1976 in Wales

← 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1976 in Wales → 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history 1976 in The United Kingdom Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1976 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Secretary of State for Wales – John Morris ^[1]
• Archbishop of Wales – Gwilym Williams, Bishop of Bangor ^[2]
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Bryn ^[3]

Events

• 9 February - The Prince of Wales (now Charles III) becomes commander of HMS Bronington. ^[4]
• 17 February - Operation Julie is launched; it eventually results in the break-up of one of the largest LSD manufacturing operations in the world. ^[5]
• March - The Welsh Regional Office of the European Community opens in Cardiff. ^[6]
• June–September - 1976 United Kingdom heat wave: A very hot summer brings a major drought with water shortages.
• July - Miners’ leader Dai Francis challenges the Prince of Wales (now Charles III), in the election for Chancellor of the University of Wales.
• 25 July - Former Submarine Commander Neil Rutherford, DSC & Bar, murders four people at the Red Gables Hotel in Penmaenmawr. ^{[7] [8]}
• 4 October - The InterCity 125 high speed train runs for the first time between Swansea railway station and London Paddington.
• 7 December - Swansea-born former fashion model Lilian Davies marries Prince Bertil of Sweden ^[9] at Drottningholm Palace after a 30-year relationship.
• date unknown - David Emanuel marries Elizabeth Weiner. ^[10]

Arts and literature

• May 27 - Actor Stanley Baker is given a knighthood in the Prime Minister's Resignation Honours, a few months before his death. ^[11]
• August - Dic Jones loses the National Eisteddfod chair on a technicality.
• October - Mistar Urdd is created by Wynne Melville Jones. ^[12]
• unknown date - Griff Rhys Jones becomes Vice-President of the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club. ^[13]

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Cardigan)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Alan Llwyd
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Alan Llwyd
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Marged Prichard

New books

English language

• Ruth Bidgood - Not Without Homage
• Glyn Davies - Overseas Investment In Wales
• Kenneth O. Morgan - Keir Hardie
• Bernice Rubens - I Sent a Letter to My Love

Welsh language

• John Emyr - Enaid Clwyfus ^[14]
• Alun Llywelyn-Williams - Gwanwyn yn y Ddinas
• Owain Owain - Y Dydd Olaf

Poetry

• J. M. Edwards - Cerddi Ddoe a Heddiw - Egin
• Donald Evans
• Geraint Jarman - Cerddi Alfred Street
• Gwilym R. Jones - Y Syrcas a Cherddi Eraill

New drama

• John Gwilym Jones - Gobaith Mawr y Ganrif

Music

• Edward H. Dafis - 'Sneb yn Becso Dam
• Alun Hoddinott - Murder the Magician (opera)
• Dafydd Iwan - Mae'r Darnau yn Disgyn i'w Lle (album)
• Geraint Jarman - Gobaith Mawr y Ganrif (album)
• Daniel Jones - Dance Fantasy
• Man - The Welsh Connection
• Bonnie Tyler - "Lost in France" (debut single)

Film

Welsh-language films

• Y Dieithryn, produced by Emlyn Williams

Broadcasting

• Sir Huw Wheldon is knighted for his services to broadcasting.

Welsh-language television

• Seren Wib, presented by Emyr Glasnant and Sharon Morgan ^[15]

Welsh language radio

• Tros Fy Sbectol

English-language television

• How Green Was My Father: a Welsh Odyssey for 1976, with Ryan Davies and Max Boyce ^[16]

Sport

• Football – The Wales national football team plays in the quarter-finals of UEFA Euro 1976.
• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Mervyn Davies and the Wales national rugby union team. ^[17]
• Rugby union – Wales win their seventh Grand Slam.
• Snooker
  • 30 January – Ray Reardon wins the Masters. ^[18]
  • 23 April – Ray Reardon wins his fifth World Championship title. ^[18]

Births

• 14 January - Scott Young, footballer
• 6 April - James Fox, singer
• 8 May - Ian Watkins, pop singer
• 13 May - Mark Delaney, footballer
• 16 June - Cian Ciaran, musician
• 25 June - Iestyn Harris, rugby player ^[19]
• 14 July - Geraint Jones, cricketer
• 9 August - Aled Haydn-Jones, radio producer
• 1 November - Buffy Williams, politician
• 7 November - Andrew Davies, cricketer
• 20 December – Adam Powell, inventor
• date unknown - Steffan Cravos, musician and language activist

