At 9.15 on Friday 21st October 1966, a waste tip at the nearby British Coal site slid down a mountainside into the mining village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.

It first destroyed a farm cottage in its path, killing all the occupants.

Pupils at Pantglas Junior School, just below, were just beginning their first lessons of the day, when the rushing landslide of mud and debris flooded into their classrooms. The children had just returned to their classes after singing All Things Bright and Beautiful at their assembly.

144 people died in the Aberfan disaster. 116 of them were school children.
About half of the children at Pantglas Junior School, and five of their teachers, were killed.

Despite clear failings in their systems, British Coal Board went unpunished in the criminal courts. The outcry concerning this, together with the appalling safety record in the UK generally at the time, led to the UK Government appointing Lord Robens to oversee a radical review of the legislative system in relation to health and safety.

The result was the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which has helped to increase safety beyond all recognition across working environments in the UK ever since.

We should be grateful of the review of the system all those years ago.

However, poignantly, as we approach the 50th anniversary, this coming Friday, we should remember the appalling suffering and tragic loss of life in a small Welsh mining village which led to it.