1941 in Wales

none thumb | right | alt=Allied Forces in Wales during WWII, dated 1941 | Allied Forces in Wales during WWII, dated 1941 1941 This article is about the particular significance of the year 1941 to Wales and its people. Incumbents Archbishop of Wales – Charles Green, Bishop of BangorC. J. Litzenberger Eileen Groth Lyon The Human Tradition in Modern Britain https://books.google.com/books?id=S8YbICxXWDQC&pg=PA92 2006 Rowman & Littlefield 978-0-7425-3735-4 92 Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Crwys Events January – RAF Llandwrog opens near Caernarfon as a Bomber Command training airfield.Action Stations: Military airfields of Wales and the North-West Michael J. F. Bowyer Stephens 1990 116 2 January – Cardiff Blitz: 165 people are killed in Luftwaffe air raids on Cardiff, and Llandaff Cathedral is seriously damaged.Nick Lambert Llandaff Cathedral https://books.google.com/books?id=7_xIAQAAIAAJ 2010 Seren 978-1-85411-499-0 17 January – Swansea Blitz: 58 people are killed in an air raid on Swansea, the town's worst individual raid. Griffiths Ralph The City of Swansea : challenges and change A. Sutton Wolfeboro Falls, NH 1991 9780862996765 131 20 January – Welsh press magnate William Ewart Berry is created Viscount Camrose. 13 February – RAF Valley opens on Anglesey as a Fighter Command station. 14 February – Six people are killed in an air raid on Port Talbot. Callan Michael Anthony Hopkins : in darkness and light Sidgwick & Jackson London 1993 9780283061561 21 17 February – Noted Baptist minister Samuel James Leeke finds his Swansea home destroyed by an air raid.s2-LEEK-JAM-1888 Leeke, Samuel James 19-21 February – Swansea Blitz: 240 people are killed in air raids on Swansea. Much of the city centre is destroyed.Kenneth O. Morgan Kenneth O. Morgan Rebirth of a Nation: Wales, 1880-1980 https://archive.org/details/rebirthofnationw0000morg registration 1981 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-821736-7 296 Alban J. R. The three nights' blitz : select contemporary reports relating to Swansea's air raids of February 1941 City of Swansea Swansea 1994 9780946001255 10–13 26 February – Four people are killed in an air raid on Cardiff. Buildings damaged include Cardiff University and a children's home.Mildred de M. Rudolf Everybody's children: the story of the Church of England Children's Society, 1921-48 https://books.google.com/books?id=EmZKAAAAMAAJ 1950 Oxford University Press February – Six cattle are killed in an air raid on Cwmbran. 3 March – 51 people are killed in air raids at Cardiff and Penarth. 11 March – Three people are killed in air raids on Swansea. 21 March – The coaster Millisle is sunk by German planes off Caldey Island, killing ten crew.http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4103-30MAR02.htm Naval Events, March 1941, Part 2 of 2, Saturday 15th – Monday 31st Naval History 7 December 2011 27 March – The CS Faraday 1923 2, a cable-laying ship, is sunk by German planes off St. Ann's Head in Pembrokeshire, killing 16 crew. 31 March – Three people are killed in air raids on Swansea. March – Co-developer Edward George Bowen is on board the first American experimental airborne 10 cm radar. 12 April – Three people are killed in air raids on Swansea. 15 April – 12 people are killed in an air raid on RAF Carew Cheriton.James Edgar Johnson John Foreman Air War, 1941: From the Blitz to the non-stop Offensive Air Research Publications 1994 72 29 April – 26 people are killed in air raids aimed at coal mines in the Rhondda, and a further seven in Cardiff. May – The Ministry of Information issues more than 14 million copies across the United Kingdom of a leaflet Beating the Invader, with a preface from Churchill, giving advice on what to do "if invasion comes"; there are also 160,400 copies of a Welsh version headed Trechu'r Goressgynnydd.Ronald I. Cohen Preparing for an Invasion of Britain... In Writing https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-181/invasion-of-britain-beating-the-invader/ Finest Hour 181 Summer 2018 International Churchill Society 38 2020-06-29 2020-07-02 https://web.archive.org/web/20200702142622/https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-181/invasion-of-britain-beating-the-invader/ dead 8 May – Three German Heinkel He 111s are shot down. Nine German crew members are killed, and the remaining three taken prisoner. 