1982 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1982 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Secretary of State for Wales – Nicholas Edwards
• Archbishop of Wales – Gwilym Williams, Bishop of Bangor (retired)
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Jâms Nicholas

Events

• 2 January – The Welsh Army of Workers claims responsibility for a bomb explosion at the Birmingham headquarters of Severn Trent Water.
• 23 February – Wales was declared a Nuclear Free Zone as Clwyd County Council became the last of eight Welsh local authorities to pass a resolution to that effect.
• May – Swansea City complete their first season in the English Football League First Division with a sixth-place finish.
• 2 June – 100,000 people gather in Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff, to welcome Pope John Paul II on the first-ever papal visit to Wales.
• 8 June – 32 men from the Welsh Guards are killed when the Sir Galahad burns during the Falklands War. The most famous of the survivors is Simon Weston, who is severely burned.
• 16 June – Welsh miners go on strike to support health workers demanding a 12% pay rise.
• 30 August – St David's Hall opens in Cardiff.
• 11 September – 14 skydivers from Wales die when a Chinook helicopter crashes at an airshow in Mannheim in Germany.
• 16 September – At the Gower by-election brought about by the death of Ifor Davies, Gareth Wardell holds the seat for Labour.
• 17 October – First issue of Sulyn, the first Sunday newspaper in the Welsh language.
• 26 November – A plaque is unveiled by the Prince of Wales at the monument erected in memory of those who died in the Gresford Disaster of 1934.
• date unknown
• The Inmos microprocessor factory in Newport, Wales, designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership, is completed.
• Swansea is given the right to have a Lord Mayor. Councillor Paul Valerio becomes the first incumbent.
• First students begin courses at the Welsh language study centre at Nant Gwrtheyrn.

Arts and literature

• Roger Rees wins a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
• Alice Thomas Ellis is shortlisted for the Booker Prize for The 27th Kingdom.

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Swansea)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Gerallt Lloyd Owen
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Eirwyn George
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Gwilym M. Jones

New books

• Gwynfor Evans - Bywyd Cymro
• Alun Jones - Pan Ddaw'r Machlud
• R. Merfyn Jones - The North Wales Quarrymen 1874-1922
• Rhiannon Davies Jones - Eryr Pengwern
• Kenneth O. Morgan - Rebirth of a Nation: Wales 1880-1980
• Wynford Vaughan-Thomas - Princes of Wales

Music

• John Cale - Music For A New Society (album)
• Dafydd Iwan with Ar Log - Rhwng Hwyl a Thaith

Film

• Political Annie’s Off Again, film of a local industrial dispute made by Chapter Video Workshop.

Broadcasting

Welsh-language television

• Cefn Gwlad
• Joni Jones
• Noson Lawen appears for the first time.
• S4C starts broadcasting on 1 November

English-language television

• The Citadel (BBC), filmed in Tredegar.

Sport

• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Steve Barry
• Boxing
• 14 September – Kelvin Smart becomes British flyweight champion after beating fellow Welsh fighter Dave George.
• Darts – Ann-Marie Davies wins the Women's World Masters Championship.
• Snooker
• 13 January – Terry Griffiths wins the Lada Classic.
• 4 December – Terry Griffiths wins the UK Snooker Championship, to complete his career Triple Crown (snooker).
• Terry Parsons wins the World Amateur Championship.

Births

• 9 January – Catherine Middleton, future Princess of Wales (in England)
• 14 January – Joe Dunthorne, novelist and poet
• 1 February – Gavin Henson, rugby player
• 4 February – Kevin Gall, footballer
• 2 May – Timothy Benjamin, athlete
• 12 May – David Thaxton, actor and singer
• 21 June – Prince William, first child of the Prince and Princess of Wales (in London)
• 29 August – Mike Phillips, rugby player
• 2 September – Matthew Rees, footballer
• 29 November – Imogen Thomas, model
• 25 December – Rob Edwards, footballer

Deaths

• 5 January – Jeanetta Thomas, UK's oldest person and oldest Welsh-born woman of all time, 112
• 11 January – Ronald Lewis, actor, 53
• 5 February – Ronald Welch, historical novelist, 72
• 8 February – Cedric Morris, artist, 92
• 6 May – Jennie Eirian Davies, politician and magazine editor
• 19 May – Elwyn Jones, television writer, 58
• 31 May – Eryl Davies, educationist, 59
• 6 June – Ifor Davies, politician, 71
• 10 July
• Gwilym Jenkins (in Lancaster), statistician and systems engineer, 49
• Gwilym Ellis Lane Owen, philosopher, 60
• 17 July – Bob John, footballer, 83
• 16 August – Sydney Hinam, Wales international rugby player, 83
• 18 October – Idwal Jones, politician, 82
• 19 October – Iorwerth Peate, social anthropologist and poet, founder of St Fagans National Museum of History, 81
• 4 November – Talfryn Thomas, character actor, 60
• 16 November – Ivor Jones, rugby union international, 80
• 19 November – Herbie Evans, footballer, 88
• 4 December – Ivor Williams, portrait painter, 74

See also

• 1982 in Northern Ireland

References