1973 in Wales

Centuries:	18th; 19th; 20th; 21st; ;
Decades:	1950s; 1960s; 1970s; 1980s; 1990s;
See also:	List of years in Wales; Timeline of Welsh history 1973 in The United Kingdom Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1973 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

Secretary of State for Wales – Peter Thomas^[1]
Archbishop of Wales – Gwilym Williams, Bishop of Bangor^[2]
Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Brinli^[3]

Events

10 February - A special conference of the Trades Union Congress is held at Llandrindod Wells as part of the campaign to establish a Wales TUC.^[4]^[5]
April - Elections take place to the new county councils of Wales
April - The first Welsh-language papur bro community newspaper, Y Dinesydd, is founded.^[6]
10 May - Elections take place to the new Wales district councils, with big gains for the Labour Party in South Wales.^[7]
May - Sony opens its factory in Bridgend, the first major Japanese investment in Wales.
15 May - The Llyn Brianne dam is officially opened by Princess Alexandra.^[8]
17 July - Sixteen-year-old Sandra Newton is found murdered at Tonmawr.^[9]
16 September - Sixteen-year-olds Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd are found murdered at Llandarcy. Their murders, along with that of Sandra Newton in July, will remain unsolved for 29 years.^[10]
23 October - Professor Brian Josephson wins the Nobel Prize for Physics.^[11]
During the year, there are 424 road deaths in Wales - an all-time record.
Drilling for oil and gas begins off the coast of Wales. A fourth oil refinery opens at Milford Haven.

Arts and literature

The Welsh Philharmonia Orchestra is founded.
Theatr Ardudwy at Coleg Harlech, designed by Colwyn Foulkes & Partners, opens.^[12]
Sir Richard Armstrong becomes conductor of Welsh National Opera.
Joe Strummer begins his studies at Newport College of Art.
Welsh actress Angharad Rees marries Christopher Cazenove.

Awards

National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Ruthin)
National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Alan Llwyd
National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Alan Llwyd
National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Emyr Roberts
National Eisteddfod of Wales: Drama Medal - Urien Wiliam

New books

English language

Leo Abse - Private Member
Gwynfor Evans - Wales Can Win
Richard Hughes - The Wooden Shepherdess
Emlyn Williams – Emlyn

Welsh language

Huw Lloyd Edwards - Y Llyffantod
Jane Edwards - Tyfu
W. J. Gruffydd (Elerydd) - Cerddi'r Llygad
Moses Glyn Jones - Y Ffynnon Fyw^[13]
T. Llew Jones - Barti Ddu^[14]
Judith Maro - Atgofion Haganah^[15]
Caradog Prichard - Afal Drwg Adda^[16]
Gomer M. Roberts - Cloc y Capel^[17]

New drama

Islwyn Ffowc Elis - Harris

Music

23 November - Max Boyce records his legendary Live at Treorchy show at Treorchy Rugby Club.^[18]
Karl Jenkins' first album with Soft Machine, Six, wins the Melody Maker British Jazz Album of the Year award. Jenkins also wins the miscellaneous musical instrument award.
Grace Williams - Ave Maris Stella and Fairest of Stars

Visual arts

Ivor Roberts-Jones - Statue of Winston Churchill, Parliament Square, unveiled on 1 November by Lady Churchill.^[19]

Film

Welsh-language films

None

English-language films

Holiday on the Buses filmed on location at Pontins holiday camp, Prestatyn^[20]

Broadcasting

The Labour Party publishes a study arguing that independent television arrangements in the UK are causing non Welsh-speaking residents to lose their Welsh identity.^[21]

Welsh-language television

Youth music programme Disc a Dawn ends its six-year run, to be replaced the following year by Gwerin 74, a folk music show.^[22]

English-language television

Fish (with John Ogwen)
Hang out your Brightest Colours, controversial documentary by Kenneth Griffith^[23]
Philip Madoc makes a memorable appearance as a U-boat captain in Dad's Army.^[24]

Sport

Athletics – Cardiff Amateur Athletic Club wins the British Athletics League Championship for the second time.
Cycling – The Welsh Cycling Union is formed.
Horse racing – Geoff Lewis wins both the Epsom Oaks and the 1,000 Guineas on "Mysterious".^[25]
Rugby union – Japan plays its first rugby match in Europe at Penygraig in the Rhondda Valley.
Snooker – Ray Reardon wins his second World Championship title.^[26]
Berwyn Price wins BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year.^[27]