11 May – Three people are killed in an air raid on RAF Saint Athan. 12 May – 32 people are killed in an air raid on Pembroke Dock. 26–27 May – "Operation David": Western Command stages an exercise involving 20,000 troops simulating an invasion landing between Porthcawl and Kidwelly and a "Battle of Pontardulais".D. Slater The Teme aqueduct Journal of the Railway & Canal Historical Society 39 2019 493 30 May – Major air raid on Newport. 1 June – A German Junkers Ju 88 is shot down near Llandudno, killing four crew. 11 June – The Baron Carnegie, a cargo ship, is sunk by German planes off Strumble Head, killing 25 crew.http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4106-33JUN01.htm Naval Events, June 1941, Part 1 of 2, Sunday 1st – Saturday 14th Naval History 13 December 2011 13 June – The ferry St Patrick is sunk by German planes off Strumble Head, killing thirty.Channel Steamer Sunk By Bombs 17 June 1941 4 48954 E Railway Steamers Help In The War 7 July 1944 8 49902 G 1 July – 37 people are killed in an air raid on Newport. 5 July – Alun Lewis marries Gwenno Ellis in Gloucester.Kenneth A. Lohf Poets in a war: British writers on the battlefronts and the home front of the Second World War https://books.google.com/books?id=b4TyAAAAMAAJ 1995-12-06 Grolier Club 11 July – In a mining accident at Rhigos Colliery in Glamorgan, 16 miners are killed.Industrial Safety Survey https://books.google.com/books?id=BV_XAAAAMAAJ 1940 The Office 28 July – An RAF Wellington bomber crashes into Garn Fadryn on the Lleyn peninsula, killing six crew. 7 August – An RAF Wellington bomber crashes into Rhosfach in the Berwyn range, killing six crew. 12 August – The first evacuated paintings from the National Gallery in London are moved to underground storage at a slate quarry beneath Manod Mawr in North Wales.Suzanne Bosman The National Gallery in Wartime London National Gallery Company 2008 978-1-85709-424-4 28 August – An RAF Blackburn Botha with a crew of three crashes into the sea off Rhosneigr, Anglesey. A further eleven people die in the rescue attempt. September – Sir Archibald Rowlands joins the Beaverbrook and Harriman mission to Moscow. 10 October – Two planes collide at RAF Llandwrog, killing seventeen.Reference Wales https://books.google.com/books?id=-j0ro22GZU8C 1994 University of Wales Press 978-0-7083-1234-6Air Pictorial https://books.google.com/books?id=rWMpAQAAIAAJ January 2001 Air League of the British Empire 12 October – A German Heinkel He 111 is shot down near Holyhead, killing four crew. May John Reference Wales University of Wales Press Cardiff 1994 9780708312346 252 22 October – A German Heinkel 111 is shot down near Nefyn, killing four crew. October – Alun Lewis receives his army commission. 25 November – Five miners are killed in a mining accident at Abergorki Colliery, Rhondda. 6 December – Ruperra Castle is seriously damaged by fire while soldiers are billeted there.Brian E. Davies Wales A Walk Through Time - Flat Holm to Brecon https://books.google.com/books?id=j1OIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT66 15 May 2011 Amberley Publishing Limited 978-1-4456-2617-8 66 unknown dates M. S. Factory, Valley, in Flintshire becomes operational for the manufacture of chemical weapons.https://news.bbc.co.uk/local/northeastwales/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8077000/8077550.stm Rhydymwyn Valley Works: Lifting the lid on secret site 30 March 2010 BBC 23 January 2019 Closure of the tinplate works at Kidwelly. Sir Guildhaume Myrddin-Evans becomes Head of the Production Executive Secretariat at the War Cabinet Offices. Artist Frank Brangwyn and administrator Elias Wynne Cemlyn-Jones are knighted. Brangwyn declines to travel to Buckingham Palace for the ceremony.Sir Frank Brangwyn Leeds (England). City Art Gallery Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Frank Brangwyn 1867-1956 https://books.google.com/books?id=D2oyAQAAIAAJ 2006 Leeds Museum and Galleries 978-0-901981-71-4 Zoo in Victoria Park, Cardiff, closes.Cardiff Time Line http://www.cardiffians.co.uk/timeline.shtml Cardiffians 2015-05-24 Arts and literature August – Evacuated paintings from