1933 in Wales explained

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1933 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Archbishop of Wales – Alfred George Edwards, Bishop of St Asaph^[1]
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Gwili^[2]

Events

• 1 March (Saint David's Day) – A flag displaying the red Welsh Dragon flies officially alongside the Union Jack over Caernarfon Castle.^[3]
• 28 March - Rhondda East by-election: William Mainwaring retains the seat for Labour against Communist and Liberal opposition.^[4]
• 18 April - 28 people are injured at Cockett railway station when a locomotive travelling from to collides with the rear of the stationary 11.55 am to train.^[5]
• June/July – Seven men and four women receive custodial sentences after a riot at Bedwas over strikebreaking.
• 22 July – Amy Johnson and Jim Mollison take off from Pendine on the first non-stop aeroplane flight from Great Britain to the United States.^[6]
• Ronald Lockley establishes the first British bird observatory on Skokholm.^[7]

Arts and literature

• April–May – Dylan Thomas's poem And death shall have no dominion is written and published.^[8]
• June - The first Gregynog Music Festival, Wales' oldest extant classical music festival, is organised by the sisters Margaret and Gwendoline Davies (granddaughters of Victorian industrialist David Davies) at their home, Gregynog Hall in Tregynon, Montgomeryshire.
• Percy Cudlipp becomes editor of the Evening Standard – the youngest ever editor of a British national newspaper.

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Wrexham)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – Edgar Phillips^[9]
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – Simon B. Jones^[10]

New books

English language

• D. J. Davies – The Economic History of South Wales
• A. H. Dodd – The Industrial Revolution in North Wales
• Caradoc Evans – Wasps^[11]
• Margiad Evans – The Wooden Doctor^[12]
• Lily Tobias - Eunice Fleet

Welsh language

• John Bodvan Anwyl - Fy hanes i fy hunan^[13]
• Gwilym Owen – Rhyfeddodau'r Cread^[14]
• Isaac Morris – Proffwydi'r Wythfed Ganrif Cyn Crist^[15]

Music

• Ieuan Rees-Davies – Transposition at the keyboard (manual)^[16]

Film

• Ivor Novello stars in I Lived with You, Sleeping Car, and Autumn Crocus.^[17]

Broadcasting

• 28 May – The BBC begins broadcasting the Welsh Regional Programme to South Wales from the Washford transmitter
• 17 July – The BBC begins broadcasting the National Programme to South Wales from the Washford transmitter
• The first broadcast is made from the Urdd Eisteddfod.

Sport

• Rugby union, although collecting the 'wooden spoon' in the Home Nations Championship, Wales beat England at Twickenham for the very first time, after ten previous attempts.

Births

• 2 January – Keith Thomas, early modern historian and academic
• 7 February – Stuart Burrows, opera singer
• 21 March – Michael Heseltine, politician
• 3 April – Alan Watkins, political journalist (d. 2010)^[18]
• 22 April – Anthony Llewellyn, Welsh-American scientist (d. 2013)
• 14 May – Siân Phillips, actress
• 20 June
  • Dai Dower, British, European and Empire flyweight boxing champion
  • Dorothy Simpson, detective fiction writer
• 30 June – John Faull, Wales international and British Lion rugby player
• 17 August – Jack Hurrell, Wales international rugby union player (d. 2003)^[19]
• 1 September – Bedwyr Lewis Jones, writer and scholar (d. 1992)^[20]
• 12 September – Len Allchurch, footballer (d. 2016)
• 24 September – Terry Davies, Wales rugby captain and British Lion (d. 2021)
• 25 September – David Parry-Jones, rugby commentator (d. 2017)^[21]
• 12 November – Jeffrey Thomas, politician (d. 1989)
• 17 November – Alan Harrington, footballer (d. 2019)
• 28 November – Noel Trigg, light heavyweight boxer
• 31 December – Glyn Davidge, Wales international and British Lion rugby player

