1947 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1947 to Wales and its people.

← 1946 1945 1944 1943 1942 1947 in Wales → 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s
See also:	List of years in Wales 1947 in The United Kingdom Ireland Scotland

Incumbents

• Prince of Wales – vacant
• Princess of Wales – vacant
• Archbishop of Wales – David Prosser, Bishop of St David's
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales
  • Crwys (outgoing)
  • Wil Ifan (incoming)

Events

• 1 January - Nationalisation of the coal mining industry under the new National Coal Board.[1]
• 1 March - Opening of Ysgol Gymraeg Dewi Sant, Llanelli, the first Welsh-medium school.
• 2-3 April - A British ship, the 1,580 ton Stancliffe, runs aground off Sharpness loaded with 3,000 tons of timber. Local shipyard engineer, Ivor Langford, manages to cut the vessel in two and sail both parts down to Cardiff Docks. There the two halves are joined together and the ship sails again under the new name of Gripfast.[2]
• 23 April - Wreck of the Samtampa on Sker rocks and loss of the Mumbles life-boat, Edward, Prince of Wales.
• 11 July - Ifan ab Owen Edwards is knighted.[3]
• September - Cardiff Castle is donated by the Marquess of Bute to the city of Cardiff.
• 12 November - Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Dalton inadvertently reveals some of the contents of his Budget while on his way to the House of Commons to deliver his speech, effectively finishing his political career.[4]
• 13 December - Royal Naval Air Station Dale, Pembrokeshire, closes.[5]
• Founded in this year are:
  • Age Concern Cymru.
  • BBC Welsh Chorus.[6]
  • Steel Company of Wales.
  • Wales Gas Board.
• Sir Frederick John Alban becomes President of the Society of Incorporated Accountants and Chairman of the Welsh Hospitals Board.
• David Brynmor Anthony is awarded the Médaille de Vermeil de la Reconnaissance Française by the government of France.

Arts and literature

• June 11–15 - First Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod is held.[7]
• First Cerdd Dant festival is held.
• Caradog Prichard begins writing for The Daily Telegraph.

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Colwyn Bay)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - John Tudor Jones (John Eilian), "Maelgwn Gwynedd"[8]
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Griffith John Roberts, "Glyn y Groes"[9]
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - withheld[10]

New books

English language

• William Ewart Berry - British Newspapers and their Controllers
• Jack Jones - Off to Philadelphia in the Morning[11]
• Michael Gareth Llewelyn - White Wheat
• John Cowper Powys – Obstinate Cymric[12]
• Sir James Frederick Rees - Studies in Welsh history[13]

Welsh language

• J. Eirian Davies - Awen y Wawr[14]
• William Jones - Adar Rhiannon a Cherddi Eraill[15]
• Elizabeth Watkin-Jones - Y Cwlwm Cêl and Y Dryslwyn

Music

• David Wynne - Sonata No. 1 for keyboard

Film

• Edmund Gwenn stars in Miracle on 34th Street.

Broadcasting

• Dylan Thomas - The Return Journey[16]

Sport

• Cricket - Wilf Wooller is appointed Captain-Secretary of Glamorgan CCC.
• Rugby Union
  • 20 December - Wales beat Australia 6–0 at the National Stadium, Cardiff.

Births

• 2 February - Frank Hennessy, folk singer and radio presenter
• 5 February - Paul James Wheeler, rugby player
• 11 February - Douglas Davies, theologian
• 22 February - Bleddyn Williams, rugby player (died 2009)[17]
• 12 March - Rod Richards, politician
• 18 March - Roger Kenneth Evans, politician
• 27 March - Craig Defoy, golfer
• 27 April - Pete Ham, musician (died 1975)[18]
• 16 May - Owen Money, born Lynn Mittell, entertainer
• 1 June - Jonathan Pryce, born John Price, actor[19]
• 4 June - Mickey Evans footballer
• 12 June - Alwyn Pritchard, statistician
• 12 July - Gareth Edwards, rugby player
• 17 July(in England) - Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall[20]
• 2 August - Iolo Ceredig Jones, chess player
• 30 August - Alwyn Jones, biophysicist
• 9 September - Clive Shell, rugby player (died 2012)[21]
• 24 September(in Loughborough) - Mick Bates AM, politician
• 5 October
  • Dennis Avoth, heavyweight boxer
  • Phil Carradice, writer and broadcaster
• 16 October
  • Steve Derrett, footballer
  • Terry Griffiths, snooker player
• 29 October - Val Feld, politician (died 2001)[22]
• 24 November - Paul Griffiths, music critic, fiction writer and librettist
• 5 December - Don Touhig, politician
• Sheila Morrow - president of Great Britain Hockey[23]

