1896 in Wales explained

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1896 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Hwfa Môn^[1]
• Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – Richard Davies (until 27 October);^[2] Sir Richard Henry Williams-Bulkeley, 12th Baronet (from 30 November)
• Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire – Joseph Bailey, 1st Baron Glanusk^[3]
• Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire – John Ernest Greaves^[4]
• Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Herbert Davies-Evans^[5]
• Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – John Campbell, 2nd Earl Cawdor^[6]
• Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire – William Cornwallis-West^[7]
• Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Hugh Robert Hughes^[8]
• Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – Robert Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth
• Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire – W. R. M. Wynne^[9]
• Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire – Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort^[10]
  • Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – Sir Herbert Williams-Wynn, 7th Baronet Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – William Edwardes, 4th Baron Kensington (until 7 October);^[11] Frederick Campbell, 3rd Earl Cawdor (from 23 November)
• Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – Powlett Milbank^[12]
• Bishop of Bangor – Daniel Lewis Lloyd^[13]
• Bishop of Llandaff – Richard Lewis^[14]
• Bishop of St Asaph – A. G. Edwards (later Archbishop of Wales)^[15]
• Bishop of St Davids – Basil Jones^[16]

Events

• 28 January – In an underground explosion at Tylorstown Colliery, Rhondda, 57 miners are killed.^[17]
• February – Construction of the Snowdon Mountain Railway is completed.
• 27 March – Colonel Sir Francis Marindin makes an unofficial inspection of the Snowdon Mountain Railway line on behalf of the Board of Trade. This includes a demonstration of the automatic brakes.
• 6 April – The Snowdon Mountain Railway commences public operation. On the first trip down the mountain, locomotive No.1 "Ladas" with two carriages loses the rack and is derailed. A passenger dies after jumping from the carriage.^[18] The second train down collides with the wreckage of the first; services are suspended for a year.^[19]
• c. May – Opening of Empire Exhibition at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, including a roller coaster.
• 14 May – Garth Pier, Bangor, opened by George Douglas-Pennant, 2nd Baron Penrhyn.
• June – The Prince and Princess of Wales visit Aberystwyth, where the prince is installed as chancellor of the University of Wales and the princess opens the new pier pavilion.
• 1 August – Aberystwyth Cliff Railway and camera obscura opened.
• 24 September – William Frost flies his Frost Airship Glider for the only time.
• 30 September—August 1897 – Lock-out of slate workers at Penrhyn Quarry.^[20]
• 11 October – While attending Sunday service in St Deiniol's Church, Hawarden (on a visit to Gladstone), the Archbishop of Canterbury, Edward White Benson, dies of a heart attack. His body is subsequently transported home by train.
• Bishop of Menevia, John Cuthbert Hedley, is one of a group of Roman Catholic bishops who successfully petition Pope Leo XIII to lift the ban on Catholic students attending British universities, providing that the universities agreed to allow Catholic professors to teach theology and history, "with such exhaustiveness and soundness that the minds of the young men may be effectively fortified against errors".^[21]
• Opening of Shotton steelworks.
• Opening of the first indoor swimming pool in Wales, at Guildhall Crescent, Cardiff.

Arts and literature

Awards

National Eisteddfod of Wales – held at Llandudno

• Chair – Ben Davies, "Tuhwnt i'r llên"^[22]
• Crown – withheld

New books

• Owen Morgan Edwards – Cartrefi Cymru
• Bertrand Russell – German Social Democracy

Music

• Nicholas Bennett – Alawon fy Ngwlad
• David Jenkins – Four Welsh Airs

Film

• 5 May – Birt Acres' The Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race (1895) becomes the first film in the UK to be commercially screened outside London when it is shown at Cardiff Town Hall.^[23]
• 27 June - The first Royal news film ever shot in Britain shows the Prince and Princess of Wales visiting the Cardiff Exhibition.

Sport

• Football – The Welsh Cup is won by Bangor for the second time in its 17-year history.

Births

• 18 January – Walter James, 4th Baron Northbourne, agriculturist (died 1982)
• 7 March – Charlie Pugh, Wales national rugby player (died 1951)
• 21 March – Dai Edwards, Wales dual-code rugby international (died 1960)
• 4 April – W. S. Gwynn Williams, musician (died 1978)^[24]
• 1 May – Hubert William Lewis, VC recipient (died 1977)
• 6 May – Wilfred Hodder, Wales international rugby player (died 1957)
• 7 May – Edgar Morgan, dual-code rugby international (died 1983)
• 19 July – Mary Jones, actress (died 1990)
• 13 August – Walter Price, footballer
• 28 August – Dai Davies, cricketer (died 1976)
• 1 September – Steve Morris, Wales national rugby player (died 1965)
• 11 September – John Morris, Baron Morris of Borth-y-Gest, judge (died 1979)^[25]
• 15 September – Owen Temple-Morris, politician (died 1985)
• 4 December – Hugh Percy Wilkins, selenographer (died 1960)^[26]

Deaths

• 7 January – William James, clergyman, Principal of Carmarthen Trinity College, 63^[27]
• 17 January – Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover, patron of the arts, 93^[28]
• 26 February – Octavius Vaughan Morgan, politician, 59^[29]
• 17 March – Gethin Davies, Welsh Baptist minister and college principal, 49^[30]
• 5 April – John Rogers Thomas, Welsh-descended American songwriter and composer, 66^[31]
• 10 April – John Edward Jones, Governor of Nevada, 55
• 25 April – Charles Williams-Wynn, politician, 73^[32]
• 23 July – Arthur Linton, cyclist, 27
• 1 August – William Robert Grove, lawyer, judge and scientist, 85^[33]
• 7 October – William Edwardes, 4th Baron Kensington, Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire, 61^[34]
• 27 October – Richard Davies, businessman, ship-owner and politician, 77^[2]
• 25 December – John Ashton, composer, 66^[35]
• 30 December – Evan Herber Evans, Nonconformist leader, 60^[36]

