1982 in Wales

← 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1982 in Wales → 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
See also:	List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history 1982 in The United Kingdom England Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1982 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

For United Kingdom incumbents, see 1982 in the United Kingdom § Incumbents.

• Secretary of State for Wales – Nicholas Edwards ^[1]
• Archbishop of Wales – Gwilym Williams, Bishop of Bangor (retired) ^[2]
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Jâms Nicholas ^[3]

Events

• 2 January – The Welsh Army of Workers claims responsibility for a bomb explosion at the Birmingham headquarters of Severn Trent Water. ^[4]
• 23 February – Wales was declared a Nuclear Free Zone as Clwyd County Council became the last of eight Welsh local authorities to pass a resolution to that effect. ^[5]
• May – Swansea City complete their first season in the English Football League First Division with a sixth-place finish. ^[6]
• 2 June – 100,000 people gather in Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff, to welcome Pope John Paul II on the first-ever papal visit to Wales.
• 8 June – 32 men from the Welsh Guards are killed when the Sir Galahad burns during the Falklands War. ^[7] The most famous of the survivors is Simon Weston, who is severely burned.
• 16 June – Welsh miners go on strike to support health workers demanding a 12% pay rise. ^[8]
• 30 August – St David's Hall opens in Cardiff.
• 11 September – 14 skydivers from Wales die when a Chinook helicopter crashes at an airshow in Mannheim in Germany. ^[9]
• 16 September – At the Gower by-election brought about by the death of Ifor Davies, Gareth Wardell holds the seat for Labour.
• 17 October – First issue of Sulyn, the first Sunday newspaper in the Welsh language. ^[10]
• 26 November – A plaque is unveiled by the Prince of Wales at the monument erected in memory of those who died in the Gresford Disaster of 1934. ^[11]
• date unknown
  • The Inmos microprocessor factory in Newport, Wales, designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership, is completed.
  • Swansea is given the right to have a Lord Mayor. Councillor Paul Valerio becomes the first incumbent. ^[12]
  • First students begin courses at the Welsh language study centre at Nant Gwrtheyrn.

Arts and literature

• Roger Rees wins a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby .
• Alice Thomas Ellis is shortlisted for the Booker Prize for The 27th Kingdom .

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Swansea)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Gerallt Lloyd Owen
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Eirwyn George
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Gwilym M. Jones

New books

• Gwynfor Evans - Bywyd Cymro
• Alun Jones - Pan Ddaw'r Machlud
• R. Merfyn Jones - The North Wales Quarrymen 1874-1922
• Rhiannon Davies Jones - Eryr Pengwern
• Kenneth O. Morgan - Rebirth of a Nation: Wales 1880-1980
• Wynford Vaughan-Thomas - Princes of Wales

Music

• John Cale - Music For A New Society (album)
• Dafydd Iwan with Ar Log - Rhwng Hwyl a Thaith

Film

• Political Annie’s Off Again, film of a local industrial dispute made by Chapter Video Workshop.

Broadcasting

Welsh-language television

• Cefn Gwlad
• Joni Jones
• Noson Lawen appears for the first time.
• S4C starts broadcasting on 1 November

English-language television

• The Citadel (BBC), filmed in Tredegar.

Sport

• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Steve Barry ^[13]
• Boxing
  • 14 September – Kelvin Smart becomes British flyweight champion after beating fellow Welsh fighter Dave George.
• Darts – Ann-Marie Davies wins the Women's World Masters Championship.
• Snooker
  • 13 January – Terry Griffiths wins the Lada Classic.
  • 4 December – Terry Griffiths wins the UK Snooker Championship, ^[14] to complete his career Triple Crown (snooker).
  • Terry Parsons wins the World Amateur Championship.

