1889 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1889 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

 * Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Clwydfardd


 * Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – Richard Davies
 * Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire – Joseph Bailey, 1st Baron Glanusk
 * Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire – John Ernest Greaves
 * Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Herbert Davies-Evans
 * Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire – John Campbell, 2nd Earl Cawdor
 * Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire – William Cornwallis-West
 * Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Hugh Robert Hughes
 * Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan – Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot
 * Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire – Robert Davies Pryce
 * Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire – Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort
 * Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – Edward Herbert, 3rd Earl of Powis
 * Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – William Edwardes, 4th Baron Kensington
 * Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – Arthur Walsh, 2nd Baron Ormathwaite


 * Bishop of Bangor – James Colquhoun Campbell
 * Bishop of Llandaff – Richard Lewis
 * Bishop of St Asaph – Joshua Hughes (until 21 January) Alfred George Edwards (from 25 March)
 * Bishop of St Davids – Basil Jones

Events

 * January – First Glamorgan County Council elections are held.
 * 8 February – Nine people drown in a ferry accident at Pembroke Dock.
 * 14 February – The first edition of the North Wales Weekly News is published (under the title Weekly News and Visitors’ Chronicle for Colwyn Bay, Colwyn, Llandrillo, Conway, Deganway and Neighbourhood).
 * 13 March – Twenty miners are killed in an accident at the Brynmally Colliery, Wrexham.
 * 1 April – New elected county councils in England and Wales created by the Local Government Act 1888, take up their powers.  That for Radnorshire meets in Presteigne.
 * June – A lion escapes from a travelling menagerie at Llandrindod Wells.
 * 18 July – Opening of the first dock basin at Barry.
 * 3 August – Opening of Hawarden Bridge.
 * 12 August – The passing of the Welsh Intermediate Education Act marks the beginning of secondary education in Wales.
 * 15 August – Three men are killed in a mining accident at Wenvoe Quarry, Glamorgan.
 * 26 August – Act of incorporation of the Barry Railway Company.
 * Approximate date – The Showmen's Guild of Great Britain is co-founded in Salford as the United Kingdom Van Dwellers Protection Association by Jacob Studt and other active Welsh cinema pioneers.

Awards
National Eisteddfod of Wales – held at Brecon
 * Chair – Evan Rees, "Y Beibl Cymraeg"
 * Crown – Howell Elvet Lewis

New books

 * Owen Morgan Edwards – O'r Bala i Geneva

Music

 * Sir Henry Walford Davies – The Future, for chorus and orchestra

Sport

 * Cricket – Glamorgan County Cricket Club plays its first match, against Warwickshire at Cardiff Arms Park.
 * Rugby union – Bedwas RFC, Blackwood RFC and Llantwit Major RFC are formed.

Births

 * 12 January – John Bryn Edwards, ironmaster and philanthropist (died 1922)
 * 22 January – John Emlyn-Jones, politician (died 1952)
 * 28 January – Phil Waller, Wales and British Lions rugby player (died 1917)
 * 31 January – Jack Evans, footballer (died 1971)
 * 1 February – John Lewis, philosopher (died 1976)
 * 10 February – Howard Spring, novelist (died 1965)
 * 28 February – George Jeffreys, Pentecostalist (died 1962)
 * 5 May – Stanley Winmill, Wales international rugby union player (died 1940)
 * 24 June – Harry Symonds, cricketer (died 1945)
 * 17 July – Aled Owen Roberts, politician (died 1949)
 * 5 August – William Davies Thomas, academic (died 1954)
 * 10 August – Irene Steer, swimmer (died 1977)
 * 21 August – Henry Lewis, Professor at Swansea University (died 1968)
 * 23 October – William Havard, Bishop of St Davids and international rugby player (died 1956)
 * 11 December – Cedric Morris, artist (died 1982)

Deaths

 * 21 January – Joshua Hughes, Bishop of St Asaph, 81
 * 27 March – John Bright, Radical politician associated with Llandudno, 77
 * 10 April – Kilsby Jones, nonconformist minister, writer and lecturer, 76
 * 27 May – George Owen Rees, Welsh-Italian doctor, 75
 * 8 June – Gerard Manley Hopkins, Anglo-Welsh poet, 44 (in Ireland)
 * 17 June – John Hughes, industrialist, 73 (in St Petersburg)
 * 26 June – Walter Rice Howell Powell, landowner and politician, 69
 * 28 September – Samuel Goldsworthy, Wales international rugby player, 34
 * 15 October – Sir Daniel Gooch, railway engineer and politician, 73
 * 29 October – Godfrey Darbishire, Wales rugby international player, 36
 * 14 November – James Stephens, stonemason, Chartist, and later Australian trade unionist, 68
 * 18 November – Charles Easton Spooner, railway pioneer, 71
 * date unknown – G. Phillips Bevan, statistician, geographer and author, 59/60
 * probable – Richard Williams Morgan, clergyman and poet