1953 in Wales
Encyclopedia
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1953 to Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 and its people
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

.

Incumbents

  • Prince of Wales
    Prince of Wales
    Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

     - vacant (Charles, Prince of Wales
    Charles, Prince of Wales
    Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...

    , had not been officially designated with the title)
  • Princess of Wales
    Princess of Wales
    Princess of Wales is a British courtesy title held by the wife of The Prince of Wales since the first "English" Prince of Wales in 1283.Although there have been considerably more than ten male heirs to the throne, there have been only ten Princesses of Wales. The majority of Princes of Wales...

     - vacant
  • Archbishop of Wales
    Archbishop of Wales
    The post of Archbishop of Wales was created in 1920 when the Church in Wales was separated from the Church of England , and disestablished...

     - John Morgan
    John Morgan (bishop)
    John Morgan served as Bishop of Swansea and Brecon and subsequently as Bishop of Llandaff , in which post he was also enthroned on 21 September 1949 as Archbishop of Wales ....

  • Archdruid
    Archdruid
    The Archdruid is the title used by the presiding official of the Gorsedd.The Archdruid presides over the most important ceremonies at the National Eisteddfod of Wales including the Crowning of the Bard, The Award of the Prose Medal and Chairing of the Bard. From 1932 only former winners of the...

     of the National Eisteddfod of Wales
    National Eisteddfod of Wales
    The National Eisteddfod of Wales is the most important of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales.- Organisation :...

     - Cynan
    Albert Evans-Jones
    Sir Cynan Evans-Jones CBE , more commonly known within Wales by his bardic name of Cynan, was a Welsh poet and dramatist.-Early life:...


Events

  • 7 March - A "St David's Day" pageant is held in the streets of London.
  • 1 June - In the Queen's Coronation Honours List, VC recipient Ted Chapman
    Edward Thomas Chapman
    Edward Thomas Chapman VC, BEM was a Welsh recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....

     is awarded the British Empire Medal
    British Empire Medal
    The Medal of the Order of the British Empire for Meritorious Service, usually known as the British Empire Medal , is a British medal awarded for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Crown...

    .
  • 9 July - The Queen makes her first visit to Wales since coming to the throne.
  • 2 December - Llandudno
    Llandudno
    Llandudno is a seaside resort and town in Conwy County Borough, Wales. In the 2001 UK census it had a population of 20,090 including that of Penrhyn Bay and Penrhynside, which are within the Llandudno Community...

     experiences unusually warm weather as a result of the "foehn effect".
  • The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is established in Wales.
  • Goronwy Rees
    Goronwy Rees
    Goronwy Rees was a Welsh journalist, academic and writer. He was educated at the University of Oxford.He was during the 1930s a Marxist intellectual, and in contact with the Cambridge Five spy ring through Guy Burgess. Right at the end of his life he admitted spying for the USSR for a short time,...

     becomes Principal of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
    University of Wales, Aberystwyth
    Aberystwyth University is a university located in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding Member Institution of the former federal University of Wales. As of late 2006, the university had over 12,000 students spread across seventeen academic departments.The university was founded in 1872 as...

    .
  • Sir Grismond Picton Philipps is knighted.

Arts and literature

  • Dorothy Squires
    Dorothy Squires
    Dorothy Squires was a Welsh vocalist. Among her recordings were versions of "A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening", "I'm in the Mood for Love", "Anytime", "If You Love Me " and "And So to Sleep Again".-Biography:...

     marries Roger Moore
    Roger Moore
    Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...

    .
  • Thomas Parry
    Thomas Parry (author)
    Sir Thomas Parry was a Welsh author and Academic. He was Librarian of the National Library of Wales from 1953 to 1958, and Principal of the University College of Wales Aberystwyth from 1958 to 1969. The Thomas Parry Library located on Aberystwyth University's Llanbadarn Campus was named in his...

     (later Sir Thomas) becomes head of the National Library of Wales
    National Library of Wales
    The National Library of Wales , Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales; one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies.Welsh is its main medium of communication...

    .
  • Waldo Williams
    Waldo Williams
    Waldo Williams was one of the leading Welsh language poets of the twentieth century. He was also a notable pacifist, anti-war campaigner, and Welsh nationalist.-Life:...

     leaves the Baptist denomination and becomes a Quaker.
  • Robert Frank
    Robert Frank
    Robert Frank , born in Zürich, Switzerland, is an important figure in American photography and film. His most notable work, the 1958 photobook titled The Americans, was influential, and earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and skeptical outsider's view of American...

     photographs a Glamorgan mining village for U.S.Camera.
  • Susan Williams-Ellis
    Susan Williams-Ellis
    Susan Williams-Ellis , a pottery designer and the eldest daughter of Clough Williams-Ellis, was best known for co-founding Portmeirion Pottery.-Background:...

     joins her father, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis
    Clough Williams-Ellis
    Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC was an English-born Welsh architect known chiefly as creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales.-Origins, education and early career:...

    , in his work on the village of Portmeirion
    Portmeirion
    Portmeirion is a popular tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village and is now owned by a charitable trust....