Births

20 January - Stephen Crabb, politician (born in Scotland)^[28]
15 February - Adrian Lewis Morgan, actor
27 February - Mark Taylor, rugby union player and manager
24 April - Gabby Logan, television presenter
3 May - Jamie Baulch, athlete (born in Nottingham)^[29]
10 May - Ryan Nicholls, footballer
29 May - Lee Jones, footballer
6 July - Bradley Dredge, golfer
6 August - Donna Lewis, singer
22 August - Lee Dainton, skateboarder
17 September – Jason Mohammad, radio and television sports presenter
6 October - Ioan Gruffudd, actor^[30]
9 October - Sian Evans, singer
3 November - Mark Evans, comedy scriptwriter
29 November - Ryan Giggs, footballer
25 December - Ewen MacIntosh, comic actor (died 2024)^[31]

Deaths

8 January - Sir David Hughes Parry, professor of law and university administrator, 80^[32]
11 January - Vernon Morris, cricketer
30 January - Trystan Edwards, architectural critic, town planner and amateur cartographer, 88^[33]
12 March - Willie Llewellyn, Wales international rugby player, 94
19 March - Sir Clement Price Thomas, surgeon, 79^[34]
23 May - Kenneth Allott, poet and critic^[35]
29 July - Guy Morgan, rugby player, 65
9 August - Donald Peers, singer, 66^[36]
11 August
- Johnnie Clay, Test cricketer, 75
- Gil Morgan, rugby league player, 65
21 September - C. H. Dodd, theologian, 89^[37]
8 October - Evan Tom Davies, mathematician, 69^[38]
3 November - Melville Richards, academic, 63^[39]
4 November - Billy Williams, dual-code international rugby player, 67
16 November - Dai Hiddlestone, Wales international rugby player, 83
24 November - Brigadier Hugh Llewellyn Glyn Hughes, soldier and medical administrator, 81^[40]
date unknown
- Anne Griffith-Jones, educationist, 83^[41]
- Elena Puw Morgan, novelist
- Wick Powell, rugby player

