1985 in Wales
Encyclopedia
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1985 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...

     - 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...

  • 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...

     - Diana, Princess of Wales
    Diana, Princess of Wales
    Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...

  • Secretary of State for Wales
    Secretary of State for Wales
    The Secretary of State for Wales is the head of the Wales Office within the British cabinet. He or she is responsible for ensuring Welsh interests are taken into account by the government, representing the government within Wales and overseeing the passing of legislation which is only for Wales...

     - Nicholas Edwards
  • 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...

     - Derrick Childs
    Derrick Childs
    Derrick Greenslade Childs was the Anglican Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales.Childs was educated at University College, Cardiff and ordained in 1942. He was a curate in Milford Haven and then Laugharne before becoming Warden of Llandaff House, Penarth...

  • 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 :...

     - Geraint
    Geraint Bowen (poet)
    Geraint Bowen was a Welsh language poet.He was the nephew of Carmarthenshire minister David Bowen, and the brother of poet Euros Bowen. He was a Welsh nationalist, and during the Second World War was a conscientious objector, undertaking farming...


Events

  • May 16 - Dean Hancock and Russell Shankland are convicted of murder at Cardiff Crown Court
    Cardiff Crown Court
    Cardiff Crown Court is a historic building situated in Cathays Park, Cardiff, Wales. The building is a Grade I listed building. The Crown Court is part of the Wales Circuit of Her Majesty's Courts Service.-External links:*...

     and jailed for life. The previous November, at the height of the miners' strike
    UK miners' strike (1984–1985)
    The UK miners' strike was a major industrial action affecting the British coal industry. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the British trades union movement...

    , they caused the death of a taxi driver by dropping a concrete block onto his car as it passed under a bridge.
  • June 29 - A55
    A55 road
    The A55, also known as the North Wales Expressway, is a major road in Britain. Its entire length is a dual carriageway primary route, with the exception of the point where it crosses the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait. All junctions are grade separated except for two roundabouts — one...

     Colwyn Bay
    Colwyn Bay
    - Demography :Prior to local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974 Colwyn Bay was a municipal borough with a population of c.25,000, but in 1974 this designation disappeared leaving five separate parishes, known as communities in Wales, of which the one bearing the name Colwyn Bay encompassed...

     Bypass
    Bypass (road)
    A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....

     completed.
  • July 4 - At the Brecon and Radnor by-election
    Brecon and Radnor by-election, 1985
    The Brecon and Radnor by-election, 1985 was a parliamentary by-election held on 4 July 1985 for the British House of Commons constituency of Brecon and Radnor .- Previous MP :The seat had become vacant on 9 May 1985, when the constituency's Conservative Member of Parliament ,...

     caused by the death of sitting Conservative MP Tom Ellis Hooson, local farmer Richard Livsey
    Richard Livsey, Baron Livsey of Talgarth
    Richard Arthur Lloyd Livsey, Baron Livsey of Talgarth CBE was the son of Arthur Norman Livsey and Lilian Maisie . His father was a seacaptain who died in Iraq when Richard was just three years old. He was therefore brought up in a single parent household by his mother, Lilian, who was a local...

     takes the seat for the Liberals.
  • Terry Matthews
    Terry Matthews
    Sir Terence Hedley Matthews OBE, FIEE, FREng is a Welsh business magnate, serial high tech entrepreneur, and Wales's first billionaire....

     sells his stake in Mitel
    Mitel
    Mitel Networks, is a high-tech company providing unified communications solutions for business. The company previously produced TDM PBX systems and applications but after a change in ownership in 2001 now focuses almost entirely on Voice-over-IP products.Mitel is headquartered in Ottawa,...

     to British Telecom.
  • Cefn is founded to campaign for the civil rights of Welsh speakers.
  • The Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies is founded at the University of Wales
    University of Wales
    The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...

    , Aberystwyth
    Aberystwyth
    Aberystwyth is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. Often colloquially known as Aber, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Ystwyth and Rheidol....

    .
  • Seventeen women are prosecuted on conspiracy
    Conspiracy (crime)
    In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...

     charges after the occupation of a nuclear bunker near Carmarthen
    Carmarthen
    Carmarthen is a community in, and the county town of, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is sited on the River Towy north of its mouth at Carmarthen Bay. In 2001, the population was 14,648....

