1963 in Wales explained

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1963 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Archbishop of Wales – Edwin Morris, Bishop of Monmouth
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Cynan

Events

February

• 2 February – Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg holds its historic first protest in Aberystwyth, in the form of a sit-down at Trefechan Bridge.
• 9 February – The paramilitary Welsh nationalist organisation Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru plants a bomb at the construction site of the Tryweryn reservoir.^[1]
• date unknown – A record snowfall of nearly 5 ft (1.5m) occurs at Tredegar in Monmouthshire.^[2]

March

• 6 March – After record freezing weather throughout the winter, it is the first day of the year when there is no frost in Wales.^[3]
• 28 March – Labour Party candidate Neil McBride wins the Swansea East by-election caused by the death of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) David Mort.

June

• 28 June – Caerphilly railway works closes.^[4]

August

• August – Mandy Rice-Davies gives evidence at the trial of Stephen Ward, including the famous phrase, "Well, he would, wouldn't he?"^{[5] [6]}

September

• 16 September – The Western Mail launches a fund-raising campaign to replace a stained glass window to replace the one shattered in the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, by the Ku Klux Klan on the previous day; the £500 target is reached within days.^[7]

Date unknown

• Dunraven Castle is demolished.^[8]

Arts and literature

• The home and cultural centre of Gregynog Hall at Tregynon in Montgomeryshire is given to the University of Wales by owners and art-collectors, Margaret and Gwendoline Davies, granddaughters of Victorian industrialist David Davies.
• A scientific journal in the Welsh language, Y Gwyddonydd, is launched.
• The Beatles play at Mold 24 January; Cardiff 27 May; Abergavenny 22 June; Rhyl 19–20 July; and Llandudno 12–17 August.

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Llandudno)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – withheld
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – Tom Parri Jones
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal – William Llywelyn Jones

New books

• Kenneth O. Morgan – David Lloyd George, Welsh Radical as World Statesman
• Bertrand Russell – Essays in Skepticism
• R. S. Thomas – The Bread of Truth
• Clough Williams-Ellis – Portmeirion, the Place and its Meaning

Music

• Arwel Hughes – Pantycelyn (oratorio)
• Daniel Jones – The Knife (opera)
• Grace Williams – Trumpet Concerto

Film

• Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor star in Cleopatra.
• Desmond Llewelyn makes his first appearance as "Q" in the James Bond series of films.
• Rachel Roberts stars in This Sporting Life
• Jack Howells wins the Academy Award for Dylan Thomas at the 35th Academy Awards in the category of Best Documentary Short. As of 2011 it is the only Welsh film to have won an Oscar.

Broadcasting

• The ITV franchise Wales (West and North) Television (WWN) (also called "Teledu Cymru") becomes the only company in Independent Television history to go bankrupt,^[9] and is taken over by TWW.

Welsh-language television

• Heno

English-language television

• 23 November – The first episode of BBC's new science fiction series Doctor Who, devised by Welshman Terry Nation, is broadcast.^[10]

Sport

• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Howard Winstone^[11]

Births

• 22 January – Huw Irranca-Davies, politician^[12]
• 27 April – Russell T Davies, television screenwriter^[13]
• 14 May – Andrew Lewis, composer
• 8 June – Louise Jones, cyclist
• 15 June – Nigel Walker, athlete and rugby player
• 28 June – Peter Baynham, comedian
• 10 July – Ian Lougher, motorcycle racer
• August – Rebecca Evans, operatic soprano
• 15 August (in Wolverhampton) – Simon Hart, politician, Secretary of State for Wales
• 12 September – Julie Roberts (artist), painter^[14]
• 19 October – Phil Davies, rugby union player
• 1 November – Mark Hughes, footballer and football manager
• 28 November – Charles Dale, television actor
• 7 December – Mark Bowen, footballer
• 16 December – Hugh Morris, cricketer
• 19 December – Paul Rhys, actor
• 28 December – Simon Thomas, politician