References

^ "Obituary". The Guardian. 6 February 2008.
^ David Wilbourne (8 June 2018). "Archbishop Gwilym Owen Williams — "G. O.": His life and opinions by D. T. W. Price". Church Times. Retrieved 6 May 2022.
^ Meic Stephens (April 1986). The Oxford companion to the literature of Wales. Oxford University Press. p. 523. ISBN 978-0-19-211586-7.
^ Arthur Ivor Marsh (1 December 1979). Concise encyclopedia of industrial relations: with bibliography. Gower Press. p. 336. ISBN 978-0-566-02095-7.
^ University of Wales Press: The Wales TUC, 1974-2004
^ "Y Dinesydd". Y Dinesydd official website. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
^ Stephen Mitchell, John O'Sullivan (11 May 1973). "Labour sweep to power in S. Wales". South Wales Echo. p. 1.
^ "Llyn Brianne Dam". Engineering Timelines. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
^ Nicole Martin (7 June 2002). "Dead man named as triple murderer after DNA tests". The Telegraph. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
^ BBC News Wales
^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1973". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
^ "Theatr Ardudwy, Harlech (407907)". Coflein. RCAHMW. 2008-07-11. Retrieved 2021-09-22.
^ Meic Stephens (1998). Cydymaith i lenyddiaeth Cymru. University of Wales Press. p. 395. ISBN 978-0-7083-1383-1.
^ Aleksander Bednarski; Maciej Czerniakowski; Paweł Tomasz Czerniak (5 February 2015). New Perspectives in Celtic Studies. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-4438-7506-6.
^ Jasmine Donahaye (15 February 2012). Whose People?: Wales, Israel, Palestine. University of Wales Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-78316-497-4.
^ Russell Davies (15 June 2015). People, Places and Passions: A Social History of Wales and the Welsh 18701948. University of Wales Press. p. 650. ISBN 978-1-78316-239-0.
^ Meic Stephens (1998). Cydymaith i lenyddiaeth Cymru. University of Wales Press. p. 646. ISBN 978-0-7083-1383-1.
^ "Max Boyce - Hymns And Arias (Uk,1974,Emi 2291,PROMO 7)". discoogle.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2011-03-06.
^ Howard, Philip (2 November 1973). "Resolute and defiant as ever, Churchill's statue is revealed". The Times. London.
^ Howard Maxford (8 November 2019). Hammer Complete: The Films, the Personnel, the Company. McFarland. p. 400. ISBN 978-1-4766-2914-8.
^ Medhurst, Jamie (1 June 2010). A History of Independent Television in Wales. University of Wales Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-7083-2308-3.
^ "BBC Year Book 1975" (PDF). BBC. p. 117. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
^ Mark Connelly (10 January 2014). The IRA on Film and Television: A History. McFarland. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-7864-8961-9.
^ Bill Pertwee (3 November 2009). Dad's Army: The Making of a TV Legend. Bloomsbury USA. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-84486-105-7.
^ Chronicle of the Horse. Chronicle of the Horse, Incorporated. April 1973. p. 10.
^ "Profile: Ray Reardon". Eurosport. 2 March 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
^ "BBC Wales Sport Personality winners". BBC Sport. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
^ Valerie Passmore (2005). Dod's Parliamentary Companion: Guide to the General Election, 2005. Dod's Parliamentary Companion Limited. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-905702-57-5.
^ "Jamie Baulch - profile". World Athletics. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
^ "Ioan Gruffudd biography". BBC Arts. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
^ "Ewen MacIntosh, Comedian on British Sitcom 'The Office', Dies at 50". New York Times. 21 February 2024. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
^ D. W. Logan: Parry, Sir David Hughes (1893–1973), rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2010, accessed 30 October 2012
^ Goulden, Gontran; Saint, Andrew (2004). "Edwards, (Arthur) Trystan (1884–1973)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31062. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Alun Roberts. "Price Thomas, Clement (1893-1973), pioneering surgeon". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
^ Ian Sansom, ‘Allott, Kenneth Cyril Bruce (1912–1973)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2015 accessed 4 March 2017
^ Trevor Herbert, 'Peers, Donald Rhys Hubert (1909–1973)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, May 2011; online edn, September 2011 accessed 16 April 2017
^ John Tudno Williams. "Dodd, Charles Harold (1884-1973), biblical scholar". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
^ "Evan Tom Davies". www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk. School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
^ Dr Brynley Francis Roberts. "Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig" (in Welsh). Retrieved 3 February 2016.
^ "Gen. Hugh Hughes, freed Belsen Camp". New York Times. 30 November 1973. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
^ W. Ambrose Bebb (15 July 2009). A Welsh Hundred: Glimpses of Life in Wales Drawn from a Pair of Family Diaries for 1841 and 1940. AuthorHouse. p. 175. ISBN 978-1-4678-6128-1.

[1] "Obituary". The Guardian. 6 February 2008.

[2] David Wilbourne (8 June 2018). "Archbishop Gwilym Owen Williams — "G. O.": His life and opinions by D. T. W. Price". Church Times. Retrieved 6 May 2022.

[3] Meic Stephens (April 1986). The Oxford companion to the literature of Wales. Oxford University Press. p. 523. ISBN 978-0-19-211586-7.

[4] Arthur Ivor Marsh (1 December 1979). Concise encyclopedia of industrial relations: with bibliography. Gower Press. p. 336. ISBN 978-0-566-02095-7.

[5] University of Wales Press: The Wales TUC, 1974-2004

[6] "Y Dinesydd". Y Dinesydd official website. Retrieved 20 February 2019.

[7] Stephen Mitchell, John O'Sullivan (11 May 1973). "Labour sweep to power in S. Wales". South Wales Echo. p. 1.

[8] "Llyn Brianne Dam". Engineering Timelines. Retrieved 20 February 2019.

[9] Nicole Martin (7 June 2002). "Dead man named as triple murderer after DNA tests". The Telegraph. Retrieved 31 January 2019.

[10] BBC News Wales

[11] "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1973". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 20 February 2019.

[12] "Theatr Ardudwy, Harlech (407907)". Coflein. RCAHMW. 2008-07-11. Retrieved 2021-09-22.

