1918 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1918 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

Events

January – Coalowner, Liberal politician and Minister of Food Control David Alfred Thomas is created Viscount Rhondda; following his death on 3 July the title passes by special remainder to his daughter, the suffragette Margaret Mackworth.
26 January – An Irish steamship, the Cork, is torpedoed by a U-boat off Point Lynas in Anglesey. Twelve crew are killed.
29 January – The steamship Ethelinda is torpedoed by a U-boat off the Skerries. Twenty-six crew are killed.
4 February – The steamship Treveal is torpedoed by a U-boat off the Skerries. Thirty-three people are killed.
5 February – The steamship Mexico City is torpedoed by a U-boat off South Stack, Holyhead. Twenty-nine crew are killed.
March
*Miners' leader A. J. Cook is imprisoned for sedition under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 for his public opposition to the war.
*Submarines and are laid down at HM Dockyard Pembroke Dock; as with HMS L34 and L35 ordered later in the year, they will be cancelled in 1919 before completion.
2 March – The British submarine is rammed and sunk, having been mistaken for a U-boat, off Porthdinllaen. All twenty-six crew are killed.
7 March – The steamship Kenmare is torpedoed by a U-boat off the Skerries. Twenty-six crew are killed.
7 April – The steamship Boscastle is torpedoed by a U-boat off Strumble Head. Eighteen crew are killed.
21 April – The steamship Landonia is torpedoed by a U-boat off Strumble Head. Twenty-one crew are killed.
9 May – The steamships Baron Ailsa and Wileysike are torpedoed by a U-boat off Pembrokeshire. Fourteen crew are killed.
19 May – The German U-boat SM UB-119 is sunk, perhaps off Bardsey Island.
15 June – The steamship Strathnairn is torpedoed by a U-boat off Bishops and Clerks, Pembrokeshire. Twenty-one crew are killed.
22 August – The steamship Palmella is torpedoed by a U-boat off South Stack, Holyhead. Twenty-eight people are killed.
16 September – The steamship Serula is torpedoed by a U-boat off Strumble Head. Seventeen crew are killed.
18 September – The 38th (Welsh) Division is involved in the Battle of Épehy.
Autumn – Edward Thomas John defects to the Labour Party.
10 October – Three seamen are killed while returning to their ship by boat at Milford Haven.
14 October – The steamship Dundalk is torpedoed by a U-boat off the Skerries. Twenty-one crew are killed.
11 November – Armistice Day. Able Seaman Richard Morgan, serving aboard, is the last Welshman – and perhaps the last Briton – to be killed on active service in the First World War, in the course of which over 40,000 Welsh people have lost their lives.
15 November – The British submarine is launched at Pembroke Dock.
14 December – United Kingdom general election:
*For the first time, a woman stands as a parliamentary candidate in Wales: Millicent Mackenzie stands unsuccessfully for the University of Wales, itself a new parliamentary seat.
*Home Rule for Wales is included as a policy in the manifesto of the Labour Party.
*William Brace becomes Labour MP for Abertillery.
*Alfred Onions becomes Labour MP for Caerphilly.
*John Hugh Edwards becomes Liberal MP for Neath, his previous constituency of Mid Glamorganshire having been abolished.
*Sir Robert Thomas, 1st Baronet, becomes Liberal MP for Wrexham.
*David Sanders Davies becomes Liberal MP for Denbigh, standing against Edward Thomas John.
December – The beginning of the 1918 flu pandemic which lasts into the following year and kills about 10,000 people in Wales.

Arts and literature

John Morris-Jones is knighted for his services to literature.
August is fixed as the annual month of the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

Awards

National Eisteddfod of Wales
National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – John Thomas Job
National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – D. Emrys Lewis

New books

W. H. Davies – A Poet's Pilgrimage
David Delta Evans – The Rosicrucian
Moelona – ''Rhamant y Rhos''

Music

Walford Davies is appointed director of music to the Royal Air Force.

Film

''The Life Story of David Lloyd George''

Sport

Baseball – First records of the Grange Gasworks Ladies team playing in Cardiff.

Births

15 January – Billy Lucas, international footballer
6 March – Billy Hughes, footballer
7 May – Robert Davies, politician
9 May – Sir Kyffin Williams, artist
20 May – David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech
24 May – Jack Edwards, soldier and activist
28 May
* James Eirian Davies, Methodist minister and poet
* Mary Vaughan Jones, children's author
6 June – Susan Williams-Ellis, founder of Portmeirion Pottery
19 June – Ivor Griffiths, footballer
4 July – Tony Garrett, chairman of Imperial Tobacco
25 July – Dennis David, RAF ace
19 August – Dilys Elwyn Edwards, composer
19 September – Penelope Mortimer, writer
26 September – John Rankine, author
14 October – J. A. G. Griffith, lawyer and academic
19 October – Charles Evans, doctor and mountaineer
3 November – Glyn Williams, international footballer

Deaths

2 January – Rupert Morris, clergyman and teacher, 74
30 January – Powlett Milbank, Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire, 65
15 February – William Evans, judge, c.71
13 April
*David Ffrangcon Davies, baritone, 62
*Thomas Tannatt Pryce, VC recipient, 32
24 May – Evan Williams, US-born tenor of Welsh parentage, 50
3 July – David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda, industrialist and politician, 62
13 September – Samuel Thomas Evans, MP, 59
21 September – Emily Charlotte Talbot, heiress, 78
27 September – Morfydd Llwyn Owen, composer, pianist and mezzo-soprano, 26
15 October – William David Phillips, Wales international rugby player, 63
16 October – Robert Williams, architect and social campaigner, 70
4 November – Wilfred Owen, poet from the Welsh borders, 25
25 November – William Griffith, mining engineer who worked with Cecil Rhodes, 65
30 November – Lewis Richards, footballer and barrister, 57
1 December
*John Griffiths, artist, 81
*Fred Perrett, Wales international rugby union player, 27