Nansi Williams

Nansi Williams (1922–1966) was a school dinner lady at the Pantglas Junior School in Aberfan, Wales. She is known in Wales and throughout the UK as one of the heroes of the Aberfan disaster of 1966, sacrificing her own life to save five children.

Nansi Williams
Born1922
Aberfan, Wales
Died21 October 1966
Aberfan, Wales
Occupationdinner lady
Known foractions during Aberfan disaster

Personal life

Nansi Williams (O'Brien) was born in 1922 in the Aberfan Cemetery House, the daughter of Dennis and Maud O'Brien. She married David R Williams but they had no children. She died on 21 October 1966 in the Aberfan disaster. She is buried in Aberfan cemetery.[1]

Aberfan disaster

Williams was a school meals clerk at the Pantglas Junior School in Aberfan. On 21 October 1966, she was collecting school dinner money when slurry from the colliery spoil tip hit the school. She told the children who were queuing up to get on the ground and flung herself on top of them. Williams was killed instantly but all five of the children she shielded survived. When her body was later recovered, rescuers found she was still holding a pound note she had been collecting as lunch money.[2][3]

One of the children that Williams saved, Karen Thomas, described to BBC Wales in an interview for the documentary 'Surviving Aberfan',[4] which was made to mark the 50th anniversary of the disaster, how Williams' quick thinking saved her life. "At the other end of the hall glass started coming down the corridor from the head mistress's room and Nansi the dinner lady jumped on top of us. The wall I think more or less pushed us all together and she took the full impact."[5] Thomas and the other children didn't realise initially that Williams was dead and attempted to pull her hair to wake her.[6]

References
  1. "Nansi Williams (O'Brien) grave". Billion Grave.(Memorial ID: 17500195)
  2. Austin, Tony. Aberfan: The Story of a Disaster. Hutchinson & Co.
  3. Sabrina Barr (21 October 2020). "Aberfan disaster: What happened during the 1966 tragedy shown in The Crown?". The Independent.
  4. "Surviving Aberfan: Karen Thomas - saved by a dinner lady". BBC.
  5. David Owens (30 October 2018). "The heroic dinner lady who died saving the lives of schoolchildren during the Aberfan disaster". Wales Online.
  6. Steve Humphries (21 October 2020). "Death under the black mountain: surviving the 1966 Aberfan disaster". History Extra.
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