2011 in Wales
Encyclopedia
This article is about the particular significance of the year 2011 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...

     – The Prince Charles
    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...

     – The Duchess of Cornwall (Camilla; does not use title)
  • First Minister – Carwyn Jones
    Carwyn Jones
    Carwyn Howell Jones is a Welsh politician and the First Minister of Wales. The third official to lead the Welsh Government, Jones has been Assembly Member for Bridgend since 1999. In the coalition government of Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru, he was appointed Counsel General for Wales and Leader of...

  • Deputy First Minister of Wales – Ieuan Wyn Jones
    Ieuan Wyn Jones
    Ieuan Wyn Jones, AM is a Welsh politician, who was the Deputy First Minister in the Welsh Assembly Government from 2007 until 2011. Jones is the current leader of Plaid Cymru and Member of the National Assembly for Wales for the Ynys Môn constituency...

  • Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales
    Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales
    The Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales is the Speaker of the National Assembly for Wales, elected by the Members of the National Assembly for Wales to chair their meetings ; to maintain order; and to protect the rights of Members.He or she also heads the Corporate Body of the...

     – Dafydd Elis-Thomas
    Dafydd Elis-Thomas
    Dafydd Elis Elis-Thomas, Baron Elis-Thomas, PC, AM, is a Welsh politician and was the Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales until 2011...

  • Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales
    Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales
    The Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales is the Speaker of the National Assembly for Wales, elected by the Members of the National Assembly for Wales to chair their meetings ; to maintain order; and to protect the rights of Members.He or she also heads the Corporate Body of the...

     - Rosemary Butler
    Rosemary Butler
    Rosemary Butler began her career playing bass and singing in an all-girl band named the Ladybirds. The band appeared on several LA area television shows before opening for the Rolling Stones in 1964. She then joined all-female hard rock band Birtha who released two albums for Dunhill Records...

  • 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...

     - Cheryl Gillan
    Cheryl Gillan
    Cheryl Elise Kendall Gillan is a British Conservative Party politician. She is currently the Secretary of State for Wales, and the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Chesham and Amersham in Buckinghamshire....

  • 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...

     – Barry Morgan
    Barry Morgan
    Barry Cennydd Morgan has been the Archbishop of the Church in Wales since 2003.-Early life:Morgan was born in Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Neath Port Talbot and studied history at University College, London and theology at Selwyn College, Cambridge...

     (Bishop of Llandaff
    Bishop of Llandaff
    The Bishop of Llandaff is the Ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Llandaff.-Area of authority:The diocese covers most of the County of Glamorgan. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul , in the village of Llandaff, just north-west of the City of...

    )
  • 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 :...

     – Jim Parc Nest
    T. James Jones
    T. James Jones is a Welsh poet and dramatist, and is Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales. He is also known by the bardic name Jim Parc Nest....


Events

  • 1 January - Welsh recipients of New Year Honours
    2011 New Year Honours
    The New Year Honours 2011, principally for the United Kingdom but also the Commonwealth Realms, were announced on 31 December 2010 to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2011....

     include Raymond Rees (MBE), for his role in preserving the tradition of coracle
    Coracle
    The coracle is a small, lightweight boat of the sort traditionally used in Wales but also in parts of Western and South Western England, Ireland , and Scotland ; the word is also used of similar boats found in India, Vietnam, Iraq and Tibet...

     fishing; Tom Davies (OBE), commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission in Wales; Peter Walker
    Peter Walker (cricketer)
    Peter Michael Walker MBE is an English former cricketer, who played in three Tests for England in 1960.-Life and career:Walker was born in Bristol, but educated partly in South Africa...