    .

Arts and literature

  • Robat Powell becomes the first Welsh learner to win the Chair at the National Eisteddfod (see below).

Awards

  • 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 - Robat Powell
  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - John Roderick Rees
  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Margaret Dafydd

New books

  • Geraint Bowen
    Geraint Bowen (poet)
    Geraint Bowen was a Welsh language poet.He was the nephew of Carmarthenshire minister David Bowen, and the brother of poet Euros Bowen. He was a Welsh nationalist, and during the Second World War was a conscientious objector, undertaking farming...

     - Cerddi
  • Bryan Martin Davies - Lleoedd
  • Alice Thomas Ellis - Unexplained Laughter
  • Lady Olwen Carey Evans - Lloyd George Was My Father
  • David Hughes
    David Hughes (novelist)
    David Hughes was an English novelist. His best known work included The Pork Butcher and But for Bunter, published as The Joke of the Century in the United States....

     - The Pork Butcher
  • Christopher Meredith
    Christopher Meredith
    - Personal life :He was educated at Tredegar Comprehensive school and later studied philosophy and English at Aberystwyth University. He has a wife and two sons, Rhodri and Steffan...

     - This
  • Robert Minhinnick
    Robert Minhinnick
    Robert Minhinnick is a Welsh poet, essayist, novelist and translator.Minhinnick was born in Neath, and now lives in Porthcawl. He studied at University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and University of Wales, Cardiff. An environmental campaigner, he co-founded the charities Friends of the Earth and...

     - The Dinosaur Park
  • Eluned Phillips
    Eluned Phillips
    Eluned Phillips was the only woman to win the bardic crown at the National Eisteddfod of Wales twice, a feat she accomplished in 1967 at Bala and 1983 at Llangefni....

     - Cerddi Glyn-y-Mêl
  • J. P. Ward - The Clearing
  • Glanmor Williams
    Glanmor Williams
    Sir Glanmor Williams was one of Wales's most eminent historians.Sir Glanmor was born in Dowlais, into a working-class family, and was educated at Cyfarthfa Castle School. He studied at Aberystwyth alongside Alun Lewis and Emyr Humphreys, becoming a specialist in the early modern period of Welsh...

     - Grym Tafodau Tân
  • Ivor Wilks
    Ivor Wilks
    Ivor G. Wilks is a noted British Africanist and historian, with a specialism in Ghana.Wilks is an authority on the Ashanti Empire in Ghana. He has also written on Chartism in Wales, and the working class movement in the nineteenth century. His work examines the nature of power and leadership, and...

     - South Wales and the Rising of 1839

Music

  • Downtown Julie Brown
    Downtown Julie Brown
    Julie Dorne Brown, also known as Downtown Julie Brown , is an English actress and former MTV VJ.Of mixed race, Brown's father, Valentine Brown, was Jamaican and her mother, Doreen, is white...

     makes her debut on Club MTV
    Club MTV
    Club MTV was a half hour television show molded after American Bandstand that aired on MTV between the years 1985 and 1992. Club MTV was part of MTV's second generation of programming when they were phasing out the original 5 VJs and introducing new ones.-Background and format:Hosted by Downtown...

    .
  • "Dwylo Dros y Mor", performed by various artists, is the Welsh charity song released in coordination with Band Aid
    Band Aid (band)
    Band Aid was a charity supergroup featuring British and Irish musicians and recording artists. It was founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia by releasing the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for the Christmas market that year. The single...

    .
  • Aled Jones
    Aled Jones
    Aled Jones is a Welsh singer and television/radio personality, broadcaster and television presenter who first came to fame as a treble...

     - Aled Jones With The BBC Welsh Chorus (album)
  • Living Legends - Better Dead Than Wed

Film

  • Jonathan Pryce
    Jonathan Pryce
    Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...

     stars in Brazil.
  • Richard Marquand
    Richard Marquand
    Richard Marquand was a Welsh film director best known for directing the 1983 blockbuster Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi.-Early life:...

     directs Jagged Edge
    Jagged Edge (film)
    Jagged Edge is a film starring Glenn Close, Jeff Bridges, and Peter Coyote. Robert Loggia received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in this film. It is a courtroom thriller, written by Joe Eszterhas, and directed by Richard Marquand...