the National Gallery in London are moved to underground storage at a slate quarry beneath Manod Mawr in north Wales.Suzanne Bosman The National Gallery in Wartime London National Gallery Company 2008 978-1-85709-424-4 18 August – 19-year-old Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., a poet of American paternity serving in Britain with the Royal Canadian Air Force, flies a high-altitude test flight in a Spitfire V from RAF Llandow and afterwards writes the sonnet "High Flight" about the experience (completed by September 3).John Magee The Complete Works of John Magee, the Pilot Poet : Including a Short Biography https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwQeAQAAIAAJ 1 January 1989 This England Books 978-0-906324-10-3 Lyn Harding makes his last stage appearance, in the West End, in Chu Chin Chow, at the age of 74.Billboard The Final Curtain https://books.google.com/books?id=HQsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA42 10 January 1953 Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 42 Awards National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Old Colwyn) National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – Rowland Jones, "Hydref"https://eisteddfod.wales/archive/eisteddfod-winners/winners-chair Winners of the Chair National Eisteddfod of Wales 6 November 2022 13 February 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210213204407/https://eisteddfod.wales/archive/eisteddfod-winners/winners-chair dead National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – J. M. Edwards, "Peiriannau"https://eisteddfod.wales/archive/eisteddfod-winners/crown-winners Winners of the Chair National Eisteddfod of Wales 6 November 2022 7 November 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20191107194429/https://eisteddfod.wales/archive/eisteddfod-winners/crown-winners dead National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal – withheld New books English language Griffith Wynne Griffith – The Wonderful Life John Cowper Powys - Owen Glendower (first published in the USA)Issued 24 January 1941 in the USA and 6 February 1942 in the UK (not published in 1940 and 1941 as shown in the texts). Dante Thomas, A Bibliography of the Principal Writings of John Cowper Powys, unpublished Ph.D thesis (State University of New York at Albany, 1971), p. 55. Vernon Watkins – Ballad of the Mari Lwyd Welsh language Ambrose Bebb – Y Baradwys Bell Käte Bosse-Griffiths – Anesmwyth Hoen Edward Tegla Davies – Gyda'r Glannau Rhys Davies – Y Cristion a Rhyfel Ernest Llwyd Williams – Hen Ddwylo Nantlais Williams – Darlun a Chân William Williams (Crwys) – Mynd a Dod Music Mansel Thomas – The White Rose Grace Williams – Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes (first performance (broadcast) 29 October) David Wynne – Songs of Solitude Film 28 October – Release of How Green Was My Valley (book by Richard Llewellyn). Filmed in California with mainly American and Irish stars, there is only one genuinely Welsh actor, Rhys Williams, who appears in the minor role of Dai Bando. The film wins the year's Academy Award for Best Picture (awarded 26 February 1942). Broadcasting Stars of BBC radio's ITMA programme are moved to Bangor to record the show, because of the Blitz in London.https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/how-radio-comedy-stars-secretly-7953414 How radio comedy stars secretly broadcast from Wales during the Blitz 23 October 2014 Karen Price WalesOnline 23 January 2019 Sport Football 7 June – Wales lose 2–3 to England. 25 October – Wales lose 1–2 to England. Births 1 January – Martin Evans, geneticist and academic (in Stroud, Gloucestershire) 5 February – Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn, politician (d. 2003) 26 February – Rhys Jones, archaeologist (d. 2001)https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-rhys-jones-9273682.html Professor Rhys Jones Independent 2 May 2026 27 February – Charlie Faulkner, rugby union footballer (d. 2023)https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/tony-charlie-faulkner-obituary-bxfqw0m99 Tony 'Charlie' Faulkner obituary The Times 2 May 2026 28 February – Tristan Garel-Jones, politician (d. 2020)https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/30/lord-garel-jones-obituary