    , former Glamorgan cricketer (MBE); educator Dr Dennis Gunning (CBE); and Gareth Vaughan, president of the Farmers’ Union of Wales (MBE). Professor Eldryd Parry
    Eldryd Parry
    Sir Eldryd Hugh Owen Parry, KCMG, OBE is a Welsh academic, currently professor at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Parry is a physician and founder of the Tropical Health and Education Trust, which helps African medical schools and hospitals to improve staff skill levels.Parry has an honorary DSc and...

     is made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for his services to medicine.
  • 5 January - John Warman, a veteran Liberal Democrat
    Welsh Liberal Democrats
    The Welsh Liberal Democrats are one of the three state parties of the federal Liberal Democrats and operate within Wales, the others being the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Liberal Democrats in England....

     councillor in Neath
    Neath
    Neath is a town and community situated in the principal area of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, UK with a population of approximately 45,898 in 2001...

    , defects to the Labour Party
  • 21 January - The South Wales coastguard carry out their "first ever" rescue of a mudslide victim, at Rhossili in Gower.
  • 2 February - A bronze bust of Ray Gravell
    Ray Gravell
    Raymond William Robert "Ray" Gravell was a Welsh rugby union centre who played club rugby for Llanelli RFC. At international level Gravell earned 23 caps for Wales and was selected for the 1980 British Lions tour to South Africa.In his later career he would become a respected broadcaster and...

     by John Meirion Morris
    John Meirion Morris
    John Meirion Morris is a Welsh sculptor.Morris was born in Llanuwchllyn, near Bala, Gwynedd, where his parents kept a shop. He studied at Liverpool College of Art and later taught the subject at Llanidloes. In 1966 he began a period as a lecturer at Kumasi University in Ghana, returning to Wales...

     is unveiled at the BBC Cymru Wales HQ in Cardiff.
  • 7 February - Wrexham council grant planning permission for the "Waking the Dragon" tower to be constructed near Chirk
    Chirk
    Chirk is a small town and local government community, the lowest tier of local government, part of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It has a population of over 4,000....

    .
  • 19 February - The first public passenger train operates between Caernarfon
    Caernarfon
    Caernarfon is a Royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,611. It lies along the A487 road, on the east banks of the Menai Straits, opposite the Isle of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is to the northeast, while Snowdonia fringes Caernarfon to the east and southeast...

     and Porthmadog Harbour
    Porthmadog Harbour railway station
    Porthmadog Harbour station in North Wales is the southern passenger terminus of two narrow gauge railways: the Ffestiniog Railway, which was built in 1836 to carry dressed slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog for export by sea, and the Welsh Highland Railway, built in 1923, which runs to...

     over the restored Welsh Highland Railway
    Welsh Highland Railway
    The Welsh Highland Railway is a long restored narrow gauge heritage railway in North Wales, operating from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passing through a number of popular tourist destinations including Beddgelert and the Aberglaslyn Pass. At Porthmadog it connects with the Ffestiniog Railway...

    .
  • 24 February - Kate Middleton, accompanied by her fiancé Prince William of Wales, attends a lifeboat naming ceremony at Trearddur, Anglesey, her first public engagement in the principality.
  • 3 March - Welsh devolution referendum: Of a 35.2% voting turnout, 63.49% vote 'yes', and 36.51% vote 'no' in response to the question "Do you want the Assembly now to be able to make laws on all matters in the 20 subject areas it has powers for?".
  • 15 March - Local Government Minister Carl Sargeant
    Carl Sargeant
    Carl Sargeant AM is a Welsh Labour politician and the Minister for Social Justice & Local Government in the Welsh Assembly Government...

     confirms to the National Assembly that Anglesey Council will be taken over by independent commissioners as a result of infighting between councillors. Sargeant says that the councillors have "betrayed those who elected them" and indulged in "politics of the playground".
  • 1 April
    • The Academi changes its title to Literature Wales, simultaneously merging with the writers' centre Tŷ Newydd
      Ty Newydd
      Tŷ Newydd, the National Centre for Writing in Wales, is a renowned writing centre at Llanystumdwy, near Cricieth, in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It is in the former home of David Lloyd George, the Welsh politician who served as British Prime Minister during the First World War...

