THE daughter of a policeman who spent nine days helping at the Aberfan disaster says he was changed by the traumatic experience.

Last Wednesday (October 21) was the 60th anniversary of the tragedy, which claimed the lives of 116 children and 28 adults when Pantglas Junior School and nearby homes were wiped out by a colliery spoil tip crashing down the mountainside.

King Charles, Queen Camilla and Prince William were among those attending the commemoration of the tragedy in Aberfan last week.

And one woman has told of how it affected her father, a Wye Valley policeman who rushed to help out at the disaster scene in October 1966.

Eric Owen was a policeman who helped at the Aberfan disaster. Family photo
Eric Owen was a policeman who helped at the Aberfan disaster. Family photo (Family photo)

Eric Owen was a policeman living in Ross-on-Wye when news of the disaster sped around the world, and headed there as part of mobilisation unit which worked with the civil defence.

His daughter Lynne Hunter, who was seven at the time, told BBC Hereford & Worcester News she later found a document written by her father saying: “This experience will live with me for the rest of my life.”

In his eulogy at his funeral, she said Aberfan had been "the biggest, saddest challenge of his career".

And she recalled: "There were 150 officers called from across the Midlands, of which dad was one.

"Dad was gone for nine days. When dad came back he was different, but I can't exactly explain why...

"He chose out of respect and dignity not to talk about it and not to glorify it or act like a hero, but I know without any shadow of doubt that my dad will have thought about that every day afterwards."

She told the BBC that after her father’s returned: “I just remember a darkness descending over my home.

"Mum was talking in quiet whispers and it must have been coming up to half-term because my grandmother was there too.

"She used to take me back to Wales, so it was really poignant."