[13] Meic Stephens (1998). Cydymaith i lenyddiaeth Cymru. University of Wales Press. p. 395. ISBN 978-0-7083-1383-1.

[14] Aleksander Bednarski; Maciej Czerniakowski; Paweł Tomasz Czerniak (5 February 2015). New Perspectives in Celtic Studies. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-4438-7506-6.

[15] Jasmine Donahaye (15 February 2012). Whose People?: Wales, Israel, Palestine. University of Wales Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-78316-497-4.

[16] Russell Davies (15 June 2015). People, Places and Passions: A Social History of Wales and the Welsh 18701948. University of Wales Press. p. 650. ISBN 978-1-78316-239-0.

[17] Meic Stephens (1998). Cydymaith i lenyddiaeth Cymru. University of Wales Press. p. 646. ISBN 978-0-7083-1383-1.

[18] "Max Boyce - Hymns And Arias (Uk,1974,Emi 2291,PROMO 7)". discoogle.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2011-03-06.

[19] Howard, Philip (2 November 1973). "Resolute and defiant as ever, Churchill's statue is revealed". The Times. London.

[20] Howard Maxford (8 November 2019). Hammer Complete: The Films, the Personnel, the Company. McFarland. p. 400. ISBN 978-1-4766-2914-8.

[21] Medhurst, Jamie (1 June 2010). A History of Independent Television in Wales. University of Wales Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-7083-2308-3.

[22] "BBC Year Book 1975" (PDF). BBC. p. 117. Retrieved 20 February 2019.

[23] Mark Connelly (10 January 2014). The IRA on Film and Television: A History. McFarland. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-7864-8961-9.

[24] Bill Pertwee (3 November 2009). Dad's Army: The Making of a TV Legend. Bloomsbury USA. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-84486-105-7.

[25] Chronicle of the Horse. Chronicle of the Horse, Incorporated. April 1973. p. 10.

[26] "Profile: Ray Reardon". Eurosport. 2 March 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2019.

[27] "BBC Wales Sport Personality winners". BBC Sport. Retrieved 29 July 2021.

[28] Valerie Passmore (2005). Dod's Parliamentary Companion: Guide to the General Election, 2005. Dod's Parliamentary Companion Limited. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-905702-57-5.

[29] "Jamie Baulch - profile". World Athletics. Retrieved 18 December 2019.

[30] "Ioan Gruffudd biography". BBC Arts. Retrieved 5 April 2020.

[31] "Ewen MacIntosh, Comedian on British Sitcom 'The Office', Dies at 50". New York Times. 21 February 2024. Retrieved 21 February 2024.

[32] D. W. Logan: Parry, Sir David Hughes (1893–1973), rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2010, accessed 30 October 2012

[33] Goulden, Gontran; Saint, Andrew (2004). "Edwards, (Arthur) Trystan (1884–1973)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31062. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[34] Alun Roberts. "Price Thomas, Clement (1893-1973), pioneering surgeon". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 18 December 2019.

[35] Ian Sansom, ‘Allott, Kenneth Cyril Bruce (1912–1973)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2015 accessed 4 March 2017

[36] Trevor Herbert, 'Peers, Donald Rhys Hubert (1909–1973)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, May 2011; online edn, September 2011 accessed 16 April 2017

[37] John Tudno Williams. "Dodd, Charles Harold (1884-1973), biblical scholar". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 18 December 2019.

[38] "Evan Tom Davies". www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk. School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland. Retrieved 28 June 2015.

[39] Dr Brynley Francis Roberts. "Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig" (in Welsh). Retrieved 3 February 2016.

[40] "Gen. Hugh Hughes, freed Belsen Camp". New York Times. 30 November 1973. Retrieved 5 April 2020.

[41] W. Ambrose Bebb (15 July 2009). A Welsh Hundred: Glimpses of Life in Wales Drawn from a Pair of Family Diaries for 1841 and 1940. AuthorHouse. p. 175. ISBN 978-1-4678-6128-1.

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1973 in Wales

Incumbents

Events

Arts and literature

Awards

New books

English language

Welsh language

New drama

Music

Visual arts

Film

Welsh-language films

English-language films

Broadcasting

Welsh-language television

English-language television

Sport

Births

Deaths

See also

References