1991 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1991 to Wales and its people.

← 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1991 in Wales → 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
See also:	List of years in Wales 1991 in The United Kingdom England Ireland Scotland

Incumbents

• Prince of Wales – Charles
• Princess of Wales – Diana
• Secretary of State for Wales – David Hunt
• Archbishop of Wales
  • George Noakes, Bishop of St David's (retired)
  • Alwyn Rice Jones, Bishop of St Asaph
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Ap Llysor

Events

• 6 January - A Maltese tanker, the Kimya, capsizes off the Anglesey coast. Ten crew members are drowned, and the ship's cargo of sunflower oil causes marine pollution.[1]
• January - Two Welsh soldiers are among those killed in the first Gulf War.
• 4 April - Peter Hain is elected as MP for Neath in a by-election caused by the death of the sitting MP, Donald Coleman.[2]
• 16 May - Huw Edwards is elected as MP for Monmouth in a by-election caused by the death of the sitting MP, Sir John Stradling Thomas.
• 23 May - A memorial to Gwenllian ferch Gruffydd is dedicated at Kidwelly Castle.[3]
• 19 July - Dean Saunders, 27-year-old Welsh international striker, becomes the most expensive player to be signed by a British club when a £2.9million fee takes him from Derby County to Liverpool, who have broken the record fee in British football for the third time in four years.[4]
• 31 August–3 September - Cardiff Ely Bread Riots: A dispute between two shopkeepers escalates into four consecutive nights of rioting in the Ely district of Cardiff.[5]
• 16 October - Manchester United winger Ryan Giggs, who turns 18 at the end of the following month, becomes the youngest full international for the Welsh national team against Germany in Nuremberg.[6]
• 21 October - Welshman Eric Jones is one of a team of four who make the first hot-air balloon flight over Mount Everest.[7]
• 25 October - Official opening of Conwy Crossing (immersed tube tunnel) to road traffic as part of A55 Conwy Bypass.
• 8 November - Penallta Colliery closes.[8]
• date unknown - The Welsh Office proposes an M4 relief road between Magor and Castleton.[9]

Arts and literature

• August - Simultaneous translation facilities are made available for the first time at the National Eisteddfod of Wales.
• 1 September - Cantorion Colin Jones is founded in Wrexham.
• The first Pacific Northwest Welsh Weekend is held at Seattle.
• Wyn Calvin becomes the first Welshman to be elected King Rat of the Order of Water Rats.

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Mold, with record attendance of 164,100)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Robin Llwyd ab Owain, "Merch Ein Amserau" (The Girl of Our Times)[10]
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Einir Jones, "Pelydrau"[11]
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Angharad Tomos, Si Hei Lwli[12]
• Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen - withheld[13]

New books

English language

• A Cardiff Anthology[14]
• Phil Rickman - Candlenight[15]

Welsh language

• Robat Arwyn & Robin Llwyd ab Owain - Gwin Beaujolais[16]
• Pennar Davies - Gwas y Gwaredwr[17]
• Glyn Tegai Hughes - Daniel Owen a Natur y Nofel[18]
• Saunders Lewis - Williams Pantycelyn (new ed.)[19]
• Prys Morgan - Brad y Llyfrau Gleision[20]

Music

• Datblygu - Blwch Tymer Tymor[21]
• Y Cyrff - Llawenydd Heb Ddiwedd (album)[22]
• Bonnie Tyler - Bitterblue (album)[23]

Film

Welsh-language films

• Elenya
• Un Nos Ola Leuad

Broadcasting

English-language television

• Joshua Jones (children's programme made by S4C)
• Catherine Zeta-Jones makes her first appearance in The Darling Buds of May.

Welsh-language television

• Gemau Heb Ffiniau

Sport

• Football
  • 5 June - Wales defeat Germany in the UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying tournament.
• Golf - Ian Woosnam wins the US Masters at Augusta, Georgia, becoming the first Welshman to win a major tournament.
• Rugby union - Neil Jenkins plays his first rugby match for Wales, at the age of 19.

Births

• 21 January - Craig Roberts, actor
• 28 January - Ffion Bowen, rugby union winger
• 3 February - Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, racing driver
• 4 February - Fred Evans, boxer
• 28 March - David Cornell, footballer
• 12 April - Ashley Jazz Richards, footballer[24]
• 24 May - Aled Davies, paralympian field athlete (throwing events)
• 5 July - Michael White, snooker player
• 10 August - Amy Dowden, dancer[25]
• 23 August - Laura O'Sullivan, footballer (goalkeeper)
• 3 October - Jenny McLoughlin, athlete
• 20 October - Nathaniel Jarvis, footballer
• 29 November - Becky James, track racing cyclist