    .

Awards

  • Emyr Humphreys
    Emyr Humphreys
    Emyr Humphreys is a leading Welsh novelist, poet and author. He was born at Prestatyn in Flintshire, and attended University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He registered as a conscientious objector at the outbreak of the Second World War...

     wins the Somerset Maugham Prize for Hear and Forgive.

  • National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Rhyl
    Rhyl
    Rhyl is a seaside resort town and community situated on the north east coast of Wales, in the county of Denbighshire , at the mouth of the River Clwyd . To the west is the suburb of Kinmel Bay, with the resort of Towyn further west, Prestatyn to the east and Rhuddlan to the south...

    )

  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - E. Llwyd Williams
  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Dilys Cadwaladr
    Dilys Cadwaladr
    Dilys Cadwaladr was a Welsh poet.She is notable for being the first woman ever to win the Crown at the National Eisteddfod of Wales. She achieved this feat in 1953 at Rhyl.-References:...

  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - withheld

New books

  • Islwyn Ffowc Elis
    Islwyn Ffowc Elis
    Islwyn Ffowc Elis was one of Wales's most popular Welsh-language writers.Born Islwyn Ffoulkes Ellis in Wrexham, Elis was educated at the University of Wales colleges of Bangor and Aberystwyth. During World War II he was a conscientious objector and he began writing poetry and prose, winning the...

     - Cysgod y Cryman
  • Jack Jones
    Jack Jones (novelist)
    Jack Jones was a Welsh novelist and playwright who began writing in the 1930s.-Early years:Jack Jones was born in 1884 at Tai-Harri-Blawdd in Merthyr Tydfil, the son of a coal miner. He joined his father to work in the mine aged 12. At the age of 17 he joined the army and was posted to South...

     - Time and the Business
  • Bertrand Russell
    Bertrand Russell
    Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...

     - Satan in the Suburbs and Other Stories

Music

  • 8 June - Geraint Evans
    Geraint Evans
    Sir Geraint Llewellyn Evans was a Welsh baritone or bass-baritone noted for operatic roles including Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and the title roles in Falstaff and Wozzeck...

     appears in the première of Benjamin Britten
    Benjamin Britten
    Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

    's Gloriana.

Film

  • Rachel Thomas
    Rachel Thomas
    Rachel Thomas OBE , was a Welsh character actress, well known to film and television audiences.Born in the village of Alltwen, near Pontardawe, Wales, she appeared in such classic films as The Proud Valley with Paul Robeson, Blue Scar and Tiger Bay...

     and Clifford Evans
    Clifford Evans
    Clifford Evans was a Welsh actor. As a conscientious objector he served in the Non-Combatant Corps in World War II.During the summer of 1934 he appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Open Air Theatre in London....

     co-star in Valley of Song.
  • Richard Burton
    Richard Burton
    Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...

     stars in The Robe
    The Robe (film)
    The Robe is a 1953 American Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman military tribune who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus. The film was made by 20th Century Fox and is notable for being the first film released in the widescreen process CinemaScope.It was directed by Henry Koster...

    .
  • Rachel Roberts
    Rachel Roberts (British actress)
    Rachel Roberts was a Welsh actress noted for her fervour and passion; Roberts is best remembered for her forthright screen performances in two key films of the 1960s, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and This Sporting Life, in both of which she played the older mistress of the central male...

     stars in The Limping Man.

Broadcasting

  • 6 January - The Broadcasting Council for Wales meets for the first time.
  • January - Edward Williamson, Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, broadcasts a lecture on Henry Vaughan
    Henry Vaughan
    Henry Vaughan was a Welsh physician and metaphysical poet.Vaughan and his twin brother the hermetic philosopher and alchemist Thomas Vaughan, were the sons of Thomas Vaughan and his wife Denise of 'Trenewydd', Newton, in Brecknockshire, Wales...

     on BBC radio.

Welsh-language television

  • 1 March - First broadcast of a television programme entirely in Welsh: a religious service from the Tabernacle Baptist Chapel, Cardiff.

Sport

  • Archery
    Archery
    Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...

     - The North Wales Archery Society is founded.
  • Rugby
    Rugby football
    Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

     - In December, Wales defeat New Zealand
    New Zealand
    New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

     13-8 at Cardiff Arms Park
    Cardiff Arms Park
    Cardiff Arms Park , also known as The Arms Park, is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green, and is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. The Arms Park was host to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1958, and hosted four games in the 1991 Rugby World...

    .

Births

  • 10 February - Jeffrey John
    Jeffrey John
    Jeffrey Philip Hywel John SCP is a Church of England priest and the current Dean of St Albans. He made headlines in 2003 when he was the first person to have openly been in a same-sex relationship to be nominated as a Church of England bishop...

    , Dean of St Albans
  • 11 April - Rhodri Glyn Thomas
    Rhodri Glyn Thomas
    Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM is a Welsh politician. He has been the Plaid Cymru National Assembly for Wales Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr since 1999.-Education:...

