1870 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1870 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

 * Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – William Owen Stanley
 * Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire – Charles Morgan, 1st Baron Tredegar
 * Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire – Edward Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn
 * Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Edward Pryse
 * Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – John Campbell, 2nd Earl Cawdor
 * Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire – Robert Myddelton Biddulph
 * Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Sir Stephen Glynne, 9th Baronet
 * Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot
 * Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire – Edward Lloyd-Mostyn, 2nd Baron Mostyn
 * Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire – Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort
 * Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – Sudeley Hanbury-Tracy, 3rd Baron Sudeley
 * Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – William Edwardes, 3rd Baron Kensington
 * Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – John Walsh, 1st Baron Ormathwaite


 * Bishop of Bangor – James Colquhoun Campbell
 * Bishop of Llandaff – Alfred Ollivant
 * Bishop of St Asaph – Thomas Vowler Short (retired); Joshua Hughes (from 9 May)
 * Bishop of St Davids – Connop Thirlwall

Events

 * January — Francis Kilvert begins his famous diary.
 * 14 February — In a mining accident at Morfa Colliery, Port Talbot, 30 men are killed.
 * April — George Osborne Morgan introduces the Burials Bill and the Places of Worship (Acquisition of Land) Bill to Parliament.
 * unknown dates
 * Sir George Gilbert Scott completes the restoration of Bangor Cathedral.
 * In India, Timothy Richards Lewis discovers a nematoid worm, which he calls Filaria sanguinis hominis (later "Wuchereria bancrofti").
 * William Thomas Lewis, 1st Baron Merthyr of Senghenydd, begins acquiring the collieries later known as the Lewis Merthyr collieries in Rhondda.
 * Jacob Lloyd is created a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Pius IX.
 * Thomas William Rhys Davids begins a series of articles for the Ceylon branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Journal.

New books

 * John Ceiriog Hughes — Oriau'r Haf
 * David Lloyd Davies — Ceinwen Morgan neu y Rian Ddiwylliedig
 * Richard Davies (Mynyddog) — Yr Ail Gynnig

Sport

 * Billiards — John Roberts, Sr. loses the English billiards championship after 21 years.
 * Association football — Druids of Rhiwabon formed.

Births

 * 13 January — Conway Rees, rugby player (died 1932)
 * 10 March — George "Honey Boy" Evans, Welsh-born US entertainer (died 1915)
 * 20 March — Eluned Morgan, author (died 1938)
 * 25 March — Wallace Watts, Wales international rugby union player (died 1950)
 * 19 June — Charles Nicholl, Wales international rugby union player (died 1939)
 * 29 June
 * Arthur Boucher, Wales international rugby union player (died 1948)
 * Sir Charles Dillwyn-Venables-Llewellyn, 2nd Baronet, politician (died 1951)
 * 14 July — Helena Jones, doctor and suffragette (died 1946)
 * 16 July — William Henry Prosser, teacher and cricketer (died 1952)
 * 27 July — Herbert Millingchamp Vaughan, historian (died 1948)
 * 18 August — William Cope, 1st Baron Cope, politician and Wales international rugby player (died 1946)
 * 27 September — Thomas Jones (T. J.), civil servant (died 1955)
 * 22 October — J. Glyn Davies, scholar, poet and songwriter (died 1953)
 * 3 November — Norman Biggs, Wales international rugby player (died 1908)
 * 15 November — William Elsey, Wales international rugby player (died 1936)
 * 20 December — Sir David Davies, politician (died 1958)
 * 29 December — Robert Dewi Williams, teacher, minister and writer (died 1955)
 * 31 December — David John Jones, Dean of Llandaff (died 1949)
 * December — Ernest William Jones, steamship agent and cricketer (died 1941)
 * date unknown
 * John William Evans, politician (died 1906)
 * John Hughes Morris, missionary (died 1953)

Deaths

 * 16 March — Thomas Parry, Bishop of Barbados, 74
 * 4 April — Owen Wynne Jones, writer, 42
 * 15 May — Charles Hinde (army officer), soldier, 49
 * 23 June — Isaac Hughes, Calvinist missionary and preacher, 71/72
 * 27 May — John Etherington Welch Rolls, Monmouthshire landowner and father of 1st Baron Llangattock, 63
 * 1 August — Levi Gibbon, balladeer, 92
 * 17 September — Joseph David Jones, composer, 43
 * 16 November — Harry Longueville Jones, antiquary, 64