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The story of Barry's beauty queen is one of great achievements and perhaps unfair loss.

Helen Morgan was born in Walsall in 1952. She moved to Penarth and aged five began at Colcut Primary School in Barry.

In 1974, Helen was crowned Miss Wales and then Miss United Kingdom and went on to represent Wales in Miss Universe the same year. She finished first runner-up behind Amparo Muñoz of Spain, who resigned before the end of her reign. But the crown was not offered to Helen, or any other runner-up.

Winning Miss United Kingdom earned Helen the right to represent the UK in Miss World. She was originally reluctant to enter the Miss Wales competition, and was eventually paid £30 as a last-minute stand-in when another competitor dropped out.

She was hotly tipped to win the Miss World title, at 9-1 odds, but told the South Wales Echo she was not entirely happy about being favourite.

"I've never been favourite to win a major competition and I don't know whether it is a good omen or not," she told the paper.

"I wouldn't have missed this experience for the world and I'm going to do my best to collect the Crown for Wales. It would be fabulous if I won it."

At 22, Helen was one of the oldest of the 60 contestants, most of them being 18, 19 or 20. Only once had the number one favourite won the Miss World contest – Belinda Green won for Australia in 1972.

Helen became the second Welsh woman and fourth UK representative to win Miss World 1974.

However, she was forced to resign just four days later.

In the hours immediately after her win, lurid and negative headlines about Helen being an unwed mother with an 18-month-old son created extreme pressure on the beauty queen and the pageant organisers. In particular, interviews with the wife of the child's father contributed to the situation.

Helen never hid the fact she was a mother, and the Miss World rules stipulated the entrants must be unmarried. But the Miss World Organisation pressured her to resign to save them from further potential embarrassment.

First runner-up Anneline Kriel of South Africa succeeded her and Helen became the first winner to resign and the second Miss World titleholder not to finish her reign.

Just the year before, winner Majorie Wallace was stripped of her crown for "failing to fulfil the basic requirements of the job" a few months after she was crowned.

After the Miss World pageant, Helen was allowed to keep her other titles. She resigned from her job at a bank and undertook a career in modelling, TV and films. In 2004, Helen judged the 2004 Miss Wales competition in Swansea, on the 30th anniversary of her win.