1918 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1918 to Wales and its people.

← 1917 1916 1915 1914 1913 1918 in Wales → 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s
See also:	List of years in Wales 1918 in The United Kingdom Ireland Scotland

Incumbents

• Prince of Wales – Edward
• Princess of Wales – vacant
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Dyfed

Events

• January – Coalowner, Liberal politician and Minister of Food Control David Alfred Thomas is created Viscount Rhondda; following his death on 3 July the title passes by special remainder to his daughter, the suffragette Margaret Mackworth.
• 26 January – An Irish steamship, the Cork, is torpedoed by a U-boat off Point Lynas in Anglesey. Twelve crew are killed.[1][2]
• 29 January – The steamship Ethelinda is torpedoed by a U-boat off the Skerries. Twenty-six crew are killed.[3]
• 4 February – The steamship Treveal is torpedoed by a U-boat off the Skerries. Thirty-three people are killed.[4]
• 5 February – The steamship Mexico City is torpedoed by a U-boat off South Stack, Holyhead. Twenty-nine crew are killed.[5]
• March
  • Miners' leader A. J. Cook is imprisoned for sedition under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 for his public opposition to the war.[6]
  • Submarines HMS R5 and HMS R6 are laid down at HM Dockyard Pembroke Dock; as with HMS L34 and L35 ordered later in the year, they will be cancelled in 1919 before completion.
• 2 March – The British submarine HMS H5 is rammed and sunk, having been mistaken for a U-boat, off Porthdinllaen. All twenty-six crew are killed.[7]
• 7 March – The steamship Kenmare is torpedoed by a U-boat off the Skerries. Twenty-six crew are killed.[8]
• 7 April – The steamship Boscastle is torpedoed by a U-boat off Strumble Head. Eighteen crew are killed.[9]
• 21 April – The steamship Landonia is torpedoed by a U-boat off Strumble Head. Twenty-one crew are killed.[10]
• 9 May – The steamships Baron Ailsa and Wileysike are torpedoed by a U-boat off Pembrokeshire. Fourteen crew are killed.[11][12]
• 19 May – The German U-boat SM UB-119 is sunk, perhaps off Bardsey Island.[13]
• 15 June – The steamship Strathnairn is torpedoed by a U-boat off Bishops and Clerks, Pembrokeshire. Twenty-one crew are killed.
• 22 August – The steamship Palmella is torpedoed by a U-boat off South Stack, Holyhead. Twenty-eight people are killed.[14]
• 16 September – The steamship Serula is torpedoed by a U-boat off Strumble Head. Seventeen crew are killed.[15]
• 18 September – The 38th (Welsh) Division is involved in the Battle of Epéhy.
• Autumn – Edward Thomas John (Liberal MP for East Denbighshire) defects to the Labour Party.
• 10 October – Three seamen are killed while returning to their ship by boat at Milford Haven.
• 14 October – The steamship Dundalk is torpedoed by a U-boat off the Skerries. Twenty-one crew are killed.[16]
• 11 November – Armistice Day. Able Seaman Richard Morgan, serving aboard HMS Garland, is the last Welshman – and perhaps the last Briton – to be killed on active service in the First World War, in the course of which over 40,000 Welsh people have lost their lives.
• 15 November – The British submarine HMS H51 is launched at Pembroke Dock.
• 14 December – United Kingdom general election:
  • For the first time, a woman stands as a parliamentary candidate in Wales: Millicent Mackenzie[17] stands unsuccessfully for the University of Wales, itself a new parliamentary seat (which is won by Herbert Lewis).
  • Home Rule for Wales is included as a policy in the manifesto of the Labour Party.
  • William Brace becomes Labour MP for Abertillery.
  • Alfred Onions becomes Labour MP for Caerphilly.
  • John Hugh Edwards becomes Liberal MP for Neath, his previous constituency of Mid Glamorganshire having been abolished.
  • Sir Robert Thomas, 1st Baronet, becomes Liberal MP for Wrexham.
  • David Sanders Davies becomes Liberal MP for Denbigh, standing against Edward Thomas John.
• December – The beginning of the 1918 flu pandemic which lasts into the following year and kills about 10,000 people in Wales.

Arts and literature

• John Morris-Jones is knighted for his services to literature.[18]
• August is fixed as the annual month of the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Neath)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – John Thomas Job[19]
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – D. Emrys Lewis

New books

• W. H. Davies – A Poet's Pilgrimage[20]
• David Delta Evans – The Rosicrucian
• Moelona – Rhamant y Rhos

Music

• Walford Davies is appointed director of music to the Royal Air Force.

Film

• The Life Story of David Lloyd George (drama, not shown publicly until 1996)

Sport

• Baseball – First records of the Grange Gasworks Ladies team playing in Cardiff.

