1869 in Wales

← 1868 1867 1866 1869 in Wales → 1870 1871 1872
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s
See also:	List of years in Wales 1869 in The United Kingdom Ireland Scotland

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1869 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Prince of Wales — The Prince Albert Edward, son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom
• Princess of Wales — Alexandra of Denmark

Events

• January
  • Henry Austin Bruce becomes MP for Renfrewshire.
  • Timothy Richards Lewis goes to India to study cholera.
• 1 May — The Western Mail is published for the first time.
• 19 May — Two days after John Young, the English manager of the Leeswood Green colliery, announces a pay cut, he is attacked by some of his workers.
• 2 June— Seven men are tried at Mold for attacking John Young. A riot breaks out as those convicted are being transported to the railway station; soldiers fire on the crowd, killing four people.
• 10 June — Three people are killed in a train derailment at Maesycwmmer in Glamorgan.
• 1 September — The Dyserth branch line is opened for goods traffic.
• 30 October — The first edition of the Welsh-language periodical, Y Goleuad, is published.
• Anti-Irish riots at Pontlottyn in the Rhymney Valley result in one death.
• Landore steelworks at Swansea established by Carl Wilhelm Siemens.
• John Hughes of Merthyr Tydfil buys land near the Sea of Azov, where he develops an ironworks and founds the city of Yuzovka (later Donetsk).
• Joseph Leycester Lyne (Father Ignatius of Jesus) acquires land at Capel-y-ffin and begins construction of an Anglican Benedictine community, Llanthony Abbey (Llanthony Tertia).
• Construction of the fort at St Catherine's Island, off Tenby.
• Prehistoric burial remains are discovered at Parc le Breos on the Gower Peninsula.
• John Owen of Tyn-llwyn is evicted from his farm for voting Tory.

Arts and literature

Awards

• The first official National Eisteddfod of Wales takes place at Holywell.

New books

• J. H. Clark — History of Monmouthshire
• John Hugh Evans — Pryddest Goffa i Thomas Aubrey
• Jane Hughes — Galargan am y diweddar Barch. Henry Rees, Liverpool
• David Watkin Jones (Dafydd Morgannwg) — Yr Ysgol Farddol
• Nathaniel Jones (Cynhafal) — Elias y Thesbiad
• John Petherick — Travels in Central Africa and Explorations of the Western Nile Tributaries
• William Rowlands — Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry (Bibliography of the Welsh) (posthumous; ed. Daniel Silvan Evans)
• Jane Williams (Ysgafell) — A History of Wales derived from Authentic Sources
• Robert Williams (Trebor Mai) — Y Geninen

Music

• Owen Jones — Hymnau Hen a Diweddar (collection of hymns)

Sport

• Football — Ruabon footballers set up a club at Plas Madoc.
• Mountaineering — Emmeline Lewis Lloyd attempts an ascent of the Matterhorn.

Births

• 11 January – Ralph Sweet-Escott, English born, Wales rugby international (died 1907)
• 9 April – John Hugh Edwards, politician (died 1945)
• 19 May – John Henry Williams, Welsh politician (died 1936)
• 20 May – Robert Griffith Berry, minister and writer (died 1945)
• 30 May – Thomas Rees, theologian (died 1926)
• 12 August – Fred Parfitt, Wales international rugby player (died 1953)
• 6 September – Walford Davies, composer (died 1944)
• 24 September – Maud Cunnington, archaeologist (died 1951)
• 29 October – Bill Morris, Wales international rugby player (died 1946)
• 9 November – Osbert Fynes-Clinton, dialectologist (died 1941)
• 12 November – Arthur Leonard Leach, geologist and archaeologist (died 1957)
• 15 November – Percy Bennett, Wales international rugby player (died 1936)
• 20 November – Herbert Tudor Buckland, architect working in Birmingham (died 1951)
• 26 November – Princess Maud of Wales, queen consort of Norway (died 1938)

Deaths

• 18 February – Henry Rees, Calvinistic Methodist minister, 71
• 23 March – William Williams (Caledfryn), poet, 68
• 31 March – David Rees (Y Cynhyrfwr), Nonconformist leader and author, 67
• 16 April – James Davies (Iago ap Dewi), poet, 68
• 12 May – Thomas Walter Price (Cuhelyn), journalist and poet, 39
• 1 July – David Jones, banker and politician, 58
• 14 July – Lloyd Kenyon, 3rd Baron Kenyon, 64
• October – John Jones (Talhaiarn), poet, 59
• 15 December – David Williams, politician, 70
• 17 December – Sarah Jacob, "the fasting girl", 12