Deaths

• 1 January – David Mort, Labour MP for Swansea East, 74
• 11 January – Philippa Powys, novelist, 76^[15]
• 13 March – Margaret Davies, philanthropist, 78^[16]
• 15 January – Morgan Phillips, politician, 60^[17]
• 15 March – William Cove, politician, 74
• 28 March – Alec Templeton, composer, pianist and satirist, 52^[18]
• 15 April – Edward V. Robertson, US senator, 81
• 25 May – William Lewis, chemist
• 17 June – John Cowper Powys, novelist, 90^[19]
• 6 July – John Osborn Williams, politician in Newfoundland, 77
• 29 July – Frank Moody, British boxing champion, 62^[20]
• 11 September – William Richard Williams, civil servant and politician, 68
  • • 26 September Goronwy Owen, politician, 82^[21]
  • Olive Wheeler, educationalist, 77
• 1 October – Tal Harris, Wales international rugby player, 61
• 11 October – Emlyn Garner Evans, lawyer and politician, 53^[22]
• 26 October – Horace Evans, royal physician, 60^[23]
• 16 December – Llewellyn Evans, Olympic hockey player, 84
• 20 December – Reg Skrimshire, Wales and British Lions rugby union player, 85
• 26 December – Gwynn Parry Jones, singer, 72
• 30 December – Rees Williams, footballer, 63

See also

• 1963 in Northern Ireland

Notes and References

1. Web site: Tryweryn: 50 years since bombing of reservoir dam. BBC. 2013-02-10. 2013-02-12.
2. Web site: Amazing pictures of Wales' Big Freeze of 1963. 11 December 2013. WalesOnline. 30 June 2019.
3. Web site: The winter when Wales stood still. 19 December 2012. ITV News. 30 June 2019.
4. Web site: Great Western Railway Caerphilly Locomotive Works. Rail UK. 2014-04-14. 2014-04-15. https://web.archive.org/web/20140415034829/http://www.railuk.info/history/gethistory.php?id=612. dead.
5. Web site: Mandy Rice-Davies Obituary . The Telegraph. 29 December 2017.
6. Web site: Mandy Rice-Davies Obituary . The Guardian. 29 December 2017.
7. Web site: The Wales window, Birmingham, Alabama. National Library of Wales. 30 June 2019.
8. Web site: BBC – Dunraven Castle – home of legends . BBC News . 2009-03-19 . 2011-10-12.
9. Book: The Economist. 1983. Economist Newspaper. 54.
10. Book: Chapman, James . Inside the Tardis: The Worlds of Doctor Who . I.B.Tauris . 2006. 1-84511-162-1. 25.
11. Web site: BBC Wales Sport Personality winners . BBC Sport . 29 July 2021.
12. Book: Valerie Passmore. Dod's Parliamentary Companion: Guide to the General Election, 2005. 2005. Dod's Parliamentary Companion Limited. 978-0-905702-57-5.
13. Book: Adam Pearson. 101 Interesting Facts on Doctor Who: Learn About the Science-Fiction TV Show. 18 August 2014. Andrews UK Limited. 978-1-910295-80-9. 17.
14. Encyclopedia: Grant. Catherine M.. Roberts, Julie. Grove Art Online. 28 September 2001. 21 February 2021.
15. Book: John Cowper Powys. Philippa Powys. The letters of John Cowper Powys to Philippa Powys. 1996. C. Woolf. 978-0-900821-51-6. 20.
16. Book: D. Ben Rees. Vehicles of Grace and Hope: Welsh Missionaries in India, 1800-1970. 2002. William Carey Library. 978-0-87808-505-7. 24.
17. 35513. John. Saville. John Saville. Phillips, Morgan Walter.
18. Web site: Alec Templeton, Blind Pianist, Is Dead in Connecticut at 52; He Won Success as Serious Artist and as Innovator-- Skilled as Improviser Self-Pity Excluded Moves to London A Skilled Improviser. New York Times. 29 March 1963. 18 November 2021.
19. Book: Herbert Williams. John Cowper Powys. 1997. Seren. 978-1-85411-196-8. 156.
20. Book: Encyclopaedia of Boxing. 1979. R. Hale. 978-0-7091-7745-6. 165.
21. Book: Who was who: A Companion to Who's Who, Containing the Biographies of Those who Died. 1981. A. & C. Black. 978-0-7136-3336-8. 297.
22. Book: Who's who of British Members of Parliament: 1945-1979. 1981. Harvester Press. 111. 9780855273354.
23. Book: G. H. Brown. Richard Robertson Trail. Gordon Ethelbert Ward Wolstenholme. Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of London. 1968. Royal College of Physicians. 123.