     AM, politician
  • 12 April - Huw Edwards
    Huw Edwards (politician)
    Huw William Edmund Edwards is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Monmouth over two separate terms....

    , Labour politician, MP for Monmouth 1991-1992 and 1997–2005
  • 8 June - Bonnie Tyler
    Bonnie Tyler
    Bonnie Tyler is a Welsh singer, most notable for her hits in the 1970s and 1980s including "It's a Heartache", "Holding Out for a Hero" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart".-Early life:...

    , singer
  • 11 July - Nigel Rees
    Nigel Rees (footballer)
    Nigel Richard Rees is a Welsh former professional footballer.-Career:A Welsh youth international, Rees began his career as a youth player at Cardiff City, where he was part of the team that reached the 1971 FA Youth Cup final before losing to Arsenal...

    , footballer
  • 20 July - Dave Evans
    Dave Evans (singer)
    Dave Evans is an Australian singer best known as the original lead singer of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1973-1974.-AC/DC:...

    , singer
  • 10 August - Gillian Elisa
    Gillian Elisa
    Gillian Elisa is an actress, singer, and comedian. Early in her career she was known by her full name of Gillian Elisa Thomas.-Career:...

    , actress, singer, and comedienne
  • 2 September - Keith Allen, comedian and actor
  • 28 October - Phil Dwyer
    Phil Dwyer
    Philip Joseph Dwyer is a Welsh former professional footballer and Wales international. During his career, he attained 10 caps for Wales and played his club football for Cardiff City, where he still holds the club's all-time appearance record, as a centre-half-Football career:Dwyer, affectionally...

    , footballer
  • 16 November - Griff Rhys Jones
    Griff Rhys Jones
    Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...

    , actor, comedian and television presenter

Deaths

  • 10 January - Howell Elvet Lewis
    Howell Elvet Lewis
    Howell Elvet Lewis CH known by his bardic name Elfed , independent minister, hymn-writer, and poet served as Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales from 1924 to 1928.-Early life:...

     ("Elved"), poet and Archdruid, 92
  • 7 March - Jack Williams, Victoria Cross recipient, 66
  • 20 March - Fred Parfitt
    Fred Parfitt
    Frederick 'Fred' Charles Parfitt was a Welsh international rugby union scrum-half who played club rugby for Newport, regional rugby for Somerset and was capped nine times for Wales...

    , Wales international rugby player, 83
  • 24 March - Mary of Teck
    Mary of Teck
    Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....

    , Princess of Wales
    Princess of Wales
    Princess of Wales is a British courtesy title held by the wife of The Prince of Wales since the first "English" Prince of Wales in 1283.Although there have been considerably more than ten male heirs to the throne, there have been only ten Princesses of Wales. The majority of Princes of Wales...

     1910-1936 and Queen 1936-1952, 85
  • 6 April - Idris Davies
    Idris Davies
    Idris Davies was a Welsh poet. He was born in Rhymney, near Caerphilly in South Wales, the Welsh-speaking son of colliery chief winderman Evan Davies and his wife Elizabeth Ann. Davies became a poet, originally writing in Welsh, but later writing exclusively in English...

    , poet, 48
  • 30 April - Sir David Rocyn-Jones
    David Rocyn-Jones
    Sir David Thomas Rocyn-Jones CBE, K St J, DL, JP was a Welsh medical officer of health and servant of multiple professional bodies within Wales.-Professional career:...

    , medical practitioner and President of the WRU, 90
  • 2 May - Thomas Mardy Rees, author
  • 5 June - "Moelona
    Moelona
    Moelona was the pen-name of Elizabeth Mary Jones , a Welsh novelist and translator who wrote novels for children and other works in Welsh....

    " (Elizabeth Mary Jones), 75
  • 18 June - Reg Plummer
    Reg Plummer (rugby player)
    Reg Plummer was a Welsh international, rugby union wing who played club rugby for Newport and invitational rugby with both the Barbarians and Crawshays RFC...

    , Wales and British Lion rugby union player, 64
  • 9 November - Dylan Thomas
    Dylan Thomas
    Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...

    , poet, 39
  • 11 November - John Glyn Davies, poet and children's writer, 83
  • 26 November - Sir Ivor Atkins
    Ivor Atkins
    Sir Ivor Algernon Atkins was the choirmaster and organist at Worcester Cathedral for over 50 years . He is well known for editing Allegri's Miserere with the famous top-C part for the treble...

    , organist and choirmaster, 83
  • 27 November - T. F. Powys
    T. F. Powys
    Theodore Francis Powys was a British novelist and short story writer, born in Shirley, Derbyshire on the 20 December, 1875, the son of the Reverend Charles Francis Powys , vicar of Montacute, Somerset for thirty-two years, and Mary Cowper Johnson, a descendent of the poet William Cowper. He came...

    , Anglo-Welsh writer, 77
  • 17 December - David Rees Griffiths
    David Rees Griffiths
    David Rees Griffiths , also known by his bardic name of Amanwy, was a Welsh poet, and an older brother of politician Jim Griffiths....

    , poet, 71
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