1943 in Wales

← 1942 1941 1940 1939 1938 1943 in Wales → 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s
See also:	List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history 1943 in The United Kingdom Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1943 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

For United Kingdom incumbents, see 1943 in the United Kingdom § Incumbents.

• Archbishop of Wales – Charles Green, Bishop of Bangor ^[1]
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Crwys ^[2]

Events

• 19 January - Three-year-old twins Neil and Jacqueline Coleby die of exposure on the slopes of Caerneddau; despite an extensive search their bodies are not found until 24 January. ^[3]
• 29 January - In the by-election for the University of Wales parliamentary seat vacated by Ernest Evans, there are three notable candidates. W. J. Gruffydd, a former vice-president of Plaid Cymru who has subsequently joined the Liberal Party, triumphs over Plaid's Saunders Lewis. One of the other candidates is Alun Talfan Davies.
• March - Rocky Marciano is among US servicemen posted to South Wales. ^[4]
• August - Tenovus Cancer Care is founded in Cardiff as Tenovus, initially funding a wide range of projects in the local area; it becomes the leading cancer charity in Wales. ^[5]
• 23 October - David Lloyd George marries his long-term mistress and secretary, Frances Stevenson, at Guildford register office. ^[6]
• Sir Percy Thomas is elected President of the Royal Institute of British Architects for the second time - the second person ever to achieve this. ^[7]

Arts and literature

• August - Soprano Ceinwen Rowlands gives the first performance of a Welsh translation of Felix Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang at the National Eisteddfod of Wales in Bangor.
• The Welsh National Opera company is founded in Cardiff as an amateur company. ^[8]
• Dame Laura Knight paints Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Newport. ^[9]

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Caernarfon)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - David Emrys James
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Dafydd Owen
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - withheld

New books

English language

• Idris Davies - The Angry Summer: A Poem of 1926
• Margiad Evans - Autobiography
• William Evans (Wil Ifan) - A Quire of Rhymes ^[10]
• R. T. Jenkins - Orinda
• Eiluned Lewis - The Captain's Wife

Welsh language

• Rhys Davies - Pobl a Phethau
• Sir Emrys Evans - Ewthaffron: Criton (translation from Plato)
• Alwyn D. Rees - Adfeilion ^[11]

Music

• Harry Parr-Davies - The Lisbon Story (musical, opened in the West End 17 June 1943) ^[12]
• Arwel Hughes - Anatiomaros ^[13]
• W. S. Gwynn Williams - Tosturi Duw (God's Mercy)

Film

• Ray Milland stars in Forever and a Day and The Crystal Ball.
• Drama documentary The Silent Village , filmed in 1942 at Cwmgiedd near Ystradgynlais by Humphrey Jennings, is released. ^[14]

Broadcasting

• 4 September – Wynford Vaughan-Thomas reports from a bomber over Berlin for BBC Radio. ^[15]

Births

April:Dafydd Wigley

December:Joan Ruddock

• 13 January – Lorna Sage, academic, literary critic and writer (died 2001) ^[16]
• 1 February – Rosemarie Frankland, beauty queen (died 2000) ^[17]
• 9 February – Ryland Davies, operatic tenor (died 2023) ^[18]
• 11 February – Win Griffiths MP, politician ^[19]
• 28 February – John Davies, bishop of St Asaph
• 3 March (in London) – Aeronwy Thomas, literary figure (died 2009) ^[20]
• 1 April (in Derby) – Dafydd Wigley MP, politician
• 9 April – Clive Sullivan, rugby league footballer (died 1985)
• 16 April (in Norwich) – Ruth Madoc (née Llewellyn), actress and singer (died 2022) ^[21]
• 17 April – Elinor Bennett, harpist ^[22]
• 26 April – Leon Pownall, actor and director (died 2006)
• 27 April
  • David Hughes, footballer
  • Gwyn Prosser MP, politician
• 6 June – Sir Terry Matthews, entrepreneur ^[23]
• 5 July – Roy Evans, footballer (died 1969)
• 7 July – Robert East, actor
• 19 July – Beth Morris, actress (died 2018)
• 2 August – Alun Michael MP, politician
• 17 August – John Humphrys, radio and TV journalist
• 24 August – Dafydd Iwan, musician and politician ^[24]
• 10 September – Shân Legge-Bourke, born Elizabeth Shân Bailey, landowner
• 27 September – Max Boyce, entertainer
• 18 October (in London) – Dai Jones, Welsh-language broadcaster (died 2022)
• 15 November – Derec Llwyd Morgan, academic
• 16 November – Val Lloyd AM, politician ^[25]
• 22 December – Gareth Morgan, organizational theorist
• 28 December – Joan Ruddock MP, politician and campaigner ^[26]
• 30 December – Geraint Talfan Davies, journalist and executive
• date unknown
  • John Beard, painter ^[27]
  • Christine Evans, poet ^[28]
  • Gareth Griffiths, academic