    .

Sport

  • Horse racing
    Horse racing
    Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

     - Hywel Davies wins the Grand National
    Grand National
    The Grand National is a world-famous National Hunt horse race which is held annually at Aintree Racecourse, near Liverpool, England. It is a handicap chase run over a distance of four miles and 856 yards , with horses jumping thirty fences over two circuits of Aintree's National Course...

     on "Last Suspect".
  • Welsh Sports Personality of the Year - Steve Jones
    Steve Jones (athlete)
    Steve Jones is a Welsh athlete and former world marathon record holder.Steve Jones was born in St James' Hospital Tredegar and grew up in the neighbouring town of Ebbw Vale, Wales, Jones began his career as an aircraft technician in the Royal Air Force...

    , marathon runner

Births

  • 8 April - Gareth Rees
    Gareth Rees (cricketer)
    Gareth Peter Rees is a Welsh cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman and a left-arm medium-pace bowler who plays for Glamorgan....

    , cricketer
  • 13 May - Danny Thomas
    Danny Thomas (Welsh footballer)
    Danny Thomas is a Welsh former professional footballer. He is currently with Haverfordwest County, having previously played for Cardiff City and Carmarthen Town. He has played for Wales at Under 17 and Under 19 level.-Career:...

    , footballer
  • 16 June - Craig Morgan
    Craig Morgan (footballer)
    Craig Morgan is a Welsh international footballer who currently plays as a defender for Football League Championship side Preston North End....

    , footballer
  • 14 December - Alex Pennie
    Alex Pennie
    Alexander Gregor Pennie is the lead vocalist of Welsh Hardcore punk band Goodtime Boys. Pennie was previously in Welsh band The Automatic, where he provided backing vocals as well as playing synthesizers and keyboards for the act...

    , musician
  • 11 September - Daniel Parslow
    Daniel Parslow
    Daniel James "Danny" Parslow is a Welsh footballer who plays for York City as a defender.-Cardiff City:Born in Hengoed, Caerphilly, Parslow started his career with the Cardiff City youth system, earning a three-year scholarship in May 2002...

    , footballer
  • 25 December -Leon Pisani
    Leon Pisani
    Leon Pisani is a Welsh singer, formerly of the boyband V.He was named Leon as he was born on Christmas Day. He studied at Cantonian High School in Cardiff and was a member of the school choir...

    , pop singer

Deaths

  • 26 January - David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech
    David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech
    William David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech KCMG PC , known as David Ormsby-Gore until 1964, was a British diplomat and Conservative Party politician.-Early life:...

    , 66 (car accident)
  • 4 April - Kate Roberts, author, 94
  • 8 May - Tom Hooson
    Tom Hooson
    Tom Ellis Hooson was a British Conservative Party politician. Hooson was Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom for Brecon and Radnor. He gained the seat from Labour in 1979, and held it until he died in office in 1985 at the age of 52...

    , politician, 52
  • 9 June - 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....

    , actor, 73
  • 1 September - Saunders Lewis
    Saunders Lewis
    Saunders Lewis was a Welsh poet, dramatist, historian, literary critic, and political activist. He was a prominent Welsh nationalist and a founder of the Welsh National Party...

    , writer, 91
  • 17 September - Laura Ashley
    Laura Ashley
    Laura Ashley was a Welsh fashion designer and businesswoman. She became a household name on the strength of her work as a designer and manufacturer of a range of colourful fabrics for clothes and home furnishings....

    , designer, 60 (brain haemorrhage)
  • 28 October - Harold Davies, Baron Davies of Leek
    Harold Davies, Baron Davies of Leek
    Harold Davies, Baron Davies of Leek, PC was a British Labour Party politician.He was elected at the 1945 general election as Member of Parliament for Leek in Staffordshire, and held the seat until his defeat at the 1970 general election by the Conservative candidate David Knox...

    , politician, 81
  • 1 November - Bruce Dargavel, singer
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