Deaths

• 14 January - Donald Coleman, politician, 65[26]
• 30 January - Rhys Lloyd, Baron Lloyd of Kilgerran, politician, 83
• 10 February - Rowe Harding, rugby player, 89
• 19 February - Tom Rees, Wales international rugby player, 77
• 18 March - Robert Roland Hughes, neurologist, 79/80[27]
• 24 March - Maudie Edwards, actress and singer, 84[28]
• 29 March - John Stradling Thomas, politician, 65[29]
• 15 May - Ronald Lacey, English actor of Welsh descent, 55[30]
• July - Evan Roberts, conservationist
• 12 August - Edward George Bowen, CBE, physicist, 80[31]
• 23 August - Innes Lloyd, TV producer, 66
• 26 August - John Petts, artist, 77[32]
• 31 August - Idwal Rees, Wales rugby union captain, 81
• October - Seymour Morris, footballer, 78
• 13 October - Donald Houston, actor, 67[33]
• 5 November - Gwenlyn Parry, dramatist, 59[34]
• 15 December - Ray Smith, actor, 55
• 22 December - Jim Lang, Wales rugby union player, 82

References

1. I. W. Duedall (1995). Second International Ocean Pollution Symposium, Beijing, China, 4-8 October, 1993. CRC Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-2-88449-050-4.
2. Kevin Toolis (10 February 2001). "Hain's world". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
3. "Gwenllian" (pdf). Cadw. Retrieved 2017-12-24.
4. "Dean Saunders". Soccerbase. Racing Post. Retrieved 2017-12-24.
5. Peter Cruchley-Jones (2001). Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land?: A Missiological Interpretation of the Ely Pastorate Churches, Cardiff. P. Lang. p. 75. ISBN 978-3-631-37196-1.
6. "Giggs ends international career". BBC. 2007-05-30. Retrieved 2017-12-24.
7. Medd Guinness (October 1992). Guin: Book of Records '93. Guinness World Records Limited. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-85112-978-5.
8. D. S. M. Barrie (1994). South Wales. David St. John Thomas, an imprint of Thomas & Lochar. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-946537-69-3.
9. "M4 Relief Road: Timeline". South Wales Argus. 2009-07-16. Retrieved 2017-12-24.
10. "Winners of the Chair". National Eisteddfod of Wales. 17 November 2019.
11. "Winners of the Crown". National Eisteddfod of Wales. 17 November 2019.
12. "Winners of the Prose Medal". National Eisteddfod of Wales. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
13. "Enillwyr Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen". BBC Cymru (in Welsh). Retrieved 24 November 2019.
14. Meic Stephens (23 September 1998). The new companion to the literature of Wales. University of Wales Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-7083-1383-1.
15. Phil Rickman (29 October 2011). Candlenight. Atlantic Books. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-85789-688-9.
16. Robat Arwyn; Robin Llwyd Ab Owain (15 August 2010). Gwin Beaujolais. Y Lolfa. ISBN 978-0-86243-249-2.
17. M. Wynn Thomas (1999). Corresponding Cultures: The Two Literatures of Wales. University of Wales Press. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-7083-1531-6.
18. Celtic Culture: A-Celti. ABC-CLIO. 2006. p. 1903. ISBN 978-1-85109-440-0.
19. Geraint Evans; Helen Fulton (18 April 2019). The Cambridge History of Welsh Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 332. ISBN 978-1-107-10676-5.
20. "The Blue Books of 1847". National Library of Wales. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
21. David R Edwards (15 August 2013). Atgofion Hen Wanc. Y Lolfa. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-84771-621-7.
22. Sarah Hill (5 July 2017). 'Blerwytirhwng?' The Place of Welsh Pop Music. Taylor & Francis. p. 201. ISBN 978-1-351-57345-0.
23. Colin Larkin (27 May 2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
24. "First Team". Swansea City A.F.C. Archived from the original on 5 May 2009. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
25. "Who is Amy Dowden? Strictly Come Dancing star's age, height, career and more facts". Smooth Radio. 27 October 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
26. John Graham Jones. "Coleman, Donald Richard (1925—1991), Labour politician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
27. The Medical Directory ...: London, Provinces, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Abroad, Navy, Army & Air Force. Churchill Livingstone. 1992. p. xi.
28. "Maudie Edwards". BFI. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
29. John Graham Jones. "Thomas, John Stradling (1925-1991), Conservative politician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
30. The Annual Obituary. St. Martin's. 1991. p. 295. ISBN 978-1-55862-175-6.
31. DK Milne (1 January 1994). Parkes: Thirty Years of Radio Astronomy. Csiro Publishing. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-643-10594-2.
32. Morfudd Nia Jones. "Petts, Ronald John (1914-1991), artist". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
33. Deborah Andrews (1992). Annual Obituary, 1991. St. James Press. p. 631. ISBN 978-1-55862-175-6.
34. Roger Owen (15 September 2013). Gwenlyn Parry. University of Wales Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-78316-577-3.

See also

• 1991 in Northern Ireland