BLACK and white photographs immortalise the moments immediately ensuing the Aberfan disaster, where 50 years ago on Friday, October 21, a 150,000-tonne wave of coal debris hurled itself over Pantglas Junior School killing 116 children and 28 adults.

The children had just returned to their classes from the morning assembly where they sang All Things Bright and Beautiful.

The most poignant image for me from that day is a scene, captured from a height, showing a community of miners from local collieries, policemen, teachers and villagers – all feverishly trying to reclaim their children from the black mess with shovels and bare hands. Amid this devastation there is the warmth of brave people pulling together through an impossible situation. Their resilience has endured.

Reading the accounts of survivors who now feel able to break their silence and share their experiences of that day, I am awed by the enormous resolve by which the community has been able to confront their future in the face of such heartbreak.

Take the example of the Aberfan Young Wives – a group of bereaved mothers who came together in the wake of the catastrophe to comfort each other. They still meet regularly to remember the short but treasured lives of their loved ones. In each other they find a strength to go on.

We remember an unfathomable loss, but we take courage from a community’s response to that loss – from a refusal to succumb to darkness and a tireless dig for light. It is with feelings of the utmost reverence and compassion that we remember.

Andrew RT Davies

Leader of the Welsh Conservatives