      .
    • Emergency contraception
      Emergency contraception
      Emergency contraception , or emergency postcoital contraception, refers to birth control measures that, if taken after sexual intercourse, may prevent pregnancy.Forms of EC include:...

       pills become available free on request in pharmacies
      Pharmacy
      Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...

       throughout Wales.
    • The Queen visits Anglesey to witness the daily activities of her grandson, Prince William of Wales. She arrives at RAF Valley
      RAF Valley
      RAF Valley is a Royal Air Force station on the island of Anglesey, Wales, and which is also used as Anglesey Airport. It provides fast-jet training using the BAE Hawk and provides training for aircrew working with Search and Rescue. Unofficially the motto for RAF Valley is 'One Valley, Training...

       in gale-force winds. The prince comments: “I really do love it here”.
  • 20 April - Four people from Pontypridd are killed when their car plunges down an embankment and into the Clywedog reservoir
    Clywedog reservoir
    The Clywedog reservoir is a reservoir in the Welsh county of Powys, located off the B4518 road near the town of Llanidloes.The reservoir was formed by damming the Afon Clywedog, a tributary of the River Severn. Its concrete buttress dam is the tallest concrete dam in the United Kingdom, with a...

    .
  • 29 April - The wedding of Prince William of Wales to Kate Middleton
    Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton
    The wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Middleton took place on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London. Prince William, the eldest son of Charles, Prince of Wales, first met Catherine Middleton in 2001, when both were studying at the University of St Andrews. Their...

     is conducted by Dr Rowan Williams
    Rowan Williams
    Rowan Douglas Williams FRSL, FBA, FLSW is an Anglican bishop, poet and theologian. He is the 104th and current Archbishop of Canterbury, Metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury and Primate of All England, offices he has held since early 2003.Williams was previously Bishop of Monmouth and...

    . Welsh guests include Richard Meade
    Richard Meade
    Richard John Hannay Meade, OBE is a British equestrian expert and Olympic gold medal winning rider, tipped at one time to be the future husband of Princess Anne.In 1964, Meade won the Burghley Horse Trials on Barberry...

     and Martyn Williams
    Martyn Williams
    Martyn Elwyn Williams is a Welsh international rugby union player. A flanker, he plays for Cardiff Blues and the Wales national rugby union team as an open-side flanker...

    ; First Minister Carwyn Jones
    Carwyn Jones
    Carwyn Howell Jones is a Welsh politician and the First Minister of Wales. The third official to lead the Welsh Government, Jones has been Assembly Member for Bridgend since 1999. In the coalition government of Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru, he was appointed Counsel General for Wales and Leader of...

     and the Assembly's Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas
    Dafydd Elis-Thomas
    Dafydd Elis Elis-Thomas, Baron Elis-Thomas, PC, AM, is a Welsh politician and was the Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales until 2011...

     are also present. The music played at the service includes Ubi Caritas et Amor, a choral arrangement specially commissioned for the occasion by the Welsh composer Paul Mealor
    Paul Mealor
    Paul Mealor is a Welsh composer. Described by the New York Times as "one of the most important composers to have emerged in Welsh choral music since William Mathias", Mealor’s motets, songs and cycles have been performed, broadcast and recorded by artists around the world.-Biography:Born in St...

    , and the hymn "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
    Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
    "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" is a Christian hymn by Charles Wesley with a theme of 'Christian perfection."Judging by general repute, it is among Wesley's finest:"justly famous and beloved, better known than almost any other hymn of Charles Wesley."...

    , sung to the tune "Blaenwern
    Blaenwern
    Blaenwern is a Welsh Christian hymn tune composed by William Penfro Rowlands , during the Welsh revival of 1904-1905. 'Blaenwern' was first published in Henry H. Jones' Cân a Moliant ....

