1907 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1907 to Wales and its people.

← 1906 1905 1904 1903 1902 1907 in Wales → 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s
See also:	List of years in Wales 1907 in The United Kingdom Ireland Scotland

Incumbents

• Prince of Wales – George (later George V)
• Princess of Wales – Mary
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Dyfed

Events

• 17 February – The cargo ship SS Orianda sinks off Barry after colliding with the SS Heliopolis, with the loss of 14 crew.[1]
• 5 March – Six miners are killed in a shaft accident at Windsor Colliery, Abertridwr.
• 19 March – The National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth) and National Museum of Wales (Cardiff) receive their charters.
• 11 May – Swansea Corporation's newly constructed Cray Reservoir is filled with water for the first time.
• 11 July – Edward VII visits Bangor to lay the foundation stone of the new University College of North Wales buildings. Principal Henry Reichel is knighted.[2]
• 13 July – Opening of the Queen Alexandra Dock in Cardiff, attended by the King and Queen.
• 25 July – Francis Edwards, MP for Radnorshire, is created a baronet.
• 1 November – First performance of John Hughes' hymn tune "Cwm Rhondda" in its final version, at Capel Rhondda Welsh Baptist Chapel, Hopkinstown, Pontypridd with the composer at the (new) organ.[3]
• 10 November – Five miners are killed in an accident at Seven Sisters Colliery.
• 14 December – Seven miners are killed in an accident at Dinas Main Colliery, Gilfach Goch.[4]
• December – Edgeworth David joins Ernest Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole.
• date unknown
  • Owen Morgan Edwards becomes Chief Inspector of Schools for Wales.
  • The Board of Education establishes a special Welsh department.
  • C. H. Watkins designs and builds the first aircraft in Wales at Cardiff, and names it Robin Goch.
  • Opening of Dolgarrog hydroelectric power station.
  • Oakdale Colliery is sunk in the Sirhowy Valley.
  • The silver and lead mine at Llywernog reopens in order to prospect for zinc.
  • The British Glanzstoff Manufacturing Company starts an artificial silk factory in Flint.

Arts and literature

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales – held in Swansea
  • Chair – Thomas Davies, "John Bunyan"[5]
  • Crown – John Dyfnallt Owen

New books

English language

• Eliot Crawshay-Williams – Across Persia
• W. H. Davies – New Poems
• Arthur Machen – The Hill of Dreams

Welsh language

• Emyr Davies – Llwyn Hudol
• John Jones (Myrddin Fardd) – Gwerin-Eiriau Sir Gaernarfon
• John Morris-Jones – Caniadau
• Joshua Thomas – Hanes y Bedyddwyr
• T. Marchant Williams – Odlau Serch a Bywyd

Music

• T. Hopkin Evans – Crowns of Golden Light and The Voyage
• John Hughes – "Cwm Rhondda" (hymn tune, final version)
• David Vaughan Thomas – Llyn y Fan

Architecture

• St. David's Hotel, a hotel for golfers located at Harlech, in Gwynedd, is designed to plans by the Glasgow School architect George Henry Walton for a syndicate of entrepreneurs of which he was a member.[6] (The proposals were subsequently revised in 1908, and the hotel was built in 1910.[6] The hotel closed in 2008,[7] and planning permission for demolition was approved in 2009).

Sport

• Bowls – The Welsh Open Bowls Championship is launched.
• Boxing
  • 1 June – Jim Driscoll wins the British featherweight title.
  • 8 August – Joe White wins the British welterweight title (disputed).
• Rugby league
  • Ebbw Vale RLFC and Merthyr Tydfil RLFC are formed, the first Welsh rugby league teams.
• Rugby union
  • Wales finish second in the 1907 Home Nations Championship
  • 1 January – Cardiff beat the touring South Africa national team, 17 - 0.

Births

• 3 January – Ray Milland, actor (died 1986)[8]
• 10 January – Nicholas Evans, artist (died 2004)[9]
• 11 January – Reg Thomas, athlete (died 1946)
• 4 March - Emlyn John, footballer (died 1962)
• 6 April – Jacques Vaillant de Guélis, Special Operations Executive agent (died 1945)[10]
• 30 April – Harry Bowcott, international rugby player and president of the Welsh Rugby Union (died 2004)[11]
• 7 May – Trevil Morgan, cricketer (died 1976)[12]
• 24 May – Gwyn Jones, writer (died 1999)[13]
• June – David Llewellyn, trade unionist (died after 1956)
• 8 June – Trevor Thomas, art historian and author (died 1993)[14]
• 10 June – Ernie Curtis, footballer (died 1992)
• 19 June – Rodney David, cricketer (died 1969)
• 2 July – Dick Duckfield, cricketer (died 1959)[15]
• 12 August – Rhys Lloyd, Baron Lloyd of Kilgerran, politician (died 1991)[16]
• 25 August – Albert Fear, Wales international rugby player (died 2000)
• 25 September – Raymond Glendenning, radio sports commentator (died 1974)[17]
• 30 September – Arthur Probert, politician (died 1975)[18]
• 27 November – Glyn Prosser, Wales international rugby player (died 1972)
• 9 December – T. J. Morgan, academic (died 1986)[19]
• 10 December – Harry Payne, Wales international rugby player (died 2000)
• 19 December – William Glynne-Jones, novelist and children's writer (died 1977)[20]
• 21 December – Will Roberts, painter (died 2000)[21]
• 22 December – Harold Jones, rugby player (died 1955)
• 23 December – Fred Warren, international footballer (died 1986)
• 26 December – Guy Morgan, rugby player and cricketer (died 1973)

