1889 in Wales

Centuries:	17th; 18th; 19th; 20th; 21st;
Decades:	1860s; 1870s; 1880s; 1890s; 1900s;
See also:	List of years in Wales; 1889 in The United Kingdom Ireland Scotland

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1889 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents[]

Monarch – Victoria
Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Clwydfardd

Events[]

January – First Glamorgan County Council elections are held.^[1]
8 February – Nine people drown in a ferry accident at Pembroke Dock.
14 February – The first edition of the North Wales Weekly News is published (under the title Weekly News and Visitors’ Chronicle for Colwyn Bay, Colwyn, Llandrillo, Conway, Deganway and Neighbourhood).^[2]
13 March – Twenty miners are killed in an accident at the Brynmally Colliery, Wrexham.
1 April – New elected county councils in England and Wales created by the Local Government Act 1888, take up their powers.^[3]^[4]^[5] That for Radnorshire meets in Presteigne.
June – A lion escapes from a travelling menagerie at Llandrindod Wells.^[6]
18 July – Opening of the first dock basin at Barry.
3 August – Opening of Hawarden Bridge.
12 August – The passing of the Welsh Intermediate Education Act marks the beginning of secondary education in Wales.
15 August – Three men are killed in a mining accident at Wenvoe Quarry, Glamorgan.^[7]
26 August – Act of incorporation of the Barry Railway Company#Vale of Glamorgan Railway.
Approximate date – The Showmen's Guild of Great Britain is co-founded in Salford as the United Kingdom Van Dwellers Protection Association by and other active Welsh cinema pioneers.

Arts and literature[]

Awards[]

National Eisteddfod of Wales – held at Brecon

Chair – Evan Rees, "Y Beibl Cymraeg"^[8]
Crown – Howell Elvet Lewis

New books[]

Owen Morgan Edwards – O'r Bala i Geneva

Music[]

Sir Henry Walford Davies – The Future, for chorus and orchestra

Sport[]

Cricket – Glamorgan County Cricket Club plays its first match, against Warwickshire at Cardiff Arms Park.
Rugby union – Bedwas RFC, Blackwood RFC and Llantwit Major RFC are formed.

Births[]

12 January – John Bryn Edwards, ironmaster and philanthropist (died 1922)
22 January – John Emlyn-Jones, politician (died 1952)
28 January – Phil Waller, Wales and British Lions rugby player (died 1917)^[9]
31 January – Jack Evans, footballer (died 1971)
1 February – John Lewis, philosopher (died 1976)
10 February – Howard Spring, novelist (died 1965)^[10]
28 February – George Jeffreys, Pentecostalist (died 1962)
5 May – Stanley Winmill, Wales international rugby union player (died 1940)
24 June – Harry Symonds, cricketer (died 1945)
17 July – Aled Owen Roberts, politician (died 1949)
5 August – William Davies Thomas, academic (died 1954)
10 August – Irene Steer, swimmer (died 1977)
21 August – Henry Lewis, Professor at Swansea University (died 1968)^[11]
23 October – William Havard, Bishop of St Davids and international rugby player (died 1956)^[12]
11 December – Cedric Morris, artist (died 1982)

Deaths[]

21 January – Joshua Hughes, Bishop of St Asaph, 81
27 March – John Bright, Radical politician associated with Llandudno, 77^[13]
10 April – Kilsby Jones, nonconformist minister, writer and lecturer, 76^[14]
27 May – George Owen Rees, Welsh-Italian doctor, 75
8 June – Gerard Manley Hopkins, Anglo-Welsh poet, 44 (in Ireland)
17 June – John Hughes, industrialist, 73 (in St Petersburg)^[15]
26 June – Walter Rice Howell Powell, landowner and politician, 69
28 September – Samuel Goldsworthy, Wales international rugby player, 34
15 October – Sir Daniel Gooch, railway engineer and politician, 73^[16]
29 October – Godfrey Darbishire, Wales rugby international player, 36
14 November – James Stephens, stonemason, Chartist, and later Australian trade unionist, 68
18 November – Charles Easton Spooner, railway pioneer, 71^[17]
date unknown – G. Phillips Bevan, statistician, geographer and author, 59/60^[18]
probable – Richard Williams Morgan, clergyman and poet