    " by William Penfro Rowlands
    William Penfro Rowlands
    William Penfro Rowlands was a Welsh schoolteacher and composer.Rowlands was born at Llys y Frân, Maenclochog, Pembrokeshire . Probably his best-known composition is the hymn-tune "Blaenwern", composed in 1905. As well as being a church musician, Rowlands also taught in several schools...

    .
  • 8 May - Social media sites name Ryan Giggs
    Ryan Giggs
    Ryan Joseph Giggs OBE is a Welsh professional footballer who plays for Manchester United. Giggs made his first appearance for the club during the 1990–91 season and has been a regular player since the 1991–92 season...

     as the footballer involved in the CTB v News Group Newspapers
    CTB v News Group Newspapers
    CTB v News Group Newspapers is an English legal case between Manchester United player Ryan Giggs, given the pseudonym CTB, and defendants News Group Newspapers Limited and model Imogen Thomas....

    legal case.
  • 13 May – Following a decision made at its Bishops' Spring Conference, the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales announces the reinstatement of the rule of abstaining from eating red meat on Fridays
    Fasting and Abstinence in the Roman Catholic Church
    For Roman Catholics, fasting is the reduction of one's intake of food to one full meal a day. This may or may not be accompanied by abstinence from meat when eating....

    . The practice, last observed in 1984, will be reintroduced on 16 September to coincide with the first anniversary of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI
    Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom
    Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom from 16 to 19 September 2010 was the first state visit by a pope to the United Kingdom...

    .
  • 17 May - Two newly elected Lib Dem AMs, Aled Roberts and John Dixon, are discovered to have been ineligible for election to the Assembly, because of their membership of other bodies.
  • 2 June - Four people are killed in an explosion at the Chevron oil refinery at Rhoscrowther
    Rhoscrowther
    Rhoscrowther is a village and former civil parish in Pembrokeshire, Wales, west of Pembroke, near the south shore of Milford Haven. It is part of the community of Hundleton....

    , Pembrokeshire. It is reported that the explosion occurred during maintenance of a 730 cubic metre storage tank.
  • 25 June - Archdruid T. James Jones
    T. James Jones
    T. James Jones is a Welsh poet and dramatist, and is Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales. He is also known by the bardic name Jim Parc Nest....

     makes a controversial speech in which he claims that "Britishness" threatens Welsh identity, and suggests that Welsh Olympic medal-winners should be accompanied by the raising of the Welsh flag and the Welsh national anthem, rather than the British flag and anthem. Welsh Conservative MP David Davies
    David Davies
    -Politics:*David Davies , also known as David Davies Llandinam, MP for Cardigan, 1874–1885, and Cardiganshire, 1885–1886*David Sanders Davies , Liberal politician, MP for Denbigh 1918–1922...

     says he is "talking rubbish" and that most Welsh people are proud to be both British and Welsh.
  • 29 June – A court ruling restricting the powers of police bail has thrown thousands of cases in England and Wales into disarray.
  • 9 July - National Museum of Art opens at the National Museum Cardiff
    National Museum Cardiff
    National Museum Cardiff is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales...

    .
  • 12 July – Police (Detention and Bail) Act 2011
    Police (Detention and Bail) Act 2011
    The Police Act 2011 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that amends those sections of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 relating to the detention of criminal suspects by police forces in England and Wales....

    , affecting England and Wales, receives its Royal Assent.
  • 17 August - Paralympic cyclist Simon Richardson
    Simon Richardson
    Simon Richardson MBE is a Welsh paralympic cyclist.-Biography:Richardson was born in 1966 in Porthcawl, Wales, and is the son of John and Diana Richardson. He is married to Amanda and has two sons Ashley and Benjamin. In 2001 he was involved in a car accident which left him with serious leg and...

     MBE is seriously injured in a road accident near Cowbridge, ten years after a similar accident that left him disabled.
  • 30 August - Racecourse owner Dai Walters warns that Ffos Las
    Ffos Las
    Ffos Las is a rural area between the villages of Carway and Trimsaran, north of the town of Llanelli in the Gwendraeth Valley in Carmarthenshire, Wales....

