1869 in Wales

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

Incumbents

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.
*Joseph Leycester Lyne 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 – Pryddest Goffa i Thomas Aubrey
Jane Hughes – Galargan am y diweddar Barch. Henry Rees, Liverpool
David Watkin Jones – Yr Ysgol Farddol
Nathaniel Jones – Elias y Thesbiad
John Petherick – Travels in Central Africa and Explorations of the Western Nile Tributaries
William Rowlands – Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry
Jane Williams (Ysgafell) – A History of Wales derived from Authentic Sources
Robert Williams (Trebor Mai) – Y Geninen

Music

Owen Jones – Hymnau Hen a Diweddar

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
9 April – John Hugh Edwards, politician
19 May – John Henry Williams, Welsh politician
20 May – Robert Griffith Berry, minister and writer
30 May – Thomas Rees, theologian
12 August – Fred Parfitt, Wales international rugby player
6 September – Walford Davies, composer
24 September – Maud Cunnington, archaeologist
29 October – Bill Morris, Wales international rugby player
9 November – Osbert Fynes-Clinton, dialectologist
15 November – Percy Bennett, Wales international rugby player
20 November – Herbert Tudor Buckland, architect working in Birmingham

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
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