Lord Robens

Thank you for the link, I remember the disaster but had no idea about the fund or anything else. If I was in your shoes I would feel as strongly as you.

Thank you for the link Annibach, I was thirteen at the time, so never really knew all the details, just my parents horror at the avoidable tragedy which could & should have been totally preventable.
I do remember the discussions afterwards about how terribly badly those who were responsible handled the whole situation. Thoughts are with you .

its in the past and while I agree it impacted your life you need to put it where it belongs and thats firmly in the past.Being bitter about things only affects you and doesn't change anything that happened.Of course you can fight to make sure it never happens again but there has to come a time when you let it go or it will colour everything you do.I speak from personal experience.

Oh Annie, just read the link, a terrible terrible tragedy made even worse, the grief for Aberfan will never abate and to be treated so terribly only adds to it.
I understand and agree with your disgust.

It was an absolutely shocking business, words simply can't express how awful it was. Despite what the coal board and anyone else said, It was well known for years that those slag heaps were highly dangerous and needed moving well away from human habitation. I was 23 at the time and the two tragedies that have always stood out in my mind from that period have been Aberfan and the starving children of the war torn breakaway state of Biafra. I had no idea about the fund either, how disgraceful is that. What I find nearly as disgraceful is that it took till 1997 to refund (without interest!!) this stolen money! What was wrong with a conservative government making good? They too should hang their heads! I can totally understand how this has affected you Annie, and that it has never left you. Irrelevant I know, but after the war, widows were very much left to fend for themselves! Goodbye, good luck and thank you seemed the order of the day. Not a good attitude but sadly not, apparently, wholly unexpected!!

I agree with all your comments niggly and feel the same.
I don’t think you ever truly get over or forget something on that scale.
Shocking treatment for the bereaved and the whole town.

Both Robens and the Labour government of the time handled it so badly that it’s hard to believe until you read it.

Then Robens was handed a top job on health and safety.

I was nineteen. I remember it well. An appalling tragedy that should never have happened. It's disgraceful that Robens and the Coal Board were not properly held to account.

It was a shocking rejection of responsibility.
In the late '40s I saw Robens leading a March of coalminers through our town. He was elected MP for a nearby constituency (Wansbeck).
Everyone cheered him wildly as if he was the Messiah. I'll never forget that scene, which was what drew me to the Labour Party as a young girl.
But as with most politicians, eventually he became corrupted by power.

It could have been later that I saw him:
" He then in 1951 won instead the newly created Blyth seat to the immediate south."

Thank you all x

It’s a long time ago, would not have brought it up but wanted to explain my anger on political tbreads , yes I flare up , I have to, this man lied, the night of the disaster he went to some ceromony, did come untill the next day, Prince Phillip and Tony Armstrong Jones arrive before he did.

In the clip there is mention of a man who was locked in the police cells for a night for carrying a banner, he lost his two sons, his wife and his house.

Robens lied, my fsther would have 100 years old this year, he went to that school, I went to that school, the tip slipped several times before, everyonef knew there were springs and streams under them, always reassured by the coal board they were safe. Roben was head of the coal board, he denied knowledge .

The Blair govenment and new then Welsh Assembly gave the village the money back and interest. The money is invested so after we are all gone the memorial garden on the site of the school and the childrens graves will be cared for .

Only thirty years later were papers released which told the unions, government and Robens had lied when he offered his resignation and it was refused. The photograph in the clip is the headmistress handing in a letter regarding the tip the previous winter, she died that day.

So when I blow a fuse when Roben and Union power over governments is spoken of this is why. The victims didn’t receive justice, Uncle Phil got a night in the police cells.

I do not dwell on that time, I have flash blacks but I do not bring it up for myself . We were denied justice , but we have to speak out, I love my village, it was the happiest, safest place in the world , that was taken from us in just minutes.

I watched mothers and grandmothers try to dig before the men got there from the pit, i saw fathers , grandfathers, uncles dig their children out.

It could have been avoided, justice should have been granted. Some parents took their lives.

I have to speak out

I would very much agree that the people of Aberfan were treated very poorly at the time of the disaster and again in its aftermath. However, it was a far different era in terms of legislation and attitudes in regard to workplace safety

In the above, the 1962 Dr Beeching axe had fallen on large sections on Britains railways, and that brought a vast reduction in the coal requirement for those steam-powered rail services badly affecting the output tonnage required from the UK coalfields.

Evidence to the above can be seen as when Lord Robens took over the position as National Coal Board (NCB) chairman in 1961 there were 698 pits employing 583,000 miners, but by the time he left the post ten years later, only 292 pits had survived employing 283,000 miners. However, Robens developed a good relationship with the mining unions as he earned a reputation as a champion of the industry which cost him dear in his relationship with the governments of the day who wished to see even greater operational reductions in Britains coal fields.

Robens had often expressed concern at the poorhealth and safetyrecord of the coal industry and championed campaigns to reduce accidents and counter chronicoccupational diseases such aspneumocystis from which many miners benefited. That stated, it was a time of "the survival of the fittest" in Britains coal mines and if your pit produced the right type of coal for the requirement at the lowest cost your pit survived while the next one in a coalfield would close.

The above pressures undoubtedly led to heavy cost cutting in individual mines as they competed with each other to survive. That was especially prevalent in the Welsh coalfield were whole towns relied on a single pit for their employment and very existence. That situation undoubtedly brought about the Aberfan disaster as safety took second place in the fight for the pits survival.

There were warnings that the Aberfan surface tips were unstable, but there was not the legislation in place at that time that would force action by the local and national management that we have today, and therefore no action was taken due to the above working environment.

Even after the disaster, Robens maintained his good working relationship with the mining unions as they realised that should he be replaced then the government of the day would appoint someone who would take a much larger axe to the mining industry very quickly

Roben's went on to play a leading role in bringing forward the Health & Safety at Work Act after resigning as chairman of NCB. He achieved great credit from many organisations for convincing many of the need for such a bill and in that steering the act through parliament.

Many hundreds of thousands of lives have saved in the years since HSAWA came into existence. However, that need should have been seen much sooner due to the appalling safety record in Britains ports, factories, warehouses, transport and many other industries at that time.

Perhaps if it had Aberfan would not have come about.

No comment

Annie I am so sorry,
The horror that befell you that dreadful day must hover over you like a dark cloud.

Today you would be offered help with PTS and bereavement.

I dont believe there is an time limit on bereavment counseling.
Apologies if you have travelled this route before.
Old wounds run deep.

Have you or are you able to write a historic and political account of the disaster?

x

Cherry, how kind thank you x

I am ok. It doesn’t haunt me as it did in the early years, things suddenly said bring it back. I was watching the Welsh News last week , the tv series The Crown ( I have never seen it) are filming a new series and they have chosen to film the Queens first visit, she has been there four times.

Excuses for Robens and the deceit by the unions still causes me anger, there can never be an excuse for it, we wanted justice, it was denied.

I haven’t written of it, there are books. But I will not and cannot remain silent about the deceit .

It’s the anniversary on the 18th of October

But I will not and cannot remain silent about the deceit

And nor should you Anniebach; the dreadful tragedy of Aberfan must never be forgotten, no matter how convenient it might be for some to do so.

For those who would like to read further on the events leading up to, and after, the tragedy:

aberfan.walesonline.co.uk

Thank you Chewbacca.

I will continue to give my views on the man who could have prevented this and the union power which kept him in his job.

I support the cry of ‘ murdered by the NCB.’