    , the UK's newest racecourse, could be forced to close if plans to reduce the number of race meetings are carried through.
  • 2 September - Welsh Food Festival is held at Glansevern Hall, Welshpool.
  • 15 September - An explosion at Gleision colliery near Cilybebyll
    Cilybebyll
    Cilybebyll is a village and community in Neath Port Talbot County Borough in Wales. It includes the villages of Alltwen, Fforest Gôch, Gellinudd and Rhos, and is located east of Pontardawe, north of Neath and north east of Swansea...

     results in an all-night rescue operation to free four trapped miners.
  • 16 September - The bodies of the four missing miners are discovered by rescue workers at Gleision Colliery.
  • 1 October - Shops in Wales are obliged to charge for single-use carrier bag
    Plastic shopping bag
    Plastic shopping bags, carrier bags or plastic grocery bags are a type of shopping bag made from various kinds of plastic, and are common worldwide. These bags are sometimes called single-use bags, referring to carrying items from a store to a home...

    s from today.
  • 19 October - The manager of Gleision Colliery is arrested on suspicion of manslaughter; he is later released on police bail.
  • 31 October - A landslide at Porthkerry leaves several static holiday caravans overhanging the edge of a cliff.
  • 27 November - Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, is involved in the rescue of two Russian seamen by RAF helicopter, after the ore carrier Swanland sinks off the North Wales coast. Five more crew members are drowned.
  • 28 November - The judge in the trial of eight former South Wales Police officers accused of perverting the course of justice in the 1988 Lynette White
    Murder of Lynette White
    The Murder of Lynette White was committed on Saint Valentine's Day, 1988 in Cardiff, Wales. Twenty year old White, a prostitute, was stabbed over fifty times in her flat above a bookmaker's at 7 James Street, Butetown.-Investigation:...

     murder case requests a review of evidence. It is discovered that some files are missing, and the case against the defendants collapses as a result.
  • 30 November - About 170,000 workers in Wales have begun a strike as part of UK-wide industrial action over pension changes.

Awards

  • Glyndŵr Award
    Glyndwr Award
    The Glyndŵr Award is made for an Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Wales. It is given by the Machynlleth Tabernacle Trust to pre-eminent figures in music, art and literature in rotation...

  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Rhys Iorwerth
  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Geraint Lloyd Owen
    Geraint Lloyd Owen
    Geraint Lloyd Owen is a Welsh-language poet, who won the Crown in The National Eisteddfod of Wales 2011. He is a retired head-teacher and brother to the Prifardd Gerallt Lloyd Owen....

  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Drama Medal - Rhian Staples
  • National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Manon Rhys

  • Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen - Daniel Davies, Tair Rheol Anhrefn
  • Wales Book of the Year
    Wales Book of the Year
    The Wales Book of the Year is a Welsh literary award given annually to the best Welsh and English language works in the fields of fiction and literary criticism by Welsh or Welsh interest authors...

    :
    • English language:
    • Welsh language:
  • Dylan Thomas Prize
    Dylan Thomas Prize
    The Dylan Thomas Prize is the world’s top cash prize for young writers. The annual prize, named in honor of the Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas, brings international prestige and a cash award of £30,000 . It is open to published writers in the English language under the age of thirty. The prize...

    :
  • Kyffin Art Prize:

New books

  • Toby Hamden - The Welsh Guards and the Real Story Of Britain's War In Afghanistan

Awards

  • BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition
    BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition
    BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition is a competition for opera and art singers held every two years....

    • Main Prize - Valentina Naforniţă
      Valentina Naforniţă
      Valentina Naforniţă is a Bucharest based Moldovan soprano opera singer. She is presently best known as the 2011 winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.Valentina Naforniţă was born in Glodeni, Moldova...

    • Song Prize - Andrei Bondarenko
      Andrei Bondarenko
      Andrei Bondarenko is a Ukrainian baritone opera singer.Bondarenko was born in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine. He trained at the National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in Kiev and at the Kiev Conservatory...