Births

• 15 January – Billy Lucas, international footballer (died 1998)
• 7 May – Robert Davies, politician (died 1967)
• 9 May – Sir Kyffin Williams, artist (died 2006)[21]
• 20 May – William David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech (died 1985)[22]
• 6 June – Susan Williams-Ellis, founder of Portmeirion Pottery (died 2007)[23]
• 4 July – Tony Garrett, chairman of Imperial Tobacco (died 2017)
• 19 August – Dilys Elwyn Edwards, composer (died 2012)[24]
• 19 September – Penelope Mortimer, writer (died 1999)[25]
• 26 September – John Rankine, author (died 2013)
• 3 November – Glyn Williams, international footballer (died 2011)

Deaths

• 15 February – William Evans, judge, c.71
• 13 April
  • David Ffrangcon Davies, baritone, 62[26]
  • Thomas Tannatt Pryce, VC recipient, 32 (killed in action)[27]
• 3 July – David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda, industrialist and politician, 62[28]
• 13 September – Samuel Thomas Evans, MP, 59[29]
• 21 September – Emily Charlotte Talbot, heiress, 78[30]
• 27 September – Morfydd Llwyn Owen, composer, pianist and mezzo-soprano, 26 (medical complications)[31]
• 15 October – William David Phillips, Wales international rugby player, 63
• 4 November – Wilfred Owen, poet from the Welsh borders, 25 (killed in action)[32]
• 25 November – William Griffith, mining engineer who worked with Cecil Rhodes
• 1 December
  • John Griffiths, artist, 81
  • Fred Perrett, Wales international rugby union player, 27 (died of wounds received in action)[33]

References

1. "Cork". Uboat.net. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
2. "Irish cross-channel boat sunk". The Times (41699). London. 29 January 1918. col D, p. 3.
3. "Ethelinda". Uboat.net. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
4. "Treveal". Uboat.net. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
5. "Mexico City". Uboat.net. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
6. Martyn Ives (15 September 2016). Reform, Revolution and Direct Action amongst British Miners: The Struggle for the Charter in 1919. BRILL. p. 163. ISBN 978-90-04-32600-2.
7. "Ceremony for Armed Forces Day marks submarine tragedy". BBCNews. BBC. 19 June 2010. Retrieved 1 July 2010.
8. "Kenmare". Uboat.net. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
9. "Boscastle". Uboat.net. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
10. "Landonia". Uboat.net. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
11. "Baron Ailsa". Uboat.net. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
12. "Wileysike". Uboat.net. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
13. "UB 119". Uboat.net. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
14. "Palmella". Uboat.net. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
15. "Serala". Uboat.net. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
16. "Dundalk". Uboat.net. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
17. Cylchgrawn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru: The National Library of Wales Journal. 2003. p. 337.
18. Parry, Sir Thomas (1959). "MORRIS-JONES (formerly JONES ), Sir JOHN (MORRIS) (1864-1929), scholar, poet, and critic". Dictionary of Welsh Biography.
19. "Winners of the Chair". National Eisteddfod of Wales. 3 October 2019.
20. "Poet's Pilgrimage". Gwales. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
21. David Meredith. "WILLIAMS, Sir JOHN KYFFIN (1918-2006), painter and author". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
22. Barnaby J. Feder (27 January 1985). "Lord Harlech is dead at 66". New York Times. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
23. "Susan Williams-Ellis". The Telegraph. 30 November 2007. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
24. Rhidian Griffiths. "ELWYN-EDWARDS, DILYS (1918-2012), composer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
25. Giles Gordon (22 October 1999). "Penelope Mortimer". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
26. David Thomas Ffrangcon-Davies (1968). The singing of the future. Pro Musica Press. p. 277.
27. David Harvey (1999). Monuments to Courage: 1917-1982. K. and K. Patience. p. 111.
28. Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Committee for Privileges (1922). Margaret Haig Viscountess Rhondda: Proceedings and Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Committee for Privileges. H.M. Stationery Office.
29. Publication (London Topographical Society) (1931). London Topographical Record. p. 34.
30. The New International Year Book. Dodd, Mead and Company. 1919. p. 446.
31. Gerald Norris (June 1981). A musical gazetteer of Great Britain & Ireland. David & Charles. p. 297. ISBN 978-0-7153-7845-8.
32. Philip Guest (12 August 1998). Wilfred Owen: On the Trail of the Poets of the Great War. Pen and Sword. p. 118. ISBN 978-0-85052-614-1.
33. Robin Turner (25 May 2014). "World War One: The Wales rugby internationals who died on the battlefield". WalesOnline. Retrieved 14 October 2019.