1869 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1869 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – Henry Paget, 2nd Marquess of Anglesey (until 7 February); William Owen Stanley (from 2 March)
• Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire – Charles Morgan, 1st Baron Tredegar
• Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire – Edward Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn
• Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Edward Pryse
• Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – John Campbell, 2nd Earl Cawdor
• Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire – Robert Myddelton Biddulph
• Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Sir Stephen Glynne, 9th Baronet
• Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot
• Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire – Edward Lloyd-Mostyn, 2nd Baron Mostyn
• Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire – Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort
• Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – Sudeley Hanbury-Tracy, 3rd Baron Sudeley
• Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – William Edwardes, 3rd Baron Kensington
• Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – John Walsh, 1st Baron Ormathwaite
• Bishop of Bangor – James Colquhoun Campbell
• Bishop of Llandaff – Alfred Ollivant
• Bishop of St Asaph – Thomas Vowler Short
• Bishop of St Davids – Connop Thirlwall

Events

• January
• Henry Austin Bruce becomes MP for Renfrewshire.
• Timothy Richards Lewis goes to India to study cholera.
• 1 May – The Western Mail is published for the first time.
• 19 May – Two days after John Young, the English manager of the Leeswood Green colliery, announces a pay cut, he is attacked by some of his workers.
• 2 June – Seven men are tried at Mold for attacking John Young. A riot breaks out as those convicted are being transported to the railway station; soldiers fire on the crowd, killing four people.
• 10 June
• 53 men and boys are killed in the second underground explosion within two years at Ferndale Colliery in the Rhondda.
• Three people are killed in a train derailment at Maesycwmmer in Glamorgan.
• August – Anti-Irish riots at Pontlottyn in the Rhymney Valley result in one death.
• 1 September – The Dyserth branch line is opened for goods traffic.
• 30 October – The first edition of the Welsh-language periodical Y Goleuad is published.
• unknown date
• Landore steelworks at Swansea established by Carl Wilhelm Siemens.
• John Hughes of Merthyr Tydfil buys land near the Sea of Azov, where he develops an ironworks and founds the city of Yuzovka (later Donetsk).
• Joseph Leycester Lyne (Father Ignatius of Jesus) acquires land at Capel-y-ffin and begins construction of an Anglican Benedictine community, Llanthony Abbey.
• Construction of the fort at St Catherine's Island, off Tenby.
• Prehistoric burial remains are discovered at Parc le Breos on the Gower Peninsula.
• John Owen of Tyn-llwyn is evicted from his farm for voting Tory.

Arts and literature

Awards

• The first official National Eisteddfod of Wales takes place at Holywell.

New books

• J. H. Clark – History of Monmouthshire
• John Hugh Evans –
• Jane Hughes –
• David Watkin Jones
• Nathaniel Jones
• John Petherick – Travels in Central Africa and Explorations of the Western Nile Tributaries
• William Rowlands – (Bibliography of the Welsh) (posthumous; ed. Daniel Silvan Evans)
• Jane Williams (Ysgafell) – A History of Wales derived from Authentic Sources
• Robert Williams (Trebor Mai) –

Music

• Owen Jones – (collection of hymns)

Sport

• Football – Ruabon footballers set up a club at Plas Madoc.
• Mountaineering – Emmeline Lewis Lloyd attempts an ascent of the Matterhorn.

Births

• 11 January – Ralph Sweet-Escott, English born, Wales rugby international (died 1907)
• 9 April – John Hugh Edwards, politician (died 1945)
• 19 May – John Henry Williams, Welsh politician (died 1936)
• 20 May – Robert Griffith Berry, minister and writer (died 1945)
• 30 May – Thomas Rees, theologian (died 1926)
• 12 August – Fred Parfitt, Wales international rugby player (died 1953)
• 6 September – Walford Davies, composer (died 1944)
• 24 September – Maud Cunnington, archaeologist (died 1951)
• 29 October – Bill Morris, Wales international rugby player (died 1946)
• 9 November – Osbert Fynes-Clinton, dialectologist (died 1941)
• 15 November – Percy Bennett, Wales international rugby player (died 1936)
• 20 November – Herbert Tudor Buckland, architect working in Birmingham (died 1951)

Deaths

• 23 March – William Williams (Caledfryn), poet, 68
• 31 March – David Rees (Y Cynhyrfwr), Nonconformist leader and author, 67
• 16 April – James Davies (Iago ap Dewi), poet, 68
• 1 July – David Jones, banker and politician, 58
• 14 July – Lloyd Kenyon, 3rd Baron Kenyon, 64
• 26 August – William Williams (Creuddynfab), 55
• October – John Jones (Talhaiarn), poet, 59 (suicide)
• 7 October – George Rice-Trevor, 4th Baron Dynevor, politician, 74
• 9 November – Harriet Windsor-Clive, 13th Baroness Windsor, philanthropist,
• 15 December – David Williams, politician, 70
• 17 December – Sarah Jacob, "the fasting girl", 12

See also

• 1869 in Ireland

References