Lord Garel-Jones obituary 30 March 2020 Julia Langdon The Guardian 2 May 2026 6 March – Marilyn Strathern, anthropologist and academicBirthdays The Guardian 35 2014 31 March – David Trefgarne, 2nd Baron Trefgarne, politicianhttp://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/trefgarne1947.htm Trafgarne, Baron Cracrofts Peerage 23 January 2019 23 January 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223211/http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/online/content/trefgarne1947.htm live 11 April – Arthur Davies, operatic tenor (d. 2018) 13 April – Margaret Price, operatic soprano (d. 2011) 20 April – Grace Coddington, fashion model and editor 16 June – Bill Morris, rugby union footballer 7 July Alan Durban, footballer Michael Howard, politician 11 August – Nerys Hughes, actress 20 August – Anne Evans, operatic soprano 26 September – Patrick Hannan, political journalist (d. 2009) 26 October – Charlie Landsborough, singer and composer 10 December – Jeff Jones, cricketerIf The Cap Fits Bateman Colin 1993 Tony Williams Publications 1-869833-21-X 100 https://archive.org/details/ifcapfits0000unse/page/100 Approximate date – Ieuan Rees, calligrapher and stonecutter Deaths 2 January – Sir John Rowland, civil servant 11 January – Frederick Llewellyn-Jones, lawyer, 75 Stenton Michael Who's who of British members of Parliament : a biographical dictionary of the House of Commons based on annual volumes of Dod's Parliamentary companion and other sources Harvester Press Humanities Press Hassocks, Sussex, Eng. Atlantic Highlands, N.J 1976 9780855273255 210 20 January – Margaret Lloyd George, first wife of David Lloyd George, 74Staff Dame Margaret Lloyd George The Times London, UK 21 January 1941 4 22 January – David Williams, Swansea politician, 75 3 February – Sir Clifford John Cory, 1st Baronet, coal-owner, 81Michael Stenton Who's who of British Members of Parliament: 1919-1945 Harvester Press 976 77 10 March – Sir William Henry Seager, politician, 79 11 March Sir Henry Walford Davies, composer, 71Leopold George Wickham Legg Edgar Trevor Williams The Dictionary of National Biography, 1941-1950 https://books.google.com/books?id=0BMTAQAAIAAJ 1959 Oxford University Press Sybil Thomas, Viscountess Rhondda, 84Who was who A. & C. Black 1952 964 16 March – Sir David Hughes-Morgan, solicitor and landowner, 70? 20 March – Jack Powell, Wales rugby union international, 58 17 April – Sir William Henry Hoare Vincent, civil servant, 75s-VINC-ENT-1650 Vincent family Robert Thomas Jenkins 1959 18 December 2021 11 July – Arthur Evans, archaeologist of Welsh descent, 90Steven R. Fischer Glyph-Breaker Springer New York 1997 9780387982410 29 13 July – Lot Jones, footballer, 59 15 July – Jack Elwyn Evans, rugby footballer, 43 or 44 23 July – Joe Jones, footballer, 54 27 July – Thomas Alfred Williams, Dean of Bangor, 71 17 August – David Edward Lewis, businessman and philanthropist, 75David Edward Lewis 0-dict-biogL.html#lewis1 2010-09-05 11 September – Harry Grindell Matthews, inventor, 61Robert H. Ferrell Presidents, Diplomats, and Other Mortals: Essays Honoring Robert H. Ferrell https://books.google.com/books?id=DAuGAfXoSeUC&pg=PA214 2007 University of Missouri Press 978-0-8262-6571-5 214– 16 September – George Irby, 6th Baron Boston, scientist and archaeologist, 81s2-IRBY-FLO-1860 Irby, George Florance 6th Baron Boston (1860-1941), landowner and scientist Emyr Gwynne Jones 2001 6 November 2022 18 October – Geraint Goodwin, writer, 38Sam Adams Geraint Goodwin https://books.google.com/books?id=e_EfAQAAIAAJ 1975 University of Wales Press [for] the Welsh Arts Council 10 December – Admiral Tom Phillips, Welsh-descended naval officer, 53 (killed in Japanese attack on HMS Prince of Wales)https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2486034/PHILLIPS,%20Sir%20TOM%20SPENCER%20VAUGHAN Phillips, Sir Tom Spencer Vaughan CWGC 3 June 2020 22 December – Richard Summers, Wales rugby union international, 81 31 December – George Isaac Thomas (Arfryn), composer and conductor, 46s2-THOM-ISA-1895 Thomas, George Isaac ('Arfryn '; 1895-1941), musician and composer Evan David Jones 2001 6 November 2022 See also 1941 in Northern Ireland References Category:1941 in Europe Category:1940s in Wales