Scotland Yard

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Retired Police Officer Charles Nunn, pictured here as a young man, died in December

The community of Aberfan is a tribute to a retired Police Officer , for his work in the disaster More Than 50 Years ago. is

Charles Nunn, 85, died in December.

He ran into an improvised morgue in a chapel in the South Wales village after a slag heap engulfed Pantglas Junior School on the 21. October 1966.

Mr Nunn, Mumbles, Swansea, to recognize helped, the families, the bodies of the 116 children and 28 adults.

"I'm always still impressed with its sheer, as you wait in the queue in The Rain to see, child," he told BBC Wales just a few weeks before his Death .

A slag-heap, Pantglas Junior School , which is supposed to be saved, in October 1966,

Jeff Edwards MBE, The Last surviving child, to The Remains of The School , engulfed: "It was with great sadness That we learned of the Death of Charles Nunn, the policeman at the time, the Aberfan Disaster , the task of identifying the bodies and the contacts with grieving families.

"The impact on him, as the other rescuers were deep and had a lasting effect for the rest of his life. "

In 1966, Mr. Nunn, And Then an action-inspector in the Regional Crime Squad, was trained by Scotland Yard to deal with major incidents.

"On The Morning of Friday, the 21. In October, I had to pick up a wireless message, which he said the "murder bag," which was a suitcase full of papers, labels, and instructions - All of the things That we needed to come up with a big murder investigation-and Merthyr", of the BBC, before he died.

"I thought we were going with a murder case. But, of course, you don't back out. "

security warnings about the mountain pile was gone, unnoticed

Several warnings about the safety of the "tip number seven" - a large mountain of rubble, or mining tailings, the unnoticed from the wastes from the coal production in the nearby Merthyr Vale Colliery, which was gone a quarter of a mile, high up on the mountain about the Aberfan -,.

Only a few minutes after The Children at Pantglas Junior School , whose families depended on The Mine , filed in the classrooms, the survivors recalled, began to flicker the lights and swaying - And Then a roar, like a jet plane screaming low over The School in The Fog ".

A torrent of about 300,000 cubic meters (229,300 cubic metres) of coal waste from the mountain rushed to The School and 28 of the neighboring houses.

"Merthyr Borough police, fell in the area of Aberfan, had officers, a hundred; it could not be done. So they asked for help from the outside," says Mr Nunn.

"We have been asked to treat, the identification of the bodies have been recovered, The School and the surrounding houses.

"no one with idea how many of them out there. We thought we might be dealing with half a dozen dead. We had no idea it was about to be killed 144 people. The time, which we understand had not That number.

Mr Nunn, said officers had not understood, The Number of digits, you would find

"And because in Aberfan there was no gymnasium, no big hall of the Church, no proper facilities, it was decided That the Bethania chapel in Aberfan Road would be the location.

"It's a typical Welsh, was the Baptist the chapel, very dirty, very hard down the stairs, there is a small staircase which leads to each page of a gallery on the upper floor and on the back of the Sunday School rooms, a toilet had a sink, cold water, and That was it.

"We have The Incident of place in this funny Little Chapel , and the two of us, the senior is referred to the identification of officers, and our task was to ensure That , if a body was released, it was The Right side of the body; very difficult if you have many little boys and many little girls. "

Mr Nunn in detail his experiences with the 15 days he spent in Bethania chapel in one.

Each Time , when the otherwise stoic detective recalled his experience in Aberfan, he was moved to Tears .

Mr Nunn said a successful career in The Police

had said a few weeks before his Death , he said: "I remember a guy called Reverend Hayes, Kenneth Hayes. He lost his son, Dyfrig, in The School . And he came into the chapel, help his community members.

"One Day I said to him," Mr. Hayes said, I know how you can do it, you have lost your son'. And he said to me: "well, my faith is as and the from my wife, That we know That we will be reunited again One Day . The only thing we ask, is he now a young man, or still Six Years old?' He was pretty amazing, something like That . He and his wife are now buried next to his son in West Wales . "

after an outstanding career in South Wales , which had begun in the Military Police , Charles Nunn had also worked for the Bechuanaland Mounted Police, Botswana, and The Royal Oman Police.

He is survived by his wife, Elaine, a retired Police Officer from Blackwood, four step-children, six step-grandchildren and three step-great-grandchildren.

aberfan, the mumbles

Source of news: bbc.com