1916 in Wales

← 1915 1914 1913 1916 in Wales → 1917 1918 1919
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s
See also:	List of years in Wales 1916 in The United Kingdom Ireland Scotland

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1916 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Prince of Wales - Edward, Prince of Wales, son of King George V of the United Kingdom
• Princess of Wales - vacant
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales - Dyfed

Lloyd George in 1916

Events

• 1 January
  • The Port Eynon lifeboat capsizes and three crew members die.
  • The Royal laryngologist John Milsom Rees is knighted.
• 2 February – Submarine HMS J4 is launched at Pembroke Dock.
• 7 February – The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cardiff is established.
• 1 March – Transfer of the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth into its purpose-built premises is completed.^[1]
• 3 March – Light cruiser HMS Cambrian is launched at Pembroke Dock.
• 31 May–1 June – Hugh Evan-Thomas distinguishes himself in the Battle of Jutland; he is later knighted.
• 4 July – Royal Welch Fusiliers Lieutenant Siegfried Sassoon attacks a German trench single-handed, and records the outcome in his memoirs.
• 7–12 July – The 38th (Welsh) Division loses so many men in the Mametz Wood action during the Battle of the Somme that it is unable to re-group for a year.
• 12 July – Railway worker James Dally is awarded the Edward Medal by King George V for his actions in saving a colleague from falling from the Crumlin Viaduct.
• July – Jimmy Thomas becomes General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen, which he had been instrumental in forming.
• October – T. E. Lawrence is sent into the desert to report on the Arab nationalist movements.
• 7 November – Charles Evans Hughes loses narrowly to Woodrow Wilson in the United States presidential election.
• November – Christopher Williams visits the scene of the Welsh losses at Mametz Wood and later paints his famous The Welsh at Mametz Wood at the request of David Lloyd George.
• 7 December
  • David Lloyd George is the first (and, as of a century later, only) Welshman to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
  • David Alfred Thomas is created Baron Rhondda. He is appointed President of the Local Government Board.

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Aberystwyth)
  • Chair - J. Ellis Williams
  • Crown - withheld

New books

• Llewelyn Powys and John Cowper Powys - Confessions of Two Brothers
• Richard Hughes Williams (Dic Tryfan) - Tair Stori Fer

Film

• 22 April – Edmund Gwenn makes his screen debut in The Real Thing at Last.

Sport

• Boxing: 14 February – Jimmy Wilde wins the British flyweight title at Liverpool.

Births

• 26 February - Joan Strothers (later Lady Curran), scientist (died 1999)
• 2 March - Eddie Watkins, rugby player (died 1995)
• 29 April - William Squire, actor (died 1989)
• 1 May - Glenn Ford, Welsh-Canadian actor (died 2006)
• 6 May - Ted Peterson, British baseball player (died 2005)
• 7 May - Huw Wheldon, broadcaster (died 1986)
• 8 May - Sylvia Sleigh, painter (died 2010)
• 22 May - Rupert Davies, actor (died 1976)
• 3 July - Nigel Heseltine, writer (died 1995)
• 23 August - Willie Davies, Wales international rugby union and league player (died 2002)
• 29 August - Rhydwen Williams, poet, novelist and minister (died 1997)
• 13 September - Roald Dahl, novelist (died 1990)
• 14 September - Cledwyn Hughes, politician (died 2001)
• 24 September - W. J. Gruffydd (Elerydd), poet and Archdruid (died 2011)
• 31 October - Stan Trick, cricketer (died 1995)

Deaths

• 12 March - Llywarch Reynolds, solicitor and Celtic scholar, 72
• 14 March - Lou Phillips, Wales international rugby player, 38 (killed in action)
• 18 March - David Cuthbert Thomas ("Dick Tiltwood"), soldier, 21 (killed in action)
• 14 April - Charlie Pritchard, Wales international rugby player, 32 (killed in action)
• May - John Griffiths, mathematician, 78?
• 5 June - James Williams, footballer, 32 (killed in action)
• 26 June - Henry Allan Rolls, heir presumptive to 2nd Baron Llangattock, 44
• 27 June - Sarah Jane Rees (Cranogwen), writer and temperance activist, 78
• 7 July (killed in action at Mametz)
  • Dick Thomas, Wales international rugby player, 32
  • Johnnie Williams, Wales international rugby player, 34
• 14 July - David Watts Wales international rugby player, 30 (killed in action)
• 30 July - Eveline Willett Cunnington, social reformer in New Zealand, 67
• 3 September - Horace Thomas, Wales international rugby player, 26 (killed in action)
• 11 September - Thomas Lemuel James, Welsh-American banker and U.S. Postmaster-General (born 1831)
• 28 September (in Bath, Somerset) - Richard Thomas, industrialist, 78
• 7 October - Leigh Richmond Roose, footballer, 38 (killed in action)
• 11 October - David Richard Thomas, historian, 83
• 31 October - John Maclean Rolls, 2nd Baron Llangattock, 46 (killed in action)
• 14 November - William Davies, footballer, 61

References