Deaths

• 7 January – David Rowlands (Dewi Môn), minister, academic and writer, 70[22]
• 13 January – Frances Elizabeth Wynne, artist, 71[23]
• 10 March – George Douglas-Pennant, 2nd Baron Penrhyn, industrialist and politician, 70[24]
• 24 March – John Pugh, minister (Forward Movement)
• 2 June – Rose Mary Crawshay, philanthropist, 79[25]
• 5 July – John Romilly Allen, archaeologist, 60[26]
• 14 August – David Treharne Evans, Lord Mayor of London
• October – Hugh Davies (Pencerdd Maelor), composer
• 27 September – Alfred Davies, businessman and politician, 58[27]
• 29 October – Megan Watts Hughes, singer, 65[28]
• 11 November – Ralph Sweet-Escott, English-born Wales rugby international and Glamorgan cricketer, 38
• 12 November – Sir Lewis Morris, Anglo-Welsh poet, 74[29]
• 27 November – Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea, politician, 64[30]
• 30 November – John Price, footballer, 52/3

References

1. Shipbuilding & Shipping Record: A Journal of Shipbuilding, Marine Engineering, Dock, Harbours & Shipping. 1926.
2. J. Gwynn Williams (1985). The University College of North Wales: Foundations, 1884-1927. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-7083-0893-6.
3. "The Writing of Cwm Rhondda". Feed Me Now and Evermore. Rhondda Cynon Taff Library, Museum & Heritage Service. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
4. Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords (1908). Sessional Papers. H.M. Stationery Office. p. 128.
5. "Winners of the Chair". National Eisteddfod of Wales. 3 October 2019.
6. Moon, K.; "George Walton: Designer and Architect"; White Cockade Publishing, Dorset, 1993; ISBN 1-873487-01-0 (hb) ISBN 1-873487-02-9 (pb)
7. Haslam, R., Orbach., J., Voelcker, A.; Pevsner Architectural Guides: The Buildings of Wales, Gwynedd; 2009; Yale University Press ISBN 0-300-14169-6
8. Parkinson, David (2011). "Ray Milland". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57315. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
9. Peter Wakelin (15 March 2004). "Nicholas Evans". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
10. Greg Lewis. "Unknown WW2 secret agent buried in Cardiff cemetery". BBC News. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
11. Rob Cole (16 December 2004). "Harry Bowcott". The Independent. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
12. Wilfred Wooller, "J. T. Morgan", The Cricketer, February 1977, p. 21.
13. Stephens, Meic (10 December 1999). "Obituary: Professor Gwyn Jones". The Independent. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
14. Stuart, Robert (9 July 1993). "Obituary: Trevor Thomas". The Independent. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
15. Hignell, Dr. A. K. (2000). "Profile of Dick Duckfield". Hon Statistician and Historian to Glamorgan CCC. Cricket Archive. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
16. Who was who: A Companion to Who's Who, Containing the Biographies of Those who Died. A. & C. Black. 2002. p. 497. ISBN 978-0-7136-6125-5.
17. Nicolas Sellens (2005). Commentating Greats: From Alliss to Wolstenholme. West Ridge. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-9540733-1-2.
18. Stenton, Michael; Lees, Stephen (1981). Who's Who of British Members of Parliament. IV. Brighton: Harvester Press. p. 302.
19. Brynley Francis Roberts. "Morgan, Thomas John". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
20. Something about the Author. Gale Research. July 1977. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-8103-0070-5.
21. Meic Stephens (20 September 2012). Welsh Lives - Gone but Not Forgotten. Y Lolfa. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-84771-605-7.
22. John Dyfnallt Owen. "Rowlands, David ('Dewi Môn'; 1836-1907), gweinidog Annibynnol a phrifathro". Dictionary of Welsh Biography (in Welsh). National Library of Wales. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
23. Bernard Burke; Ashworth Peter Burke (1910). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage. Harrison. p. 144.
24. Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland ...: Including All the Titled Classes. S. Low, Marston & Company. 1923. p. 682.
25. Charles Wilkins (of Merthyr-Tydfil.) (1908). The History of Merthyr Tydfil. J. Williams and Sons. p. 276.
26. Henderson, I. B. "Allen, John Romilly". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30388. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
27. "Death of Mr Alfred Davies, of, Hampstead, London. Ex-M.P. for Carmarthen Boroughs". Carmarthen Weekly Reporter. William Morgan Evans. 4 October 1907. p. 2. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
28. "Dictionary of Welsh Biography". National Library of Wales. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
29. Stephens, Meic. "Morris, Sir Lewis (1833–1907)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 July 2007.
30. Harrow School (1925). The Harrow School Register, 1845-1925. Second Series... Longmans, Green and Company. p. 121.