…By Jack Sylva for TDPel Media.
A letter written by Gloria Davies, one of the Aberfan Wives, to the King has been released, revealing that there were no hard feelings over Queen Elizabeth II’s delayed visit to the disaster site.
The Aberfan disaster, which occurred in 1966, was a spoil-heap landslide that crushed Pantglas Primary School, leaving 116 children and 28 adults dead, making it one of the UK’s worst disasters.
The Queen waited eight days before visiting the South Wales mining village, attracting criticism and reportedly making it one of the greatest regrets of her reign.
However, the letter has been described as a “personal, private attempt to absolve the monarchy of any feeling of institutional neglect.”
The letter emerged in a new book, Charles:
The King And Wales by Huw Thomas, BBC Wales’ business correspondent, which charts Prince Charles’ relationship with Wales and is being released ahead of his coronation.
The book features extracts of Davies’ letter to Charles, in which she wrote that the Queen’s visit to Aberfan sooner than eight days after the disaster “would have been unwise”.
Davies, who conveyed her sympathies, also noted that Prince Philip’s visit had shown “genuine empathy” and that the Queen had “felt that she should have come to Aberfan sooner, but that would have been unwise as there was so much removal working being done.”
The Queen and the royal family have continued their relationship with the community since the disaster.
During his visit to Cardiff to mark his accession, Charles invited representatives from Aberfan to meet him as King at Cardiff Castle.
Among them were members of the Aberfan Wives group, including Davies and Denise Morgan.
Morgan has said that the Queen had visited the disaster “at the right time”, while Davies added that “she came at the right time, she came at the right time. I think that’s shared by the whole of Aberfan.”
On Thursday, the Prince and Princess of Wales met two of the Aberfan rescuers, Bob Thomas, 75, and Nick Richards, 79, while visiting the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park to meet the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team.
The royal couple also visited a memorial garden built on the site of the primary school for the first time on Friday.
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