Deaths

• 8 January – Sir John Ballinger, librarian, 72^[22]
• 14 January – Sir Robert Jones, orthopaedic surgeon (baronet), 75
• 18 January – John Thomas, chemist (ICI), 46^[23]
• 2 February – Sir James Cory, 1st Baronet, politician, 76^[24]
• 15 February – Jere Blake, Wales international rugby player, 47/48^[25]
• 23 February – David Watts Morgan, Member of Parliament for Rhondda East, 65^[26]
• 4 April – Sir Marteine Lloyd, 2nd Baronet, 82
• 29 May – Llewelyn Kenrick, footballer, 84
• 16 July – John Tudor Walters, politician, 64/65
• 10 August – Alf Morgans, Prime Minister of Western Australia, 83
• 13 September – David Morgan, Wales international rugby player, 61
• 20 September – Alfred Cattell, Wales international rugby player, 76
• 17 October – Sid Bevan, Wales international rugby union player, 56
• 18 October – Ivor Herbert, 1st Baron Treowen, soldier and politician, 82
• 10 November – Herbert Lewis, politician, 74

See also

• 1933 in Northern Ireland

Notes and References

1. s-EDWA-GEO-1848. Edwards, Alfred George (1848-1937), first archbishop of Wales. Thomas Iorwerth Ellis. National Library of Wales. 15 October 2021.
2. s-JENK-GWI-1872 . Jenkins, John (Gwili) (1872-1936), poet, theologian, and man of letters . Robert Thomas Jenkins . 1959 . 2 November 2021.
3. Book: Hughes, T. Meirion. Caernarfon Through the Eye of Time. Talybont. Y Lolfa. 2014. 978-1-847-71930-0. The Red Dragon Saga. 96–106.
4. Book: Richard Baxell. British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War: The British Battalion in the International Brigades, 1936–1939. 31 July 2004. Routledge. 978-1-134-34576-2. 37.
5. Web site: Report on the Accident at Cockett on 18th April 1933. Railways Archive. 29 April 2019.
6. Book: Carl B. Allen. Lauren Dwight Lyman. The Wonder Book of the Air. 1941. John C. Winston Company. 333.
7. Book: British Wildlife. 1999. British Wildlife Pub..
8. In New English Weekly. Book: Ferris, Paul. Paul Ferris (Welsh writer). Dylan Thomas: A Biography. New York. Paragon House. 1989. 1-55778-215-6. 83.
9. Book: National Library of Wales. Annual Report. 1981. 45.
10. Web site: The National Eisteddfod's Competitions 1933 and 2011. People's Collection Wales. 18 October 2018.
11. Book: Library of Congress. Copyright Office. Catalog of Copyright Entries. New Series: 1933. 1934. Library of Congress. 1083.
12. Book: Kirsti Bohata. Katie Gramich. Rediscovering Margiad Evans: Marginality, Gender and Illness. 15 February 2013. University of Wales Press. 978-0-7083-2689-3. 43.
13. Web site: Anwyl, John Bodvan (1875–1940), minister (Congl.), lexicographer, and author. Thomas Herbert Parry-Williams. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. 8 November 2019.
14. Web site: Owen, Gwilym (1880–1940), physicist. Edwin Augustine Owen. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. 8 November 2019.
15. Book: Bibliotheca Celtica. 1939. The Library. 17.
16. Web site: REES-DAVIES, IEUAN (1894–1967), musician and author. Rhidian Griffiths. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. 18 June 2018.
17. Web site: Autumn Crocus. https://web.archive.org/web/20071129012252/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/28373. dead. 2007-11-29. BFI.
18. Web site: Alan Watkins obituary. 9 May 2010. Michael White. The Guardian. 9 August 2019.
19. Web site: Former Internationals Pass Away. 3 January 2016. wru.co.uk. 25 June 2003.
20. Web site: Obituary: Professor Bedwyr Lewis Jones. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-professor-bedwyr-lewis-jones-1548641.html . 1 May 2022 . subscription . live. D. Ben Rees. D. Ben Rees. The Independent. 9 August 2019. 1 September 1992.
21. Web site: David Parry-Jones, great Welsh broadcaster – obituary. 15 May 2017. The Telegraph. 9 August 2019.
22. Book: Cylchgrawn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru: The National Library of Wales Journal. 1940. Council of the National Library of Wales. 25.
23. Web site: THOMAS, JOHN (1886–1933), chemist. Thomas Campbell James. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. 18 June 2018.
24. Web site: Sir JAMES HERBERT CORY (1857–1933), 1st baronet. Watkin William Price. Welsh Biography Online. National Library of Wales. 18 October 2018.
25. Web site: John Blake. Cardiff RFC. 18 June 2018.
26. Book: Michael Stenton. Stephen Lees. Who's who of British members of parliament: a biographical dictionary of the House of Commons. 1981. Harvester Press. 250.