1939 in Wales

1939 in Wales
Other years
1936 \| 1937 \| 1938 << All >> 1940 \| 1941 \| 1942
1939 in: The United Kingdom • Ireland • Scotland
Other events of 1939

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1939 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

March–November - Aneurin Bevan is temporarily expelled from the Labour Party.
27 April - Ely Racecourse in Cardiff closes.
1 June - The submarine HMS Thetis sinks during trials in Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey. 99 men are lost.
Late August - Most paintings evacuated from the National Gallery in London to Wales.
3 September - World War II
- Declaration of war by the United Kingdom on Nazi Germany following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September.^[1]
- Jimmy Young, temporarily resident in Wales, attempts to join the army; on being rejected as too young, he joins the Royal Air Force instead.
The first war-time civilian evacuees arrive in Wales.
De Havilland opens an aircraft factory at Broughton, Flintshire.
The Urdd establishes Ysgol Gymraeg yr Urdd, the first-ever Welsh-medium primary school, at Aberystwyth. In its first year the school consists of just seven pupils and one teacher, Norah Isaac.
A government report shows that seven of the thirteen Welsh counties have the highest incidence of tuberculosis in the whole of England and Wales.
George Maitland Lloyd Davies becomes President of the pacifist group Heddychwyr Cymru.
Talybont Reservoir in the Brecon Beacons is completed to supply Newport.

August - For the first time ever, both chair and crown are withheld at the National Eisteddfod.
4 October - Poets Lynette Roberts and Keidrych Rhys marry.^[2]
John Roberts Williams becomes editor of Y Cymro.

The outbreak of war forces the BBC was to transmit a unified service. One of the few Welsh-language broadcasts to survive is a daily bulletin of world news at 5 pm. The fast-moving course of events gives it the edge over the daily news in English at 6pm.^[3]
The BBC radio comedy series It's That Man Again begins its ten-year run. For most of the war it is broadcast from the BBC Wales studios in Bangor, Caernarvonshire, north Wales, where the BBC's Light Entertainment Department is temporarily based.

Rugby union
- 4 February – Leslie Manfield (one of only four players to represent Wales both before and after World War II) gains his first senior cap in the match between Wales and Scotland.