Swansea photographer Irwyn Morgan said Aberfan was the most devastating scene he had ever come across in his long career.

The 80-year-old’s memory is sharp as a pin when it comes to recalling that terrible day on October 21, 1966.

He went straight to the village near Merthyr Tydfil, which was not normally a news hotspot, to record the biggest tragedy in South Wales to this day.

Irwyn — who was then working for the Evening Post’s sister paper The Herald of Wales, which shared our old offices in Castle Bailey Street — was one of the first photographers on the scene.

He remembers getting there quickly after jumping straight in his car — not everyone had one in those days.

He rushed to get there after being told to cover it by then Herald editor Iori Lewis, who died in July this year at the age of 76.

Irwyn, from Clordir Road in Pontillw, said: "I shall never forget it.

"Iori burst into the dark room at about 9.20am.

"He told me to go up to Aberfan as a school had collapsed. I couldn’t believe my ears.

"I said: ‘Where?’. I had never heard of the place.

"Iori replied: ‘Go towards Merthyr and you will find it’.

"I arrived at around 10.30am. I parked the car about 200 yards from the scene, and it was staggering.

"I had never seen anything like it. I have seen other landslides, but nothing like this.

"It was a devastating scene. Everyone was running all over the place, they didn’t know what to do.

"I thought about all those children in the school. My son, Alun, was only eight years old at the time, and it struck me that it could have been him.

"You were not particularly welcome there and nobody had time to speak to you, so I just got whatever photos I could.

"I remember crawling up the heap to take pictures.

"I just happened to see a couple standing there whose child had been in the school at the time.

"It was a miner and his wife. I didn’t talk to them, so I don’t know if their child survived.

"At the time I took the picture they wouldn’t have known whether their child was dead or alive."

The photo became one of the iconic images of the disaster, and was printed in The Herald as a full page. Irwyn’s other picture of the scene was given the same treatment.

He remembers national journalists and photographers turning up after him, including TV broadcaster Cliff Michelmore, who came from London.

In 1966, then chairman of the National Coal Board, Lord Robens, hit out at the press coverage of the disaster. He was quoted in the same edition of The Herald of Wales as saying: "If we are going to make a public spectacle of people’s misery, you can count me out every time."

But others felt differently — Irwyn was a given a gold watch in the British Safety Council awards for his efforts.

At the London ceremony, he was also offered a job by the Press Association’s head photographer on the strength of his work.

The Welsh speaker said: "I was married to Marian by then and we had our boy. I preferred to stay here."

And stay he did, moving to the Evening Post in 1973 before retiring as deputy chief photographer 18 years ago.

He added: "I covered some major events during my career, but that was the biggest."