References[]

^ "The County Council Elections". Cambrian. 18 January 1889. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
^ "Weekly News 125: How it all began 125 years ago..." www.dailypost.co.uk. Daily Post. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
^ Edwards, John (1955). "County". Chambers's Encyclopedia. London: Newnes. pp. 189–191.
^ "The County Council Elections". The Times (32595). London. 14 January 1889. p. 10.
^ "The County Councils". The Times (32601). 21 January 1889. p. 10.
^ Clay, Jeremy (19 April 2014). "Victorian strangeness: The tale of the lion and the spa break". BBC. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
^ Western Mail - Friday 16 August 1889, p.3, Accessed via The British Newspaper Archive (subscription required). Retrieved 19 November 2014.
^ "Winners of the Chair". National Eisteddfod of Wales. Archived from the original on 13 February 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
^ Nigel McCrery (29 January 2014). Into Touch: Rugby Internationals Killed in the Great War. Pen and Sword. p. 252. ISBN 978-1-78159-087-4.
^ Contemporary Authors. Gale Research Company. 1975. p. 594. ISBN 978-0-8103-0036-1.
^ David Myrddin Lloyd. "Lewis, Henry (1889-1968), Welsh and Celtic scholar, university professor". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
^ Mary Gwendoline Ellis. "Havard, William (1889-1956), bishop". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
^ Trevelyan, George Macaulay (1913) The Life of John Bright. Pages 462-3
^ Smith, Robert V. "Jones, James Rhys Kilsby". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ "John Hughes". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
^ Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland. S. Low, Marston & Company. 1923. p. 363.
^ Peter Johnson (30 April 2017). Festiniog Railway: The Spooner Era and After, 1830–1920. Pen & Sword Books. p. 176. ISBN 978-1-4738-6988-2.
^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Bevan, William Latham" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). 1. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

[1] "The County Council Elections". Cambrian. 18 January 1889. Retrieved 21 November 2013.

[Weekly_News_125-2] "Weekly News 125: How it all began 125 years ago..." www.dailypost.co.uk. Daily Post. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2017.

[3] Edwards, John (1955). "County". Chambers's Encyclopedia. London: Newnes. pp. 189–191.

[4] "The County Council Elections". The Times (32595). London. 14 January 1889. p. 10.

[5] "The County Councils". The Times (32601). 21 January 1889. p. 10.

[6] Clay, Jeremy (19 April 2014). "Victorian strangeness: The tale of the lion and the spa break". BBC. Retrieved 19 April 2014.

[WM-7] Western Mail - Friday 16 August 1889, p.3, Accessed via The British Newspaper Archive (subscription required). Retrieved 19 November 2014.

[8] "Winners of the Chair". National Eisteddfod of Wales. Archived from the original on 13 February 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2021.

[9] Nigel McCrery (29 January 2014). Into Touch: Rugby Internationals Killed in the Great War. Pen and Sword. p. 252. ISBN 978-1-78159-087-4.

[10] Contemporary Authors. Gale Research Company. 1975. p. 594. ISBN 978-0-8103-0036-1.

[11] David Myrddin Lloyd. "Lewis, Henry (1889-1968), Welsh and Celtic scholar, university professor". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 27 July 2019.

[12] Mary Gwendoline Ellis. "Havard, William (1889-1956), bishop". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 27 July 2019.

[13] Trevelyan, George Macaulay (1913) The Life of John Bright. Pages 462-3

[14] Smith, Robert V. "Jones, James Rhys Kilsby". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[15] "John Hughes". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 3 May 2010.

[16] Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland. S. Low, Marston & Company. 1923. p. 363.

[17] Peter Johnson (30 April 2017). Festiniog Railway: The Spooner Era and After, 1830–1920. Pen & Sword Books. p. 176. ISBN 978-1-4738-6988-2.

[18] Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Bevan, William Latham" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). 1. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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