  • Cân i Gymru 2011
    Cân i Gymru 2011
    Cân i Gymru 2011 was the 2011 edition of S4C's Cân i Gymru, an annual Welsh singing contest. The 2011 was broadcast live on 6 March 2011 from the Pontrhydfendigaid Pavilion, Pontrhydfendigaid. The winner was given an invitation to represent Wales at the Pan Celtic Festival...

     - Tesni Jones, "Rhywun yn Rhywle"

Albums

  • Wynne Evans
    Wynne Evans
    Wynne Evans is a Welsh tenor. Popularly known for his role as the tenor Gio Compario in the Gocompare.com insurance adverts on television in the United Kingdom, he sang, , in the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall...

     - With a Song in my Heart
  • Gruff Rhys
    Gruff Rhys
    Gruffydd Maredudd Bowen Rhys is a Welsh musician, performing solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals who obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He also most recently formed the electro-pop outfit Neon Neon with Boom Bip. Their album Stainless Style was nominated for the 2008...

     - Hotel Shampoo
    Hotel Shampoo
    Hotel Shampoo is the third solo album by Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, released on 14 February 2011. The title of the record is a reference to Gruff’s habit of hoarding mini shampoo bottles and other complimentary hotel products whilst on tour, and the miniature hotel he built from them...


Film

  • Christian Bale
    Christian Bale
    Christian Charles Philip Bale is an English actor. Best known for his roles in American films, Bale has starred in both big budget Hollywood films and the smaller projects from independent producers and art houses....

     wins the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
    Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
    Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...

     for his role in The Fighter.

English-language television

  • Baker Boys
    Baker boys
    Baker boys could refer to:* Baker Boys: Inside the Surge, 2010 Documentary series* Baker Boys , BBC TV Series* The Fabulous Baker Boys, 1989 film* The Fabulous Baker Boys...

    , starring Boyd Clack
    Boyd Clack
    Boyd Clack is a Welsh writer, actor, and musician.He was born in Vancouver, Canada but grew up in Tonyrefail in Wales. His acting credits include Twin Town, High Hopes and Satellite City. He also co-wrote both High Hopes and Satellite City...

    , Mark Lewis Jones
    Mark Lewis Jones
    Mark Lewis Jones is a Welsh actor, whose roles include that of a police inspector in BBC drama series, 55 Degrees North, a whaler in the movie, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Tecton, a soldier in Troy....

     and Eve Myles
    Eve Myles
    Eve Myles is an award winning Welsh actress of stage and screen. She is best known to Welsh audiences for her portrayal of Ceri Owen in the BBC Wales drama Belonging, and to audiences worldwide for her role as Gwen Cooper in the science fiction show Torchwood, a spin-off from Doctor Who.-Personal...

    , co-written by Helen Raynor
    Helen Raynor
    Helen Raynor is a British television and theatre writer and script editor. From 2004 until 2007 she was one of the script editors of the revived version of the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, working on its first three series...

     and Gary Owen
    Gary Owen
    Gary Owen may refer to:* Gary Owen , Welsh snooker player* Gary Owen , English footballer* Gary Owen , Welsh playwright* Gary Owens , American disc jockey and voice actor...

  • Only Boys Aloud: the Academy
  • Torchwood: Miracle Day

Athletics

  • 1 September - Dai Greene wins the gold medal in the men's 400m hurdles at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics
    2011 World Championships in Athletics
    The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011....

    .

Rugby union

  • 2 February: Gavin Henson
    Gavin Henson
    Gavin Lloyd Henson is a Welsh rugby union player, born in Pencoed, South Wales, currently playing for Cardiff Blues.He attracted much media attention as part of a Wales national team which achieved Grand Slams in the Six Nations Championship in 2005 and 2008...

     is released from his contract with Saracens and signs a two-and-a-half year contract with RC Toulonnais
    RC Toulonnais
    RC Toulonnais is a French professional rugby union club based in Toulon in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...