See also

• 1896 in Ireland

Notes and References

1. Book: Hywel Teifi Edwards. The Eisteddfod. 20 July 2016. University of Wales Press. 978-1-78316-914-6. 39.
2. s-DAVI-RIC-1818 . Davies, Richard (1818-1896), M.P.. Robert Thomas Jenkins. 1959. 24 November 2021.
3. Book: Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland, Including All the Titled Classes. Dod. 1921. 356.
4. Book: National Museum of Wales. Adroddiad Blynyddol. The Museum. 1935. 3.
5. Book: The county families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Dalcassian Publishing Company. 1860. 443.
6. Book: Edward Arthur Copleston. Where's where? Pt. 1. A concise gazetteer of Somerset. Pt. 2. Statistical, educational, parliamentary and practical information. 1878. 80.
7. Book: Potter, Matthew . The concept of the 'master' in art education in Britain and Ireland, 1770 to the present . Routledge . Abingdon, Oxon . 2016 . 9781351545471 . 149.
8. Journal of the Architectural, Archaeological, and Historic Society for the County and the City of Chester and North Wales. Popish recusants in Flintshire in 1625. Henry Taylor. Architectural, Archaeological, and Historic Society for the County and the City of Chester and North Wales. 1895. 304.
9. Web site: Transactions of the Liverpool Welsh National Society 1891-92. National Library of Wales. 15 March 2022.
10. Book: Reese, M. M. . The royal office of Master of the Horse . Threshold Books Ltd . London . 1976 . 9780901366900 . 348.
11. Book: Lodge, Edmund . Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire... . Salzwasser-Verlag GMBH . 2020 . 9783752502664 . 318.
12. Book: Whitaker's Almanack. Joseph Whitaker. Whitaker's Almanack. 1913. 847.
13. s-LLOY-LEW-1843. Thomas Iorwerth Ellis. Lloyd, Daniel Lewis (1843-1899), schoolmaster and bishop. National Library of Wales. 1959. 5 November 2021.
14. Book: David Henry Williams. Catalogue of Seals in the National Museum of Wales: Seal dies, Welsh seals, papal bullae. National Museum of Wales. 1993. 75.
15. [Who's Who (UK)#Who Was Who|''Who was Who 1897–2007'']
16. Web site: William Basil Jones, Bishop of St Davids . Dictionary of National Biography . 21 April 2011.
17. Web site: Welsh Coal Mines. 2010-11-27.
18. Web site: The Snowdon Mountain Railway . 4 December 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110604203440/http://www.narrow-gauge-pleasure.co.uk/rlysnowdon.html . 4 June 2011 . dead . dmy-all .
19. Kardas. Handel. Britain's worst railway opening day – Ladas and the Snowdon Mountain Railway. Railway World. 58. 683. April 1997. 66–71.
20. Book: Lindsay, Jean. A History of the North Wales Slate Industry. Newton Abbot. David & Charles. 1974. 0-7153-6264-X.
21. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-16787348 BBC News, "Bishop Hedley's Cathays Cemetery memorial restored and rededicated", 31 January 2012
22. Web site: Winners of the Chair . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20210213204407/https://eisteddfod.wales/archive/eisteddfod-winners/winners-chair . 13 February 2021 . National Eisteddfod of Wales . 18 February 2021.
23. Web site: Overview of British Film History. Learn about movie posters.com. 2007-04-07.
24. Web site: Williams, William Sidney Gwynn (1896–1978), musician and administrator. Rhidian Griffiths. Dictionary of Wales Biography. National Library of Wales. 10 December 2019.
25. Book: The Cambrian law review. 1978. Department of Law, University College of Wales. 5.
26. Book: John Guy Porter. Patrick Moore. Yearbook of Astronomy. 1996. W.W. Norton. 115. 9780333637029.
27. 'Obituary' The Times London, Thursday, Jan. 9, 1896 Issue 34782 p.6
28. Web site: Hall, Augusta, Lady Llanover ('Gwenynen Gwent') (1802–1896), patron of Welsh culture and inventor of the Welsh national costume. Marion Löffler. Dictionary of Wales Biography. National Library of Wales. 10 December 2019.
29. Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute. Obituaries. Iron and Steel Institute. 1896. 287.
30. Gethin Davies. s-DAVI-GET-1846. Rees. James Frederick. 2 May 2017.
31. Book: The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography . VIII . James T. White & Company . 445 . 1924 . 2021-01-27 . Google Books.
32. Web site: Death of Charles Watkins Williams-Wynn. The Montgomery County Times and Shropshire and Mid-Wales Advertiser. 2 May 1896. 10 December 2019.
33. 11685. Iwan Rhys. Morus. Grove, Sir William Robert (1811–1896).
34. News: Lord Kensington Dead. Suddenly Expired While Shooting. 5 November 2016. South Wales Daily Post. 8 October 1896. 3.
35. Ashton, John (1830 - 1896), musician. s-ASHT-JOH-1830. Robert David Griffith. 1959. 9 February 2016.
36. Evans, Evan Herber. Daniel Lleufer. Thomas.