1881 in Wales

Centuries:	17th; 18th; 19th; 20th; 21st;
Decades:	1860s; 1870s; 1880s; 1890s; 1900s;
See also:	List of years in Wales; Timeline of Welsh history 1881 in The United Kingdom Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1881 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

January – At least five people freeze to death during blizzards and extreme low temperatures throughout Wales.
4 March – Physician William Price marries 22-year-old Gwenllian Llywelyn in a Druidic ceremony at Pontypridd on his 81st birthday.
August – The Sunday Closing (Wales) Act prohibits the sale of alcohol on a Sunday. This is the first Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom since the 1542 Act of Union whose application is restricted to Wales.^[1]
13 October – 19 people drown when the Cyprian is wrecked off the Lleyn peninsula.
date unknown
- Welsh Regiment formed as part of the Childers Reforms of the British Army, incorporating the 41st (Welsh) Regiment of Foot.^[2]
- River Vyrnwy is dammed to create Lake Vyrnwy.

The Cambrian Academy of Art is formed by English and Welsh artists in North Wales.

Rugby union
- 19 February – First Wales national game, played at Blackheath against England. Wales lose heavily.
- 12 March – The Welsh Rugby Union is formed as the Welsh Football Union in a meeting in Neath.

1 January – George Latham, footballer (died 1939)
3 January – Lewis Pugh Evans, VC recipient (died 1962)^[4]
14 February – William John Gruffydd, academic and politician (died 1954)
9 April – John Hart Evans, Wales international rugby player (died 1959)
15 April – David Thomas ("Afan"), composer (died 1928)
16 April – Ifor Williams, academic (died 1965)
5 May – Rupert Price Hallowes, VC recipient (died 1915)
16 June – David Grenfell, politician (died 1968)
20 June – John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute, landowner (died 1947)^[5]
August – John Lewis, footballer (died 1954)
30 September – Philip Lewis Griffiths, lawyer (died 1945)
1 October – Cliff Pritchard, Wales international rugby player (died 1954)
28 October – Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, explorer (died 1957)
10 December – David Phillips Jones, Wales international rugby player (died 1936)
December – George Hall, politician (died 1965)
date unknown
- Robert Williams, trade union leader (died 1936)

^ Prior, Neil (4 August 2011). "130 years since Sunday drinking was banned in Wales". BBC News Wales. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
^ Richard A Rinaldi (15 July 2008). Order of Battle of the British Army 1914. Ravi Rikhye. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-9776072-8-0.
^ "Winners of the Chair". National Eisteddfod of Wales. 3 October 2019.
^ David Harvey (1999). Monuments to Courage: 1917–1982. K. and K. Patience. p. 61.
^ Bernard Burke; Ashworth Peter Burke (1910). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage. Harrison. p. 322.
^ Pharmaceutical Journal. J. Churchill. 1881. p. 1038.
^ Walter Thomas Morgan. "James, Sir William Milbourne (1807–1881), Lord Justice". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
^ John Sutherland (1990) [1989]. "Borrow, George". The Stanford Companion to Victorian Literature. p. 77.
^ "Owen, Hugh (1804-1881)" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.