The Aberfan Portraits

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan Disaster in South Wales. 

A colliery spoil tip soaked by rain collapsed down a hillside. Around 150,000 tonnes of wet slurry crashed into the village of Aberfan. The Pantglas Junior School was directly in its path and was buried. In total 116 children and 28 adults were killed in the Junior School, part of the neighbouring Secondary School and a nearby row of houses. It happened at 9.15am and no survivors were found after 11am.

A new BBC programme "Unseen: The Aberfan Portraits" tells the story of how paintings were created of some of the children who were lost. (see below for how to watch it)

An artist called William Richardson worked in North Wales, Llandudno, sketching visitors on holiday and celebrities. He was greatly affected by what had happened. He very much wanted to help the families who has lost children. Which is how he came to paint their portraits from family photos. In all he painted about a 100 portraits.

Some of the portraits of Aberfan children lost in the disaster
painted by William Richardson

The paintings were not small, as these extracts from the BBC film illustrate

Jeanette Keane - with the portrait of her sister Edwina

Denise Morgan with her portrait of her younger sister Annette

Importantly, the portraits recreated the children within the family home and enabled people to talk about them - and to them - again.

They are now being passed down to the generations or donated to local museums so that this important record of their existence ensures they will never be forgotten.

I don't know if William Richardson was ever honoured for what he did - but I rather think he should have been.

You can watch the programme about the portraits on BBC iPlayer - Unseen: The Aberfan Portraits

I remember the disaster really well. At the time I was 12, just a few years older than the children who were killed. I'll never ever forget the shock of seeing the television news and the Junior School which was submerged and destroyed by the coal slurry. Inside it were 116 children who never made it out alive.

Pantglas Junior School
and the efforts to retrieve the bodies of the living and the dead