King Charles and Queen Camilla ignored a small but vocal group of protesters as they formally opened the Welsh Parliament in Cardiff.
The royal couple also set aside the attention surrounding Harry and Meghan’s visit to Nottingham as they held an emotional meeting with an Aberfan disaster survivor and the great-grandsons of the school caretaker who helped save his life.
Charles held the hand of Gareth Jones, 66, who became emotional while speaking to the King at the Senedd. Gareth showed him a photograph of himself as a child with Prince Philip, taken a day after Pantglas Junior School was engulfed by slurry 60 years ago.
Heavy rain triggered the collapse of a colliery spoil tip on the mountainside, sending debris onto the school and killing 144 people, including 116 children.
“How are you keeping?” the concerned King asked. “We are coming soon, for the commemoration.”
Gareth was only six when his teacher pushed him through a classroom window and school caretaker Stephen Andrew pulled him to safety, telling him: “Run boy, run home.”
Stephen’s great-grandsons, Noah Jones, 10, and his nine-year-old brother Charlie, stood alongside Gareth as they presented a posy to the Queen.
Noah first met Gareth by chance when Gareth visited his school to give a talk. He described being rescued by the school caretaker without realising that the caretaker’s descendant was sitting in front of him.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive in Cardiff to attend the ceremonial opening of the Senedd
The King and Queen were met in Cardiff Bay by a small protest from demonstrators carrying yellow “Not My King” placards and chanting the same words, along with “Down with the crown”
Charles met Gareth Jones, 66, who showed him a photograph of himself as a child with Prince Philip, taken a day after Pantglas Junior School was engulfed by slurry 60 years ago
Between them was a framed photograph of the late Duke of Edinburgh speaking to Gareth’s family as the young boy looked on, a day after the disaster. The King studied the image before smiling and saying: “I recognise him!”
The King and Queen were also introduced to Len Moss, an off-duty nurse who rushed to Pantglas School after the disaster. He spent two days washing the faces and hands of children recovered from the rubble so their loved ones could identify them.
Charles and Camilla were in Cardiff for the opening of the Welsh Parliament, with the King taking part in the ceremony for the first time since becoming monarch.
Their arrival in Cardiff Bay was met by a small protest. Demonstrators held yellow “Not My King” placards and shouted the slogan, as well as “Down with the crown.”
Beyond the protest, the welcome was warm. The royal couple were greeted by First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth and Llywydd, or presiding officer, Huw Irranca-Davies. They were also introduced to the Welsh leaders of Plaid Cymru, Labour, Reform, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats.
After passing representatives from the King’s Trust, Cardiff’s Chinese Community, Learning Disability Wales and Welsh Women’s Aid, Charles and Camilla followed mace bearer Delyth Lewis into the Siambr. Lewis is the first woman to hold the role.
Inside the refurbished circular chamber, the King addressed the expanded 96-member assembly in both English and Welsh.
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Paying tribute to the people of Aberfan, he said: “The Welsh people, from all communities and faiths, are rightly famed for the strength of their sense of belonging – and next week, together with The Queen and The Prince of Wales, I will be visiting Aberfan to commemorate the solemn anniversary of a tragedy that brought Wales to the attention, and to the hearts, of the entire world – for the most unbearable of reasons.
“I am enormously touched that people from the Aberfan community are with us today. There could be no finer witnesses to the strength of the Welsh – and the human – spirit.”
Charles and Camilla will visit the community with Prince William on October 21, exactly 60 years after the disaster.
Elsewhere, there was laughter as he cited the title of a famous Welsh protest song Yma o Hyd, now adopted as the anthem of the Welsh football team, saying of the expanded Senedd: ‘There are many new faces – as well, of course, as the reassuring presence of familiar faces who are, we might say, Yma o Hyd [still here].
He ended his speech to applause, saying: ‘Pob bendith ar eich gwaith er lles y wlad arbennig hon. [Heartfelt thanks for your work for the welfare and success of this special land.]’
Speaking afterwards Noah, from Troedyrhiw, the next village along from Aberfan, said he was, ‘Excited, nervous, but happy,’ to meet the King and Queen.
Charles and Camilla meet members of the public after attending the ceremonial opening of the Senedd in Cardiff
Charles and Camilla arrive to attend the Ceremonial Opening of the Seventh Senedd
School children wave flags as they wait for the arrival of Charles and Camilla in Cardiff
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Their mother Gemma Bray said of the King: ‘He said how handsome they both were. And he said how proud you must be.’ She said the Queen told the boys, ‘You look like twins. And she said that she has twins in her family. And they always fight!’
Gareth, who will be reunited with the King and Queen at next week’s commemoration events in Aberfan, said: ‘Today has been absolutely emotional, but it’s been an amazing day for me.’
Recalling his meeting with Prince Philip back in 1966, he said: ‘He actually shot down to Aberfan to visit the day after the disaster. Our house got wrecked, really all water, flood water. So we had to go a few days down with my grandma and grandpa.
Philip was walking down the street when he spotted Gareth and his older siblings sitting on the front wall and came straight over.
‘I’m convinced he stopped because there were children there. There were no other children there because unfortunately they were never to return home,’ said Gareth.
The late Queen Elizabeth II famously delayed visiting Aberfan in the wake of the tragedy, not wanting to disrupt the rescue operation, a decision which prompted criticism at the time.
‘The Queen came about a week later,’ recalls Gareth. ‘When she came to Aberfan, everybody welcomed her with open arms, and she kept a promise that day that [she would] always come back to Aberfan and keep in contact, and she did.
‘Charles has stepped now into her shoes. William is going to be our next king. He then will step into his shoes and will probably contact people in Aberfan and keep it going.’