Aberfan disaster survivor haunted after being 'buried alive with dead classmate victim on his shoulder'

It might have been nearly 60 years ago, but Jeff Edwards can still picture his dead classmate. She was killed when a coal tip collapsed on a Welsh mining village, engulfing a school and houses.

In total, 144 lives were lost in Aberfan , including 116 children, making it one of Britain’s worst industrial disasters . Instead of searching for coal, a community found itself digging for life. Only eight at the time, Jeff was the last child rescued alive.

With the King visiting next week to mark the 60th anniversary , Jeff recalls the moment his village was ripped apart by tragedy. Class 2A of Pantglas Junior School was having its last day before half-term when death arrived on the morning of October 21, 1966.

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“There was a sort of rumbling noise,” says Jeff, 68, who lives hundreds of yards from where the school once stood. “And that rumbling noise got louder and louder. The ground started to shake, and the teacher said to us, ‘Don’t worry, it’s only thunder’. The next thing I remember was waking up with all this material over me.

"My right leg was under a radiator with hot water coming out on it. On my left shoulder was a dead girl and I couldn’t get away from her because I was stuck, the desk was against my stomach... The only reason I survived was that I had a pocket of air around me which enabled me to breathe. The majority of children who died in the disaster either died of physical trauma as a result of the tip material or the roof collapsing, or they died of asphyxiation, they were buried and smothered.”

Jeff’s striking blond hair was spotted during the rescue and he was saved. A powerful black-and-white image shows him being carried, wrapped in a blanket. We visited the site of the disaster with Jeff, where a memorial garden marks those who lost their lives.

Jeff sustained injuries to his head and stomach, but it was the psychological pain that hurt him most. He explains: “The effect on you of seeing the scenes that you’d seen as a young child, particularly the girl on my shoulder, would give me constant nightmares. Any noise, particularly thunder, would make me extremely frightened. I didn’t want to go to school because I was afraid that the tip would come down again. I used to wet the bed because of the anxiety that I felt and the nervousness that I had.”

Recalling the dead girl on his shoulder, Jeff says: “As time went on, her skin became very puffy. Her eyes started to sink into her head. I used to see that continuously, practically on a daily basis, and have nightmares about that.” Asked if he can still picture her, Jeff replies: “I can see her now.”

He adds: “Obviously that caused the nightmares, it caused the depression. You just learn to live with that.