    .
2011 Six Nations Championship
2011 Six Nations Championship
The 2011 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2011 RBS 6 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 12th series of the Six Nations Championship. The annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship was contested by England, France, Ireland, Italy,...

:
  • 4 February - Wales are defeated 19-26 by England at the Millennium Stadium
    Millennium Stadium
    The Millennium Stadium is the national stadium of Wales, located in the capital, Cardiff. It is the home of the Wales national rugby union team and also frequently stages games of the Wales national football team, but is also host to many other large scale events, such as the Super Special Stage...

    .
  • 12 February - Wales defeat Scotland 24-6 at Murrayfield Stadium
    Murrayfield Stadium
    Murrayfield Stadium is a sports stadium located in the west end of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Its all-seater capacity was recently reduced from 67,800 to 67,130 to incorporate the largest permanent "big screen" in the country though it still remains the largest stadium in Scotland and one...

    , Edinburgh.
  • 2 October - Wales defeat Fiji 66-0 at Waikato Stadium, Hamilton, New Zealand, to reach the quarter-finals of the 2011 Rugby World Cup
    2011 Rugby World Cup
    The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Africa at a meeting in Dublin on 17 November 2005...

    .
  • 15 October - Wales are defeated 9-8 by France in the semi-final of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, in a controversial match during which captain Sam Warburton
    Sam Warburton
    Sam Kennedy-Warburton , commonly known as Sam Warburton, is a Welsh rugby union player. Warburton plays regional rugby for the Cardiff Blues and was first capped for Wales in 2009...

     is sent off for a dangerous tackle.
  • 20 October - Wales are defeated 21-18 by Australia in the third-place final of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Deaths

  • January - Stewart Williams, local historian, 85
  • 25 January - Vincent Cronin
    Vincent Cronin
    Vincent Archibald Patrick Cronin, FRSL was a British historical, cultural, and biographical writer, best-known for his biographies of Louis XIV, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great, and Napoleon, as well as for his books on the Renaissance.Cronin was born in Tredegar, Monmouthshire...

    , biographer, 86
  • 28 January - Dame Margaret Price
    Margaret Price
    Dame Margaret Berenice Price, DBE was a Welsh soprano.-Early years:Price was born in Blackwood, Wales. Born with deformed legs, she was operated on at age four and suffered pain in her legs the rest of her life. She often looked after her younger brother John who was born with a mental handicap...

    , soprano, 69
  • 2 February - Margaret John
    Margaret John
    Margaret John was a Welsh, BAFTA award-winning actress, best known for her role as Doris in Gavin & Stacey. She has been described, by fellow actress Ruth Jones, as "an absolute national treasure".-Early life:...

    , actress, 84
  • 13 March - Selwyn Roderick, TV producer, 82
  • 26 March - Diana Wynne Jones
    Diana Wynne Jones
    Diana Wynne Jones was a British writer, principally of fantasy novels for children and adults, as well as a small amount of non-fiction...

    , novelist, 76
  • 29 March - Robert Tear
    Robert Tear
    Robert Tear, CBE was a Welsh tenor and conductor.Tear was born in Barry, Glamorgan, Wales, UK, the son of Thomas and Edith Tear. He attended Barry Boys' Grammar School and during this period sang in the chorus of the first Welsh National Opera's production of 'Cavalleria Rusticana' in April 1946...

    , operatic tenor, 72
  • 1 April - Brynle Williams
    Brynle Williams
    Brynle Williams was a North Wales Assembly Member for the Welsh Conservative Party in the National Assembly for Wales. Elected from the North Wales Regional list, he was Shadow Minister for Rural Affairs from 2007-2011...

    , politician, 62
  • 4 April - Craig Thomas
    Craig Thomas (author)
    David Craig Owen Thomas was a Welsh author of thrillers, most notably the Mitchell Gant series.-Background:...