Deaths

• 3 January – Mal Evans, Beatles' former roadie and patron of Badfinger, 40 (shot) ^[20]
• 23 January – Sir Tudor Thomas, ophthalmic surgeon, 82 ^[21]
• 26 January – Eric Francis, architect, 88 ^[22]
• 4 February – Roger Livesey, actor, 69 ^[23]
• 12 February – John Lewis, Marxist philosopher, 87 ^[24]
• 14 February - Tommy Scourfield, dual code rugby player, 66
• 29 March - Harold Davie, rugby player, 77 ^[25]
• 26 March - Duster Bennett, blues musician, 29 (car accident) ^[26]
• 30 March - Jackie Mittell, footballer, 70
• 31 March - Billy Moore, rugby player, 66
• 18 April – Haydn Davies, politician, 70 ^[27]
• 28 April – Richard Hughes, novelist, 76 ^[28]
• 6 June – David Jacobs, athlete, 88
• 20 June – Sir Goronwy Edwards, historian, 84 ^[29]
• 28 June – Sir Stanley Baker, actor, 48 ^[30]
• 18 July – Jenkin Alban Davies, Wales international rugby captain, 90
• 22 July – Willie Evans, Welsh international footballer, 63
• 30 August - David Rees-Williams, 1st Baron Ogmore, politician, 72
• 10 October - David Lewis, 1st Baron Brecon, politician, 71
• 7 November - Glyn Davies, Wales international rugby union player, 49
• 22 November - Rupert Davies, actor, 60 (cancer) ^[31]
• 24 November - Ambrose Baker, rugby player, ?79
• date unknown
  • Eveline Annie Jenkins, botanical artist, 82/83
  • Meirion Williams, songwriter

See also

• 1976 in Northern Ireland

References

1. "Morris of Aberavon, Baron, (John Morris) (born Nov. 1931)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u28179. ISBN   978-0-19-954088-4 . Retrieved 2021-05-05.
2. David Wilbourne (8 June 2018). "Archbishop Gwilym Owen Williams — "G. O.": His life and opinions by D. T. W. Price". Church Times. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
3. Dillwyn Miles (1992). The Secret of the Bards of the Isle of Britain. Gwasg Dinefwr Press. p. 193. ISBN   978-0-9519926-0-9.
4. Paul Brown (15 March 2010). Historic Ships: The Survivors. Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 155. ISBN   978-1-4456-2006-0.
5. Andy Roberts (30 September 2008). Albion Dreaming: A popular history of LSD in Britain (Revised Edition with a new foreword by Dr. Sue Blackmore). Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. p. 218. ISBN   978-981-4328-97-5.
6. Charlotte Aull Davies (1989). Welsh Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: The Ethnic Option and the Modern State. Praeger. ISBN   978-0-275-93116-2.
7. North Wales Weekly News , 30 September 1976.
8. Nathan Bevan (22 June 2015). "Inside the hotel where five people died in one of Wales' worst ever mass murders". WalesOnline. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
9. The International Year Book and Statesmen's Who's who. Burke's Peerage Limited. 1992. ISBN   978-0-611-00817-6.
10. Richard Harrison Martin (1995). Contemporary Fashion. St. James Press. ISBN   978-1-55862-173-2.
11. Ellen Baker, 'My Husband, My Love', Woman's Own Magazine, December 1976 accessed 26 May 2012
12. Wynne Melville Jones (14 August 2014). Wyn Mel (in Welsh). Y Lolfa. p. 64. ISBN   978-1-78461-029-6.
13. M. J. Simpson (29 April 2005). Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams. Justin, Charles & Co. p. 75. ISBN   978-1-932112-35-1.
14. National Union Catalog. Rowman and Littlefield. 1973. p. 467.
15. Sharon Morgan (2012). Hanes Rhyw Gymraes (in Welsh). Y Lolfa.
16. "How Green was my Father". BBC. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
17. "BBC Wales Sport Personality winners". BBC Sport. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
18. "Profile: Ray Reardon". Eurosport. 2 March 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
19. "Iestyn Harris: Rallying his motley crew under the banner of Welsh pride" . The Independent. 10 February 2011. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
20. Geoffery Giuliano (2 July 2001). Lennon in America: 1971-1980, Based in Part on the Lost Lennon Diaries. Cooper Square Press. p. 238. ISBN   978-1-4616-3561-1.
21. Davies, John; Jenkins, Nigel (2008). The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN   978-0-7083-1953-6.
22. Eric Carwardine Francis at archINFORM .Retrieved24 April 2012.
23. "Roger Livesey, Character Actor On Stage and Screen, Is Dead". New York Times. February 7, 1976. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
24. Rajani Palme Dutt (1976). The Labour Monthly. Labour Publishing Company. p. 118.
25. Peter Jackson (1998). Lions of Wales: A Celebration of Welsh Rugby Legends. Mainstream. p. 210. ISBN   978-1-84018-026-8.
26. Nick Talevski (1999). The Encyclopedia of Rock Obituaries. Omnibus. p. 24. ISBN   978-0-7119-7548-4.
27. Who was who. St. Martin's Press. 1971. p. 199. ISBN   978-0-312-87746-0.
28. Twentieth-century Children's Writers. Macmillan Education UK. 1978. p. 624. ISBN   9781349036486.
29. The Antiquaries Journal. H. Milford, Oxford University Press. 1978. p. 449.
30. Robert Shail (2008). Stanley Baker: A Life in Film. University of Wales Press. p. 127. ISBN   978-0-7083-2126-3.
31. Encyclopedia of World Biography: Supplement. Gale Research. 2001. p. 117. ISBN   978-0-7876-2945-8.