Births

• 9 January – Catherine Middleton, future Princess of Wales (in England)
• 14 January – Joe Dunthorne, novelist and poet
• 1 February – Gavin Henson, rugby player
• 4 February – Kevin Gall, footballer
• 2 May – Timothy Benjamin, athlete
• 12 May – David Thaxton, actor and singer
• 21 June – Prince William, first child of the Prince and Princess of Wales (in London)
• 29 August – Mike Phillips, rugby player
• 2 September – Matthew Rees, footballer
• 29 November – Imogen Thomas, model
• 25 December – Rob Edwards, footballer

Deaths

• 5 January – Jeanetta Thomas, UK's oldest person and oldest Welsh-born woman of all time, 112 ^[15]
• 11 January – Ronald Lewis, actor, 53
• 5 February – Ronald Welch, historical novelist, 72 ^[16]
• 8 February – Cedric Morris, artist, 92
• 6 May – Jennie Eirian Davies, politician and magazine editor ^[17]
• 19 May – Elwyn Jones, television writer, 58
• 31 May – Eryl Davies, educationist, 59
• 6 June – Ifor Davies, politician, 71 ^[18]
• 10 July
  • Gwilym Jenkins (in Lancaster), statistician and systems engineer, 49
  • Gwilym Ellis Lane Owen, philosopher, 60
• 17 July – Bob John, footballer, 83
• 16 August – Sydney Hinam, Wales international rugby player, 83
• 18 October – Idwal Jones, politician, 82 ^[19]
• 19 October – Iorwerth Peate, social anthropologist and poet, founder of St Fagans National Museum of History, 81 ^[20]
• 4 November – Talfryn Thomas, character actor, 60
• 16 November – Ivor Jones, rugby union international, 80
• 19 November – Herbie Evans, footballer, 88
• 4 December – Ivor Williams, portrait painter, 74

See also

• 1982 in Northern Ireland

References

1. Stephen Bates (19 March 2018). "Lord Crickhowell obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
2. Gerald Parsons (20 June 2013). The Growth of Religious Diversity - Vol 2: Britain From 1945 Volume 2: Controversies. Routledge. p. 106. ISBN   978-1-136-13628-3.
3. Stephens, Meic (17 October 2013). "James Nicholas: Poet, teacher and Archdruid of Wales". The Independent . Retrieved 21 October 2013.
4. "Those were the days". Wolverhampton: Express & Star . Retrieved 4 April 2011.
5. "Exhibition to mark 40 years since the Nuclear Free Wales Declaration Visits Wrexham". Wrexham.com. 29 March 2022.
6. "Swansea City AFC History". Archived from the original on 2015-11-14. Retrieved 2013-02-27.
7. "Disaster for British at Bluff Cove". BBC News. 23 March 2012.
8. "1982: Welsh miners back health workers". On This Day. BBC News. 16 June 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2007.
9. Moore, Sarah. "Swansea skydivers remembered 30 years after Mannheim crash". BBC News. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
10. David Hutchison; Hugh O’Donnell (18 January 2011). Centres and Peripheries: Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan Journalism in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 48. ISBN   978-1-4438-2757-7.
11. Stanley Williamson (1999). Gresford: The Anatomy of a Disaster. Liverpool University Press. p. 212. ISBN   978-0-85323-892-8.
12. "Key convention members". North Wales Daily Post. 15 July 2008. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
13. "BBC Wales Sport Personality winners". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
14. "Profile: Terry Griffiths". Eurosport. 3 February 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
15. "Oldest woman dies aged 112". The Guardian . London. 7 January 1982. p. 1.
16. Pamela Dear (1 January 2000). Contemporary authors: New revision series. Gale / Cengage Learning. p. 47. ISBN   978-0-7876-3095-9.
17. Meic Stephens (April 1986). The Oxford companion to the literature of Wales . Oxford University Press. p.  27.
18. John Graham Jones (31 July 2008). "Davies, Ivor (1910-1982), Labour politician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 2 June 2022.
19. John Graham Jones (30 July 2008). "Jones, James Idwal (1900-1982), headteacher and Labour politician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography . National Library of Wales . Retrieved 2 June 2022.
20. Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru. University of Wales Press. 1982. p. 549.