1940 in Wales
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Template:Short description Template:Year in Wales header This article is about the particular significance of the year 1940 to Wales and its people.
Incumbents
- Archbishop of Wales – Charles Green, Bishop of Bangor[1]
- Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Crwys
Events
- 21 January - Lowest ever temperature recorded in Wales, -23.3 °C (-9.9 °F) at Rhayader.[2]
- 27 January - A freak ice storm across the UK brings down telephone and electricity lines in many parts of Wales.[3]
- 3 March - The steamer Cato is damaged by a mine off Nash Point and 13 of the crew are killed.[4]
- March - The scenic railway opens at Barry Island Pleasure Park.
- May
- The newly created Coalition Government includes Hugh Dalton as Minister of Economic Warfare.[5]
- Alun Lewis enlists.
- 8 May - Three Nazi German Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111s crash in separate incidents over Wales: one near Wrexham, one at Malpas in Denbighshire, and one at Bagillt, Flint. In all nine crew are killed and four captured.
- 3 July - Cardiff is bombed for the first time.
- 9 July - Cardiff suffers its first bombing fatalities.[6]
- 10 July - Ten people are killed in an air raid on Swansea Docks, as shipping convoys become a target.[7]
- 11 July - Communist minister and poet Thomas Evan Nicholas ("Niclas y Glais") and his son are arrested and interned for "endeavouring to impede recruitment to HM Forces". Nicholas is eventually released on 20 October.[8]
- 11 August - Seventeen people are killed in an air raid on Manselton, Swansea.
- 14 August - Three German Heinkel 111s are shot down during an air-raid on Cardiff, and another over North Wales after a raid on RAF Hawarden.
- 22 August - A steamer, the Thorold, is sunk by German aircraft off the Skerries. Ten crew are killed.
- 2 September - 33 people are killed in an air raid on Swansea.
- 3 September - Eleven people are killed in an air raid on Cardiff.
- 4 September - A German Junkers Ju 88 crashes near Machynlleth. Four crew and a Gestapo officer are captured.
- 13 September - A German Heinkel 111 crashes into a house in Newport, Monmouthshire.
- 22 November - The steamer Pikepool is damaged by a mine off Linney Head, Pembrokeshire, with the loss of 17 crew.
- The Urdd changes its policy to include 16- to 25-year-olds.
- Gwilym Williams becomes chaplain of St David's College, Lampeter.
- Percy Cudlipp becomes editor of the Daily Herald.
- Alun Talfan Davies and his brother Aneirin found the publishing house Llyfrau'r Dryw.
Arts and literature
- Lewis Casson directs John Gielgud in King Lear.
Awards
- National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Bangor (radio))
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - withheld
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - T. Rowland Hughes
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - withheld
New books
- Richard Bennett - Cyfrol Goffa Richard Bennett
- Clara Novello Davies - The Life I Have Loved
- David Delta Edwards - Rhedeg ar ôl y Cysgodion
- John Cowper Powys - Owen Glendower (U.S. publication)
- Howard Spring - Fame is the Spur
- Ransom Riggs - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (published 2011; partially set in Wales, 1940)
Music
- Mai Jones & Lyn Joshua - "We'll Keep a Welcome" (performed for the first time in the forces' variety show, Welsh Rarebit on 29 February)
- Grace Williams - Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes (score dated 9 February)
Film
- March 25 - Plaza Cinema opens in Port Talbot.[9]
- April 6 - Paul Robeson and Rachel Thomas star in The Proud Valley (cinematic release)
Broadcasting
- 25 February - The Proud Valley is the first film to have its première on radio, when the BBC broadcasts a 60-minute version.[10]
- May - The BBC Radio Variety Department relocates to Bangor because of wartime disruption; it will broadcast from here until August 1943.[11]
- August - The National Eisteddfod of Wales is broadcast on the British Home Service, including 15 minutes each for the crown and chair ceremonies.[12]
Sport
- Football
- 13 April - Wales defeat England 1 - 0.
- Quoits - Jack Price wins the Welsh championship for the third time.
Births
- 4 January - Brian Josephson, theoretical physicist[13]
- 17 January - Leighton Rees, darts champion (died 2003)[14]
- 23 January - Ted Rowlands, politician
- 1 March - David Broome, show jumping champion[15]
- 16 May - Sir Gareth Roberts, physicist (died 2007)
- 7 June - Tom Jones, singer[16]
- 29 June - John Dawes, rugby player (died 2021)[17]
- 17 July - C. W. Nicol, Japanese writer and environmentalist (died 2020 in Japan)
- 3 September - Eduardo Hughes Galeano, Uruguayan writer of Welsh descent
- 20 September - Anna Pavord, gardening writer
- 1 October - Atarah Ben-Tovim, flautist and children's concert promoter (died 2022)[18]
- 14 October - Christopher Timothy, actor[19]
- 31 October - Eric Griffiths, skiffle guitarist with The Quarrymen (died 2005)
- 4 November - Daniel Sperber, Talmudic scholar[20]
- 30 November - Peter Shreeves, footballer, coach and manager
- 5 December
- Michael Jones, medieval historian
- "Exotic" Adrian Street, professional wrestler (died 2023)
- 24 December - John Marek, politician
- date unknown
- Donald Evans, Welsh-language poet[21]
- Keith Miles, detective novelist and screenwriter
Deaths
- 12 February - William Edwards, educationist, 89[22]
- 21 February - Sir Alfred Edward Lewis, banker, 71[23]
- 15 March - John Davies, author, 71
- 20 March - William Thomas Edwards (Gwilym Deudraeth), poet
- 7 April - Ernest Rowland, priest and Wales international rugby player, 75
- 27 April - Fred Cornish, Wales international rugby player
- 23 May - Hugh Hesketh Hughes, polo player, 37 (killed in action)[24]
- 4 June - Owen Picton Davies, businessman and politician, 68
- 25 June - Stanley Winmill, Wales international rugby union player, 51
- 3 July - George Bevan Bowen, landowner, 82[25][26]
- 8 August - Daniel Lleufer Thomas, lawyer and biographer, 76[27]
- 20 August - Henry Maldwyn Hughes, Wesleyan minister
- 26 September - W. H. Davies, poet and author, 69[28]
- 9 October - Sir Wilfred Grenfell, medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador
- 9 November - Gwilym Owen, physicist
- 15 December
- Robert Thomas Jones, quarrymen's leader, 66[29]
- Sir David Richard Llewellyn, 1st Baronet, industrialist
See also
References
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- ↑ John Dawes rugby profile ESPN Scrum.com
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- ↑ ‘BOWEN, Sir George Bevan’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 30 Nov 2013
- ↑ Obituaries (Obituaries) The Times Friday, Jul 05, 1940; pg. 7; Issue 48660; col E
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