Deaths

• 10 January - Lillie Goodisson, nurse, late 80s[24]
• 26 February - Percy Phillips OBE, Wales international rugby player and civil servant
• 16 March - Jack Powell, footballer, 86
• 24 March - John Henry Evans, Mormon teacher and writer, 74[25]
• 26 March - Charles Alexander Harris, governor of Newfoundland, 91[26]
• 31 March - John Phillips, Dean of Monmouth, 67[27] and ordained in 1909.[28]
• 15 May - Arthur Harding, Wales international rugby union captain, 68
• 23 May - Richard Griffith (Carneddog), poet and journalist, 85
• 25 May - Samuel Clark, rugby official and international rugby player
• 20 June - Sir John Edward Lloyd, historian, 86[29]
• 30 June - Jerry Shea, Welsh rugby union and rugby league player, 54
• 5 July - Jack Evans, Wales international rugby player, 72
• 7 July
  • James Henry Howard, minister and writer, 70
  • Johnny Basham, boxer, 56
• 23 July - David James Jones, philosopher, 60[30]
• 10 August - David Evan Jones, missionary, 77
• 12 October - William Brace, politician, 82[31]
• 18 October - Alexander Bland, Wales international rugby player, 80
• 16 November - Thomas Griffiths, Australian Army general, 82[32]
• 22 November - James J. Davis, United States politician, 74[33]
• 23 November
  • Sir George Lockwood Morris, industrialist and Welsh international rugby player, 88
  • Matthew W. Davies, musician, 65[34]
• 12 December - William John Evans, musician and composer, 81[35]
• 15 December - Arthur Machen, writer, 74[36]
• 23 December - John Samuel, Wales international rugby player

See also

• 1947 in Northern Ireland

References

1. A.R. Griffin (8 August 2005). Mining in the East Midlands 1550-1947. Routledge. p. 358. ISBN 978-1-135-78178-1.
2. Hugh Conway-Jones (15 October 2009). The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 206. ISBN 978-1-4456-2580-5.
3. The London Gazette. H.M. Stationery Office. 1947. p. 3206.
4. Pimlott, Ben (2004). "Dalton, (Edward) Hugh Neale, Baron Dalton (1887–1962)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32697. Retrieved 2015-01-28. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
5. Paul Beaver (1987). Encyclopaedia of the Fleet Air Arm Since 1945. Stephens. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-85059-760-8.
6. John Davies (1994). Broadcasting and the BBC in Wales. University of Wales Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-7083-1273-5.
7. "Llangollen International Eisteddfod - How it Started". Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Archived from the original on 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
8. "Winners of the Chair". National Eisteddfod of Wales. 17 November 2019.
9. "Winners of the Crown". National Eisteddfod of Wales. 17 November 2019.
10. "Winners of the Prose Medal". National Eisteddfod of Wales. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
11. Keri Edwards; Welsh Arts Council (1974). Jack Jones. University of Wales Press [for] the Welsh Arts Council. p. 25.
12. The Reader's Index and Guide. 1946.
13. H. P. R. Finberg; Joan Thirsk (1967). The Agrarian History of England and Wales. Cambridge University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-521-06617-4.
14. National Library of Wales (1944). Bibliotheca celtica. The Library. p. 210.
15. Ceri Davies (1995). Welsh Literature and the Classical Tradition. University of Wales Press. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-7083-1321-3.
16. Asa Briggs (1995). The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume IV: Sound and Vision. OUP Oxford. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-19-212967-3.
17. "Bleddyn Williams". The Telegraph. 8 July 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
18. Dan Matovina (2000). Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger. Frances Glover Books. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-9657122-2-4.
19. Film Review. Orpheus Pub. 2001. p. 90.
20. Barbara Cartland (1997). Diana: A Commemorative Biography, 1961-1997. Commonwealth Publications, Incorporated. p. 255. ISBN 978-1-55197-846-8.
21. Graeme Gillespie (6 January 2012). "Obituary - Clive Shell". Welsh Rugby Union. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
22. Paul Williams (10 August 2001). "Val Feld". The Guardian. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
23. "Sheila Morrow". Welsh Sports Hall Of Fame. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
24. Meredith Foley, Goodisson, Lillie Elizabeth (1860?-1947), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp 47-48.
25. "State of Utah Certificate of Death". United States Public Health Service. March 27, 1947. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
26. Sir William Young Darling (1951). A Book of Days: A Dictionary of Dates, a Chronology of Circumstance, the Face of Time. Richards Press. p. 89.
27. PHILLIPS, Very Rev. John Leoline’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 23 March 2015
28. "Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1929 p1017 London, OUP, 1929
29. Robert Thomas Jenkins. "Lloyd, Sir John Edward (1861-1947), historian, and first editor of Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
30. Richard Ithamar Aaron. "Jones, David James (1886-1947), Professor of Philosophy". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
31. Griffith Milwyn Griffiths. "Brace, William (1865-1947), miners' leader and M.P." Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
32. Perry, Warren. "Griffiths, Thomas (1865–1947)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. 9. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 3 June 2013 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
33. Elliott Robert Barkan (2001). Making it in America: A Sourcebook on Eminent Ethnic Americans. ABC-CLIO. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-57607-098-7.
34. Williams, Griffith John. "Matthew William Davies". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
35. Robert David Griffith. "EVANS, WILLIAM JOHN". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
36. Cecil John Layton Price. "Machen, Arthur (1863-1947), formerly JONES, ARTHUR LLEWELLIN, writer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 29 December 2019.