1982 in Wales explained

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1982 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Secretary of State for Wales – Nicholas Edwards^[1]
• Archbishop of Wales – Gwilym Williams, Bishop of Bangor (retired)^[2]
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Jâms Nicholas^[3]

Events

• 2 January – The Welsh Army of Workers claims responsibility for a bomb explosion at the Birmingham headquarters of Severn Trent Water.^[4]
• May – Swansea City complete their first season in the English Football League First Division with a sixth-place finish.^[5]
• 2 June – 100,000 people gather in Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff, to welcome Pope John Paul II on the first-ever papal visit to Wales.
• 8 June – 32 men from the Welsh Guards are killed when the Sir Galahad burns during the Falklands War.^[6] The most famous of the survivors is Simon Weston, who is severely burned.
• 16 June – Welsh miners go on strike to support health workers demanding a 12% pay rise.^[7]
• 30 August – St David's Hall opens in Cardiff.
• 11 September – 14 skydivers from Wales die when a Chinook helicopter crashes at an airshow in Mannheim in Germany.^[8]
• 16 September – At the Gower by-election brought about by the death of Ifor Davies, Gareth Wardell holds the seat for Labour.
• 17 October – First issue of Sulyn, the first Sunday newspaper in the Welsh language.^[9]
• 26 November – A plaque is unveiled by the Prince of Wales at the monument erected in memory of those who died in the Gresford Disaster of 1934.^[10]
• date unknown
  • The Inmos microprocessor factory in Newport, Wales, designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership, is completed.
  • Swansea is given the right to have a Lord Mayor. Councillor Paul Valerio becomes the first incumbent.^[11]
  • First students begin courses at the Welsh language study centre at Nant Gwrtheyrn.

Arts and literature

• Roger Rees wins a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
• Alice Thomas Ellis is shortlisted for the Booker Prize for The 27th Kingdom.

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Swansea)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Gerallt Lloyd Owen
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Eirwyn George
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Gwilym M. Jones

New books

• Gwynfor Evans - Bywyd Cymro
• Alun Jones - Pan Ddaw'r Machlud
• R. Merfyn Jones - The North Wales Quarrymen 1874-1922
• Rhiannon Davies Jones - Eryr Pengwern
• Kenneth O. Morgan - Rebirth of a Nation: Wales 1880-1980
• Wynford Vaughan-Thomas - Princes of Wales

Music

• John Cale - Music For A New Society (album)
• Dafydd Iwan with Ar Log - Rhwng Hwyl a Thaith

Film

• Political Annie’s Off Again, film of a local industrial dispute made by Chapter Video Workshop.

Broadcasting

Welsh-language television

• Cefn Gwlad
• Joni Jones
• Noson Lawen appears for the first time.
• S4C starts broadcasting on 1 November

English-language television

• The Citadel (BBC), filmed in Tredegar.

Sport

• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Steve Barry^[12]
• Boxing
  • 14 September – Kelvin Smart becomes British flyweight champion after beating fellow Welsh fighter Dave George.
• Darts – Ann-Marie Davies wins the Women's World Masters Championship.
• Snooker
  • 13 January – Terry Griffiths wins the Lada Classic.
  • 4 December – Terry Griffiths wins the UK Snooker Championship,^[13] to complete his career Triple Crown (snooker).
  • Terry Parsons wins the World Amateur Championship.

Births

• 9 January – Catherine Middleton, future Princess of Wales (in England)
• 14 January – Joe Dunthorne, novelist and poet
• 1 February – Gavin Henson, rugby player
• 4 February – Kevin Gall, footballer
• 2 May – Timothy Benjamin, athlete
• 12 May – David Thaxton, actor and singer
• 21 June – Prince William, first child of the Prince and Princess of Wales (in London)
• 29 August – Mike Phillips, rugby player
• 2 September – Matthew Rees, footballer
• 29 November – Imogen Thomas, model
• 25 December – Rob Edwards, footballer
• 2 October – Amanda Hale, actress

Deaths

• 5 January – Jeanetta Thomas, UK's oldest person and oldest Welsh-born woman of all time, 112^[14]
• 11 January – Ronald Lewis, actor, 53
• 5 February – Ronald Welch, historical novelist, 72^[15]
• 8 February – Cedric Morris, artist, 92
• 6 May – Jennie Eirian Davies, politician and magazine editor^[16]
• 19 May – Elwyn Jones, television writer, 58
• 31 May – Eryl Davies, educationist, 59
• 6 June – Ifor Davies, politician, 71^[17]
• 10 July
  • Gwilym Jenkins (in Lancaster), statistician and systems engineer, 49
  • Gwilym Ellis Lane Owen, philosopher, 60
• 17 July – Bob John, footballer, 83
• 16 August – Sydney Hinam, Wales international rugby player, 83
• 18 October – Idwal Jones, politician, 82^[18]
• 19 October – Iorwerth Peate, social anthropologist and poet, founder of St Fagans National Museum of History, 81^[19]
• 4 November – Talfryn Thomas, character actor, 60
• 16 November – Ivor Jones, rugby union international, 80
• 19 November – Herbie Evans, footballer, 88
• 4 December – Ivor Williams, portrait painter, 74

See also

• 1982 in Northern Ireland

Notes and References

1. Web site: Lord Crickhowell obituary. 19 March 2018. The Guardian. Stephen Bates. 19 March 2020.
2. Book: Gerald Parsons. The Growth of Religious Diversity - Vol 2: Britain From 1945 Volume 2: Controversies. 20 June 2013. Routledge. 978-1-136-13628-3. 106.
3. Web site: en . James Nicholas: Poet, teacher and Archdruid of Wales . . . 17 October 2013 . 21 October 2013 .
4. Web site: Those were the days. Express & Star. Wolverhampton. 4 April 2011.
5. Web site: Swansea City AFC History . 2013-02-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151114122803/http://www.swanseacity.net/club/history.aspx . 2015-11-14 . dead .
6. News: Disaster for British at Bluff Cove. BBC News. 23 March 2012.
7. Web site: 1982: Welsh miners back health workers. 30 November 2007. On This Day. BBC News. 16 June 2008.
8. Web site: Swansea skydivers remembered 30 years after Mannheim crash. Sarah. Moore. 11 September 2012. BBC News.
9. Book: David Hutchison. Hugh O’Donnell. Centres and Peripheries: Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan Journalism in the Twenty-First Century. 18 January 2011. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 978-1-4438-2757-7. 48.
10. Book: Stanley Williamson. Gresford: The Anatomy of a Disaster. 1999. Liverpool University Press. 978-0-85323-892-8. 212.
11. Web site: Key convention members. 15 July 2008. North Wales Daily Post. 16 March 2019.
12. Web site: BBC Wales Sport Personality winners . BBC Sport . 2 August 2021.
13. Web site: Profile: Terry Griffiths . 3 February 2010 . . 16 May 2019.
14. News: Oldest woman dies aged 112. 1. The Guardian. London. 7 January 1982.
15. Book: Pamela Dear. Contemporary authors: New revision series. 1 January 2000. Gale / Cengage Learning. 978-0-7876-3095-9. 47.
16. Book: Meic Stephens. The Oxford companion to the literature of Wales. registration. April 1986. Oxford University Press. 27.
17. s6-DAVI-IFO-1910. Davies, Ivor (1910-1982), Labour politician. John Graham Jones. 31 July 2008. 2 June 2022.
18. s6-JONE-IDW-1900. Jones, James Idwal (1900-1982), headteacher and Labour politician. 30 July 2008. John Graham Jones. 2 June 2022.
19. Book: Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru. 1982. University of Wales Press. 549.