1941 in Wales
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1941 to Wales and its people.
Incumbents
Events
- January – Opening of RAF Llandwrog near Caernarfon as a Bomber Command training airfield.
- 2 January – 165 people are killed in Luftwaffe air raids on Cardiff and Llandaff Cathedral is seriously damaged.
- 13 February – Opening of RAF Valley on Anglesey as a Fighter Command station.
- 14 February – Six people are killed in an air raid on Port Talbot.
- 17 January – 58 people are killed in air raids on Swansea.
- 20 January – Welsh press magnate William Ewart Berry is created Viscount Camrose.
- 17 February – Noted Baptist minister Samuel James Leeke finds his Swansea home destroyed by an air raid.[1]
- 19-21 February – 240 people are killed in air raids on Swansea.
- 26 February – Four people are killed in an air raid on Cardiff. Buildings damaged include Cardiff University.
- February – Six cattle are killed in an air raid on Cwmbran.
- 3 March – 51 people are killed in air raids at Cardiff and Penarth.
- 11 March – Three people are killed in air raids on Swansea.
- 21 March – The coaster Millisle is sunk by German planes off Caldey Island, killing ten crew.
- 27 March – The Michael Faraday, a cable-laying ship, is sunk by German planes off St. Ann's Head in Pembrokeshire, killing 16 crew.
- 31 March – Three people are killed in air raids on Swansea.
- March – Co-developer Edward George Bowen is on board the first American experimental airborne 10 cm radar.
- 12 April – Three people are killed in air raids on Swansea.
- 15 April – 12 people are killed in an air raid on RAF Carew Cheriton.
- 29 April – 26 people are killed in air raids aimed at coal mines in the Rhondda, and a further seven in Cardiff.
- 8 May – Three German Heinkel 111s are shot down. Nine German crew members are killed, and the remaining three taken prisoner.
- 11 May – Three people are killed in an air raid on RAF Saint Athan.
- 12 May – 32 people are killed in an air raid on Pembroke Dock.
- 30 May – Major air raid on Newport.
- 1 June – A German Junkers 88 is shot down near Llandudno, killing four crew.
- 11 June – The Baron Carnegie, a cargo ship, is sunk by German planes off Strumble Head, killing 25 crew.
- 13 June – The ferry St Patrick is sunk by German planes off Strumble Head, killing thirty.
- 1 July – 37 people are killed in an air raid on Newport.
- 5 July – Alun Lewis marries Gwenno Ellis.
- 11 July – In a mining accident at Rhigos Colliery in Glamorgan, 16 miners are killed.
- 28 July – An RAF Wellington bomber crashes into Garn Fadryn on the Lleyn peninsula, killing six crew.
- 7 August – An RAF Wellington bomber crashes into Rhosfach in the Berwyn range, killing six crew.
- 28 August – An RAF Blackburn Botha with a crew of three crashes into the sea off Rhosneigr, Anglesey. A further eleven people die in the rescue attempt.
- September – Sir Archibald Rowlands joins the Beaverbrook and Harriman mission to Moscow.
- 10 October – Two planes collide at RAF Llandwrog, killing seventeen.
- 12 October – A German Heinkel 111 is shot down near Holyhead, killing four crew.
- 22 October – A German Heinkel 111 is shot down near Nefyn, killing four crew.
- October – Alun Lewis receives his army commission.
- 25 November – Five miners are killed in a mining accident at Abergorki Colliery, Rhondda.
- 6 December – Ruperra Castle is seriously damaged by fire.
- Closure of the tinplate works at Kidwelly.
- Sir Guildhaume Myrddin-Evans becomes Head of the Production Executive Secretariat at the War Cabinet Offices.
- Artist Frank Brangwyn and administrator Elias Wynne Cemlyn-Jones are knighted.
- Zoo in Victoria Park, Cardiff, closes.[2]
Arts and literature
Awards
- National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Old Colwyn)
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – David Emrys James
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – Dafydd Owen
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal – withheld
New books
Music
Film
Broadcasting
Sport
Births
- 5 February – Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn, politician (d. 2003)
- 26 February – Rhys Jones, archaeologist (d. 2001)
- 27 February – Charlie Faulkner, rugby union footballer
- 31 March – David Trefgarne, 2nd Baron Trefgarne, politician
- 13 April – Margaret Price, operatic soprano (d. 2011)
- 20 April – Grace Coddington, fashion model and editor
- 16 June – Bill Morris, rugby union footballer
- 7 July
- 11 August – Nerys Hughes, actress
- 20 August – Anne Evans, operatic soprano
- 26 September – Patrick Hannan, political journalist (d. 2009)
- 26 October – Charlie Landsborough, singer and composer
- 10 December – Jeff Jones, cricketer
Deaths
- 2 January – Sir John Rowland, civil servant
- 11 January – Frederick Llewellyn-Jones, lawyer, 75
- 20 January – Margaret Lloyd George, first wife of David Lloyd George, 74
- 22 January – David Williams, Swansea politician, 75
- 3 February – Sir Clifford John Cory, Baronet, coal-owner
- 10 March – Sir William Henry Seager, politician, 79
- 11 March
- 16 March – Sir David Hughes-Morgan, solicitor and landowner, 70?
- 20 March – Jack Powell, Wales rugby union international, 58
- 17 April – Sir William Henry Hoare Vincent, civil servant, 75
- 11 July – Arthur Evans, archaeologist of Welsh descent, 90
- 13 July – Lot Jones, footballer, 59
- 15 July – Jack Elwyn Evans, rugby footballer, 43 or 44
- 23 July – Joe Jones, footballer, 54
- 27 July – Thomas Alfred Williams, Dean of Bangor, 71
- 17 August – David Edward Lewis, businessman and philanthropist, 75
- 11 September – Harry Grindell Matthews, inventor, 61
- 16 September – George Florance Irby, 6th Baron Boston, scientist and archaeologist, 81
- 10 October – Geraint Goodwin, writer, 38
- 22 December – Richard Summers, Wales rugby union international, 81
- 31 December – George Isaac Thomas (Arfryn), composer and conductor, 46
References