Deaths

• 9 January – William Llewellyn Thomas, Wales international rugby player, 70
• 12 January – Selwyn Biggs, Wales international rugby player and Glamorgan cricketer, 70
• 24 January – Glyndwr Michael, homeless man whose body was used in Operation Mincemeat, 34 (pneumonia) ^[29]
• 31 January – Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones, physician, 85 ^[30]
• 7 February (in London) – Clara Novello Davies, singer, 71 ^[31]
• 6 March (in Trevelin) – John Daniel Evans, pioneer in Patagonia, 81 ^[32]
• 23 March – Commander John Wallace Linton, VC, 37 (killed in action) ^[33]
• 28 March – Ben Davies, operatic tenor, 85 ^[34]
• 12 April – Arthur Lloyd James, phonetician, 58 (suicide) ^[35]
• 17 April – Alice Gray Jones (Ceridwen Peris), author, 90 ^[36]
• 8 September – Dai Lewis, Wales international rugby player, 76
• 15 September – David Samuel, Wales international rugby player
• 24 September – Billy Douglas, Wales international rugby player, 80
• 15 October – Sir Thomas Artemus Jones, judge and Welsh language campaigner, 72 ^[37]
• 29 October – Frank Hancock, Wales international rugby union international, 84
• 17 November – Bertrand Turnbull, Olympic hockey player, 56 ^[38]
• 10 December – Ivor Morgan, Wales international rugby union player, 59
• 27 December – Arthur O'Bree, Glamorgan cricketer, 57 (killed in action) ^[39]

See also

• 1943 in Northern Ireland

References

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2. "Williams, William". Welsh Biography Online. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
3. Herd, George (2018-05-25). "Missing Coleby twins remembered 75 years after deaths". BBC News . Retrieved 2018-05-27.
4. Robin Turner (1 May 2008). "Boxer proves Welsh archive's biggest hit". WalesOnline. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
5. "About us". Cardiff: Tenovus. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
6. Dermot J. T. Englefield; Janet Seaton; Isobel White (1995). Facts about the British prime ministers: a compilation of biographical and historical information . H.W. Wilson Co. p.  238. ISBN   978-0-8242-0863-9.
7. Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (London, England) (1946). The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. The Society. p. 4.
8. Michael Kennedy; Joyce Bourne (2004). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford University Press. p. 789. ISBN   9780198608844.
9. "A Gun Girl – Ruby Loftus – Dame Laura Knight's Newport commission". Wartime Newport: The Home Front. Archived from the original on 2016-03-18. Retrieved 2015-01-28.
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11. John Cowper Powys; Iorwerth Cyfeiliog Peate (1974). Letters 1937-54. University of Wales Press. p. 57.
12. Catalog of Copyright Entries: Musical compositions. Library of Congress, Copyright Office. 1943. p. 1513.
13. "Arwel Hughes - Anatiomaros". ArkivMusic. Archived from the original on 12 January 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
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15. ""Raid on Berlin": Actuality recording of a Royal Air Force (RAF) bombing raid over Berlin, Germany on 4 September 1943". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
16. Jon Cook (13 January 2001). "Lorna Sage". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
17. Harris M. Lentz (2000). Obituaries in the Performing Arts. McFarland & Company. p. 83.
18. Barry Millington (7 November 2023). "Ryland Davies obituary". Guardian. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
19. "Win Griffiths". 21 October 2002.
20. Andrew Lycett (9 August 2009). "Aeronwy Thomas Ellis". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
21. "Ruth Madoc, actress who found fame as the lovelorn Yellowcoat Gladys in the hit sitcom Hi-de-Hi! – obituary". The Telegraph. 10 December 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
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27. "John Beard born 1943". Tate. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
28. Lloyd, David (1994). The urgency of identity : contemporary English-language poetry from Wales. Evanston, Ill: TriQuarterly Books. p. 239. ISBN   9780810150324.
29. "CWGC Casualty Details". Commonwealth War Graves Commission . 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2011.
30. The Eugenics Review. Eugenics Education Society. 1941. p. 129.
31. The Encyclopedia Americana: The International Reference Work. Americana Corporation of Canada. 1962. p. 546.
32. Richard Bryn Williams. "Evans, John Daniel (1862-1943), a pioneer in Patagonia". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
33. "Commander John Wallace Linton". CWGC. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
34. Robert David Griffith. "Davies, Benjamin ('Ben'; 1858-1943), singer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
35. "Professor A. Lloyd James: An Authority on Phonetics". Obituaries. The Times. No. 49510. London. 2 April 1943. col E, p. 7.
36. Davies, Margaret Beatrice. "Ceridwen Peris". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
37. Frank Price Jones. "Jones, Sir Thomas Artemus (1871-1943), journalist, judge and historian". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
38. "Olympics at Sports-Reference.com > Athletes > Bertrand Turnbull". Archived from the original on 2020-04-18.
39. "Flying Officer Arthur O'Bree". CWGC. Retrieved 2 March 2024.