1912 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1912 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

Events

9 February - Alfred Thomas is created Baron Pontypridd.
1 March - A national coal miners' strike begins, led in Wales by Vernon Hartshorn and Noah Ablett, among others.
15 April - Wireless operator Artie Moore of Gelligroes near Blackwood, hears a distress signal from.
22 April - Denys Corbett Wilson leaves Goodwick, Pembrokeshire, to make the first manned flight fully across the Irish Sea in a time of 1 hour 40 minutes.
26 April - Vivian Hewitt of Bodfari in Denbighshire makes a manned flight across the Irish Sea, from Holyhead to Dublin.
28 May - A major demonstration in favour of disestablishment takes place in Swansea.
25 June - King George V and Queen Mary arrive for a 4-day visit to Cardiff onboard HMY Victoria and Albert. On 26 June the royal couple lay the foundation stone of the National Museum Cardiff.
24 June - Sir David Brynmor Jones becomes a member of the Privy Council.
27 June - King George V and Queen Mary travel by train via Pontypridd for a controversial visit to Merthyr Tydfil.
1 August - Chemist Humphrey Owen Jones marries a colleague, Muriel Gwendolen Edwards. A fortnight later the couple, both keen climbers, are killed in a fall while on their honeymoon in the Alps.
17 September - Welsh immigrant workers play a major part in organizing the coal miners' strike in Vancouver Island, Canada.
unknown dates
*The Welsh Health Service Insurance Commission is established, under the National Insurance Act 1911
*Dan yr Ogof caves are discovered by brothers Jeff and Tommy Morgan.
*Sir Ellis Ellis-Griffith becomes chairman of the Welsh Parliamentary Liberal Party.
*Clough Williams-Ellis receives his first major architectural commission, for the remodelling of Llangoed Hall.
*First coal raised from Bedwas Navigation Colliery.
8A drill hall is built in the Pen-dre area of Tywyn for the Territorial Army. The hall, subsequently known as Neuadd Pendre, is renovated 100 years after its construction with grants from various sources and houses a 3-manual 9-rank Wurlitzer Organ originally installed in a cinema in Woolwich.

Arts and literature

The Welsh colony in Chubut launches its own newspaper.

Awards

National Eisteddfod of Wales - held in Wrexham
*Chair and Crown - T. H. Parry-Williams

New books

English language

Stanley Bligh - The Art of Conversation
Rhoda Broughton - Between Two Stools
A. G. Edwards - Landmarks in the History of the Welsh Church
Miners' Unofficial Reform Committee - The Miners' Next Step
T. M. Rees - Welsh Painters
Bertha Thomas - ''Stranger Within The Gates''

Welsh language

Edward Tegla Davies - Hunangofiant Tomi
Thomas Williams (Brynfab) - ''Pan Oedd Rhondda'n Bur''

Music

Thomas Carrington - Concwest Calfari
Sir Henry Walford Davies - Song of St Francis
David Vaughan Thomas - ''A Song for St. Cecilia's Day''

Film

The Belle of Bettws-y-Coed
The Pedlar of Penmaenmawr
The Smuggler's Daughter of Anglesea
''The Witch of the Welsh Mountains''

Sport

Boxing:
*January - Freddie Welsh dislocates his neck in a bout of wrestling, rendering him unable to compete.
*3 June - Jim Driscoll wins the European featherweight title.
*16 December - Freddie Welsh wins the Commonwealth lightweight title.
Football
*Cardiff City F.C. win the Welsh Cup - the first time a club from south Wales has done so.
*Swansea Town play their first match at the Vetch Field.
Rugby league - Ebbw Vale RLFC fold after five seasons, ending the first attempt to bring rugby league to Wales.
Rugby union
*14 December - The South African touring team defeats Wales 3–0 at Cardiff Arms Park.
*26 December - Swansea RFC defeat the South African touring team 3–0 at St Helen's, Swansea.

Births

17 January - J. E. Caerwyn Williams, academic
27 February - Joe Thomas, communist activist
3 March - Mary Keir, supercentenarian
5 March - Enoch Mort, footballer
17 March - Brenda Chamberlain, artist and poet
27 March - James Callaghan, English Labour politician, Prime Minister of the U.K., M.P. for Cardiff
29 April - Elvet Jones, Wales and British Lions rugby international
9 May - Evan Williams, jockey
29 May - David Jenkins, librarian of National Library of Wales
30 May - Hugh Griffith, actor
8 June - Billy Bassett, footballer
16 June - Enoch Powell, English Conservative politician, Welsh scholar
29 June - Valerie Davies, swimmer
17 July - John Williams, clergyman
1 September - Gwynfor Evans, Plaid Cymru politician
1 September - Eileen Rees, nurse
20 October - William R. P. George, solicitor and poet
15 November - Arthur Granville, footballer
20 November
*Arthur Rees, Wales rugby international and police Chief Constable
*Wilf Wooller, Wales rugby international and Glamorgan cricket captain
12 December - Daniel Jones, composer
13 December - Garfield Hopkin Hughes, academic
20 December - Sir Morien Morgan, aeronautics engineer

Deaths

25 January – Augusta Mostyn, artist and philanthropist, 81
29 January – Dai Evans, Wales international rugby player
17 February – Edgar Evans, explorer, 35
6 April – Eleazar Roberts, writer and musician, 87
15 April – David John Bowen, boxer, 20
18 April – Walter Clopton Wingfield, lawn tennis inventor, 78
18 May – Richard Grosvenor, MP for Flintshire 1861–1886, 75
23 July – Abel Thomas, lawyer and politician, 63/64
25 July – Griffith John, missionary, 80
31 July – Ellis Pierce, writer and bookseller, 71
15 August - Humphrey Owen Jones, chemist, 34
29 August - James Cholmeley Russell, railway entrepreneur, 71
21 September – William T. Davies, Welsh-born Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, 80
24 September – John Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock, politician, 75
30 October – Walter W. Thomas, architect, 63
18 November – Edward Thomas (Cochfarf), local politician, 59
4 December – Phoebe Davies, actress, 48