Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

1949 in Wales

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Centuries:
  
18th 19th 20th 21st

Decades:
  
1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1949 to Wales and its people.

Contents

Incumbents

  • Prince of Wales - vacant
  • Princess of Wales – vacant
  • Archbishop of Wales
  • David Prosser, Bishop of St David's (retired)
  • John Morgan, Bishop of Llandaff (elected)
  • Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Wil Ifan

    • Events

  • May - Council for Wales and Monmouthshire first meets, with Huw T. Edwards as its first chairman.
  • 12 June - Britain’s first all-world Muslim conference is held in Cardiff.
  • 21 September
  • The first comprehensive school in Wales is opened in Holyhead, Anglesey.
  • A meteorite falls through the roof of the Prince Llewelyn Hotel, Beddgelert.
  • 4 November - Cwmbran is designated as the first New Town in Wales under powers of the New Towns Act 1946.
  • 26 December - The Gwyn Nicholls memorial gates at Cardiff Arms Park are officially opened.
  • Closure of the granite quarry at Llanbedrog.
  • Sale of Bron-y-garth, Porthmadog, ancestral home of Sir Lewis Casson.
  • Bodnant Garden donated to the National Trust.
  • Urdd Gobaith Cymru holds its first "Celtic camp".
  • Meteorologist David Brunt is knighted.
  • Gwynfor Evans is elected to Merionethshire County Council.
  • Jack Jones spends three months in the USA promoting the Moral Re-Armament Movement.

    • Arts and literature

  • May - Dylan and Caitlin Thomas settle at the Boat House, Laugharne.
  • Geraint Evans stars in The Marriage of Figaro at Covent Garden.
  • Huw Menai is granted a civil list pension.

    • Awards

  • National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Dolgellau)
  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Roland Jones
  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - John Tudor James
  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - withheld

    • New books

  • Dannie Abse - After Every Green Thing
  • Stanley Stephen Awbery - Labour's Early Struggles in Swansea
  • Aneirin Talfan Davies - Gwyr Llen
  • David James Davies - Towards an Economic Democracy
  • Richard Davies (Isgarn) - Caniadau Isgarn (posthumously published)
  • Cledwyn Hughes - A Wanderer in North Wales
  • Arthur Leach - Charles Norris of Tenby and Waterwynch
  • John Daniel Vernon Lewis - Bydd melys fy myfyrdod: detholiad o lyfr y Salmau
  • Gordon Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald of Gwaenysgor - Newfoundland at the Cross Roads
  • Thomas Mardy-Jones - Character, Coal and Corn — the Roots of British Power
  • Kate Roberts - Stryd y Glep
  • Bertrand Russell - Authority and the Individual
  • Gwyn Thomas – All Things Betray Thee
  • Louie Myfanwy Thomas
  • as Jane Ann Jones - Y bryniau pell
  • as Ffanni Llwyd - Diwrnod yw ein bywyd (submitted to National Eisteddfod; published 1954)
  • William Nantlais Williams - Emynau'r daith

    • Music

  • Ivor Novello - King's Rhapsody
  • Grace Williams - Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes - first recording, made by London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mansel Thomas (first recording of any work by a female Welsh composer)

    • Film

  • Blue Scar, starring Kenneth Griffith and Rachel Thomas
  • The Last Days of Dolwyn, starring Emlyn Williams, Richard Burton and Hugh Griffith
  • Yr Etifeddiaeth (The Heritage), documentary by Geoff Charles and John Roberts Williams, depicting traditional ways of life in rural North Wales, with narration by Cynan; the first film to be made in the Welsh language
  • The Fruitful Year, a promotional film about Wales, commissioned by the Post Office National Savings
  • The Road to Yesterday, travelogue made for troops serving abroad

    • Sport

  • Football - John Charles joins Leeds United
  • Netball - The Welsh team plays its first international matches, against Scotland and England
  • Rugby Union
  • 26 March France beats Wales 5–3 at the Stade Colombes in Paris
  • 26 December - Rhys Gabe officially opens the Gwyn Nicholls Memorial Gates at Cardiff Arms Park
  • Steeplechasing - The first Welsh Grand National to be run at Chepstow Racecourse is won by Dick Francis riding Fighting Line.

    • Births

  • 1 January - Sue Jones-Davies, actress, singer and local politician
  • 7 February - Martin Daunton, historian and academic
  • 2 March - J. P. R. Williams, rugby player
  • 5 March - Mike Gwilym, actor
  • 9 March - Neil Hamilton, politician
  • 22 March - John Toshack, footballer and football manager
  • 22 May - Ieuan Wyn Jones AM, politician
  • 22 May - Derek Quinnell, rugby player
  • 5 June - Ken Follett, novelist
  • 11 June - Tom Pryce, racing driver (killed in racing accident 1977)
  • 14 June - Alan Evans, darts player (died 1999)
  • 23 June - Hilary Boyd, novelist
  • 16 July - Angharad Rees, actress (died 2012)
  • 25 August - Martin Amis, novelist
  • 24 October - Nick Ainger, politician
  • 29 October - Alun Ffred Jones AM, politician
  • 18 November - William Graham AM, politician
  • 15 December (in Epsom) - Jane Hutt AM, politician
  • date unknown - M. J. Trow, writer

    • Deaths

  • 20 January - Artie Moore, wireless operator (born 1887)
  • 21 January - Jimmy Thomas, politician, 72
  • 21 January - Rowley Thomas, Wales international rugby player, 85
  • 7 March - T. Gwynn Jones ("Tir-na-Nog"), poet and journalist, 77
  • 20 April - Sir Evan Davies Jones, 1st Baronet, civil engineer and politician, 90
  • 21 April - Sir Alfred Thomas Davies, civil servant, 88
  • 27 April - Evan Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar, 55
  • 1 May - Horace Lyne, Wales international rugby player and WRU president, 88
  • 3 May - David John Tawe Jones, composer, 64
  • 8 May - Abel J. Jones, teacher, writer and public servant
  • 6 June - Walter E. Rees, Secretary of the Welsh Rugby Union, 86
  • 3 July - William McCutcheon, Wales international rugby player
  • 23 July - John Bodvan Anwyl (Bodfan), lexicographer, 74
  • 10 August - William Jones Williams, public servant, 86
  • 26 August - Edgar Chappell, sociologist, 70
  • 1 September - Dr Teddy Morgan, Welsh international rugby player, 69
  • 24 October - T. Rowland Hughes, author, 46
  • 9 November - William Dowell, Wales dual code rugby international, 64
  • 16 December - George Maitland Lloyd Davies, pacifist politician, 59

    • References

    1949 in Wales Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA