1895 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1895 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

Events

4 February – Penarth Pier is opened.
11 April – Rhos-on-Sea Pier is opened.
29 March – The National Trust acquires Dinas Oleu, Barmouth, its first property in the UK.
1 November – The last turnpike toll-gates in the UK are removed, from Llanfairpwllgwyngyll on Anglesey.

Arts and literature

Awards

National Eisteddfod of Wales – held at Llanelli

Chair – John Owen Williams, "Dedwyddwch"
Crown – Lewis William Lewis

New books

English language

Henry Jones – A Critical Account of the Philosophy of Lotze
Arthur Machen – The Three Impostors
William Retlaw Williams – ''The parliamentary history of the principality of Wales''

Welsh language

Daniel Owen – ''Straeon y Pentan''

Music

John Thomas Rees – String quartet

Sport

Golf – The Welsh Golfing Union is founded, and the first Welsh amateur golf championships are held.
Horse racing – 15 April: The Welsh Grand National steeplechase is run for the first time, at Ely Racecourse, Cardiff. A huge crowd breaks down barriers and almost overwhelms police trying to keep out gatecrashers. Deerstalker is the winner but the horse Barmecide breaks its neck.

Births

22 January – Iorwerth Thomas, politician
25 January – Mary Glynne, actress
8 February – Edward Enoch Jenkins, judge
19 February – Mary Dilys Glynne, plant pathologist and mountaineer
23 February – Wilfred Mitford Davies, artist
1 March – William Richard Williams, civil servant
11 March – Albert Jenkins, rugby player
3 April – Brinley Williams, Wales dual-code rugby international
4 April – Nan Braunton, actress
14 April – Albert Evans-Jones, poet and Archdruid
17 April – Thomas Hughes, clergyman, assistant Bishop of Llandaff
18 May – Tom Rees, airman, victim of the "Red Baron"
8 June – Idwal Jones, humorous writer
16 June – David Cuthbert Thomas, soldier who inspired works by both Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves
24 July – Robert Graves, Royal Welch Fusiliers officer, poet, novelist and classicist often resident in Wales
25 July – Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards
14 September – George Harrison, Glamorgan cricketer
1 November – David Jones, poet and artist
24 November – William Evans, cardiologist

Deaths

8 January – Daniel Harper, academic, 73
15 January – Lady Charlotte Guest, translator of the Mabinogion, 82
16 February – Thomas Briscoe, academic, 81
18 February – James Goronwy Mathias, minister and writer, 53
25 February – Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare, politician, 79
2 April – Ellis Thomas Davies, minister and author, 73
3 May – George Herbert, 13th Earl of Pembroke, 44
8 May – Thomas Jones (Tudno), poet, 51
13 July – John Griffin, Welsh international rugby player, 35
18 August – John Arthur Edward Herbert, High Sheriff of Monmouthshire 1849, 76
28 August – Henry Pochin, English industrial chemist, mine-owner and politician, founder of Bodnant Garden, 71
22 October – Daniel Owen, novelist, 59
23 November – William Davies (Pembrokeshire MP), 74
date unknown – David Lewis, Newmanite priest and academic