberfan disaster of October 1966 brought back memories of my father sitting at our kitchen table crying after returning from Aberfan on the evening of the disaster (A noise like thunder – then my classroom went black. How I lost my brother, sister and stability to the Aberfan disaster, 10 July). I was seven and my brother 12.
My father, who was a lecturer in civil engineering at Swansea University, had been asked some time during the morning of 21 October to join the investigation team. During the afternoon, and I think the following day, he was seeing children of my age being dug out of the remains of the primary school. It was a sight that he was never to forget.
It was due to the investigation team’s work that recommendations were made and later put in place for annual inspections of tips owned by the National Coal Board and other waste tips created by industries across south Wales. The team that supervised the investigation and submitted a joint report to the investigating tribunal were my father, Dr Haydn Evans, and his colleagues, Prof Alan Bishop, Arthur Penman and Dr John Hutchinson. The evidence given by this team to the tribunal helped ensure that nothing as horrific as Aberfan would ever happen again.
Ruth Rising
Thornton Watlass, North Yorkshire
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