1869 in Wales

← 1868 1867 1866 1865 1864 1869 in Wales → 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s
See also:	List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history 1869 in The United Kingdom Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1869 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

• Prince of Wales — Albert Edward
• Princess of Wales — Alexandra

Events

• January
  • Henry Austin Bruce becomes MP for Renfrewshire.
  • Timothy Richards Lewis goes to India to study cholera.
• 1 May — The Western Mail is published for the first time.
• 19 May — Two days after John Young, the English manager of the Leeswood Green colliery, announces a pay cut, he is attacked by some of his workers.
• 2 June — Seven men are tried at Mold for attacking John Young. A riot breaks out as those convicted are being transported to the railway station; soldiers fire on the crowd, killing four people.
• 10 June — Three people are killed in a train derailment at Maesycwmmer in Glamorgan.
• 1 September — The Dyserth branch line is opened for goods traffic.
• 30 October — The first edition of the Welsh-language periodical, Y Goleuad, is published.
• Anti-Irish riots at Pontlottyn in the Rhymney Valley result in one death.
• Landore steelworks at Swansea established by Carl Wilhelm Siemens.
• John Hughes of Merthyr Tydfil buys land near the Sea of Azov, where he develops an ironworks and founds the city of Yuzovka (later Donetsk).
• Joseph Leycester Lyne (Father Ignatius of Jesus) acquires land at Capel-y-ffin and begins construction of an Anglican Benedictine community, Llanthony Abbey (Llanthony Tertia).
• Construction of the fort at St Catherine's Island, off Tenby.
• Prehistoric burial remains are discovered at Parc le Breos on the Gower Peninsula.
• John Owen of Tyn-llwyn is evicted from his farm for voting Tory.

Arts and literature

Awards

• The first official National Eisteddfod of Wales takes place at Holywell.

New books

• J. H. Clark — History of Monmouthshire
• John Hugh Evans — Pryddest Goffa i Thomas Aubrey
• Jane Hughes — Galargan am y diweddar Barch. Henry Rees, Liverpool
• David Watkin Jones (Dafydd Morgannwg) — Yr Ysgol Farddol
• Nathaniel Jones (Cynhafal) — Elias y Thesbiad
• John Petherick — Travels in Central Africa and Explorations of the Western Nile Tributaries
• William Rowlands — Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry (Bibliography of the Welsh) (posthumous; ed. Daniel Silvan Evans)
• Jane Williams (Ysgafell) — A History of Wales derived from Authentic Sources
• Robert Williams (Trebor Mai) — Y Geninen

Music

• Owen Jones — Hymnau Hen a Diweddar (collection of hymns)

Sport

• Football — Ruabon footballers set up a club at Plas Madoc.
• Mountaineering — Emmeline Lewis Lloyd attempts an ascent of the Matterhorn.

Births

• 11 January – Ralph Sweet-Escott, English born, Wales rugby international (died 1907)
• 9 April – John Hugh Edwards, politician (died 1945)
• 19 May – John Henry Williams, Welsh politician (died 1936)
• 20 May – Robert Griffith Berry, minister and writer (died 1945)
• 30 May – Thomas Rees, theologian (died 1926)
• 12 August – Fred Parfitt, Wales international rugby player (died 1953)
• 6 September – Walford Davies, composer (died 1944)
• 24 September – Maud Cunnington, archaeologist (died 1951)
• 29 October – Bill Morris, Wales international rugby player (died 1946)
• 9 November – Osbert Fynes-Clinton, dialectologist (died 1941)
• 12 November – Arthur Leonard Leach, geologist and archaeologist (died 1957)
• 15 November – Percy Bennett, Wales international rugby player (died 1936)
• 20 November – Herbert Tudor Buckland, architect working in Birmingham (died 1951)
• 26 November – Princess Maud of Wales, queen consort of Norway (died 1938)

Deaths

• 18 February – Henry Rees, Calvinistic Methodist minister, 71
• 23 March – William Williams (Caledfryn), poet, 68
• 31 March – David Rees (Y Cynhyrfwr), Nonconformist leader and author, 67
• 16 April – James Davies (Iago ap Dewi), poet, 68
• 12 May – Thomas Walter Price (Cuhelyn), journalist and poet, 39
• 1 July – David Jones, banker and politician, 58
• 14 July – Lloyd Kenyon, 3rd Baron Kenyon, 64
• October – John Jones (Talhaiarn), poet, 59
• 15 December – David Williams, politician, 70
• 17 December – Sarah Jacob, "the fasting girl", 12