    , novelist, 68
  • 20 April - Tim Hetherington
    Tim Hetherington
    Timothy Alistair Telemachus Hetherington was a British-American photojournalistwith work that "ranged from multi-screen installations, to fly-poster exhibitions, to handheld device downloads." He was best known for the documentary film Restrepo , which he co-directed with Sebastian Junger; the...

    , photojournalist and former Cardiff student, 41
  • 22 April - W. J. Gruffydd (Elerydd)
    W. J. Gruffydd (Elerydd)
    William John Gruffydd , better known by his bardic name of Elerydd, was a Welsh Baptist minister and poet who served as Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales between 1984 and 1987....

    , poet and former Archdruid, 94
  • 25 April - Islwyn Morris
    Islwyn Morris
    Islwyn Morris was a Welsh actor and director, best known for his roles in Welsh-language television.Morris was born in 1920 in Swansea and began his acting career in repertory theatre there, appearing with Maudie Edwards, among others....

    , actor, 90
  • 8 May - Sir Ronald Waterhouse
    Ronald Waterhouse
    Sir Ronald Waterhouse, GBE, QC was a retired High Court judge who led a three-year inquiry into the Wales child abuse scandal in the 1990s. Ronald Gough Waterhouse was born in Holywell, Flintshire, Wales, UK...

    , judge, 85
  • 11 June - Idwal Robling
    Idwal Robling
    James Idwal Robling was a Welsh sports commentator, who worked for the BBC in Wales for almost 40 years.Robling was born in Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley, where he attended the local grammar school. His education was interrupted by the Second World War, and upon being called up was accepted for...

    , footballer and sports commentator, 84 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/wales/13680785.stm
  • 16 July - 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...

    , poet, 95
  • 27 July - Stewart Jones, actor, 83
  • 2 August - Richard Pearson
    Richard Pearson (actor)
    Richard de Pearsall Pearson was a Welsh actor. Notable films of his career included Brian Desmond Hurst's Scrooge as well as a brief appearance in John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday and cameo roles in three films by Roman Polanski: Macbeth , Tess and Pirates...

    , actor, 93
  • 3 August - Allan Watkins
    Allan Watkins
    Allan Watkins Allan Watkins Allan Watkins (born Albert John Watkins (21 April 1922 – 3 August 2011) was a Welsh cricketer, who played for England in fifteen Tests from 1948 to 1952. He toured India and Pakistan in 1951-2 with the MCC, and also participated in the 1955-6 'A' Tour to Pakistan...

    , cricketer, 89
  • 16 August - Huw Ceredig
    Huw Ceredig
    Huw Ceredig, born Huw Ceredig Jones was a Welsh television actor best known for playing Reg Harries in the Welsh soap opera, Pobol y Cwm.-Personal life:...

    , actor, 69
  • 29 August - Mark Ovendale, footballer, 37
  • 11 September - Andy Whitfield
    Andy Whitfield
    Andy Whitfield was a Welsh actor and model. He was best known for his leading role in the Starz television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand during 2010, a year before his death at the age of 39.-Career:...

    , actor, 39
  • 24 October - Alan Morgan
    Alan Morgan (bishop)
    The Rt Rev Alan Wyndham Morgan OBE was the Suffragan Bishop of Sherwood from 1989 until 2004.He was born on and educated at Gowerton Boys’ Grammar School and St David's College, Lampeter. He was ordained in 1966 and began his ecclesiastical career with curacies in Llangyfelach, Cockett and ...

    , bishop, 71
  • 12 November - Alun Evans, 69, football official
  • 26 or 27 November - Gary Speed
    Gary Speed
    Gary Andrew Speed, MBE was a Welsh football player and manager. He was captain of the Wales national football team until he retired from international football in 2004 and he remains the most capped outfield player for Wales and the second overall, having appeared 85 times at senior level between...

    , Wales football manager, 42 (suicide)
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