1878 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1878 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Clwydfardd
• Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – William Owen Stanley
• Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire – Joseph Bailey, 1st Baron Glanusk
• 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 – William Cornwallis-West
• Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Hugh Robert Hughes
• 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 – Edward Herbert, 3rd Earl of Powis
• Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – William Edwardes, 4th Baron Kensington
• Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – Arthur Walsh, 2nd Baron Ormathwaite
• Bishop of Bangor – James Colquhoun Campbell
• Bishop of Llandaff – Alfred Ollivant
• Bishop of St Asaph – Joshua Hughes
• Bishop of St Davids – Basil Jones

Events

• March
• The 'basic' process, enabling the use of phosphoric iron ore in steelmaking, developed at the failing Blaenavon Ironworks by Percy Gilchrist and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, is first made public.
• The Swansea Improvements and Tramway Company SITC) opens a street tramway from Gower Street, Swansea, to join up with the Oystermouth Railway.
• 16–17 July – Spanish seaman Joseph Garcia, just released from Usk Prison, murders all 5 members of the Watkins family at Llangybi, Monmouthshire.
• 17 July – Swansea tramways are forced by legal action to return to horse-drawn operation after experimenting with steam locomotives.
• 11 September – In a mining accident at the Prince of Wales Colliery, Abercarn, 268 men are killed.
• Founding of Dr Williams School for Girls at Dolgellau with Eliza Ann Fewings as first head.
• Opening of Marine Drive around the Great Orme at Llandudno.
• A passenger ferry service is established between Bangor and Porthaethwy on the Menai Strait.
• Industrialist John Corbett buys Ynysymaengwyn.
• Slate industry in Wales: The Oakeley quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog absorbs the previously independently-worked Upper and Middle quarries.
• The prison system in Wales is nationalised and brought under centralised government control.
• Nanteos Cup first exhibited.

Arts and literature

New books

• Daniel Silvan Evans (editor) – Celtic Remains
• William Rees (Gwilym Hiraethog) – Llythyrau 'Rhen Ffarmwr

Music

• John Owen (Owain Alaw) – Jeremiah (oratorio)

Sport

• Football – The Welsh Cup competition takes place for the first time, and is won by Wrexham.

Births

• 4 January – Augustus John, painter (died 1961)
• 30 January – Reg Skrimshire, Wales and British Lions rugby union player (died 1963)
• 24 February – Lou Phillips, Wales international rugby player (killed in action 1916)
• 3 March – Edward Thomas, poet (killed in action 1917)
• 12 March – Mary Sophia Allen, women's rights activist (died 1964)
• 15 March – Thomas Richards, historian and librarian (died 1962)
• 21 March – Edwin Thomas Maynard, Wales international rugby player (died 1961)
• 16 April – Owen Thomas Jones, geologist (died 1967)
• 26 May – Abel J. Jones, writer (died 1949)
• 5 June – Billy O'Neill, Wales national rugby player (died 1955)
• 8 June – Evan Roberts, religious revivalist (died 1951)
• 20 June – Seymour Farmer, politician in Canada (died 1951)
• 1 July – Billy Trew, rugby player and Welsh Triple Crown winning captain (died 1926)
• 27 August – Edgar Rees Jones, lawyer and politician (died 1962)
• 28 October – Charles Benjamin Redrup, aeronautical engineer (died 1961)
• 30 October – Caradog Roberts, musician (died 1935)
• 8 November – Dorothea Bate, palaeontologist (died 1951)
• 27 November – Dick Jones, Welsh international rugby player (died 1958)
• 31 December – Caradoc Evans, writer (died 1945)
• date unknown – Richard Hughes Williams (Dic Tryfan), Welsh language short story writer (died 1919)

Deaths

• 3 January – Morris Williams (Nicander), writer (born 1809)
• 16 February – Alexander Jones, footballer, 23 (accidentally shot)
• 25 February – Townsend Harris, Welsh-descended American diplomat, 73
• 30 March – Peter Maurice, priest and writer, 74
• 4 July – William Roos, Welsh artist and engraver, 70
• 13 August – Francis Rice, 5th Baron Dynevor, 74
• 30 September – Evan James, poet, lyricist of the Welsh national anthem, 69
• 18 November – , clergyman and writer, 57
• 20 November – William Thomas (Islwyn), poet, 46
• 25 November – Llewelyn Lewellin, clergyman and academic, 80
• 5 December – David Price, minister, 67
• 13 December – David Charles, secretary of the University for Wales movement, 56

See also

• 1878 in Ireland

References