1940 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1940 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

 * Archbishop of Wales – Charles Green, Bishop of Bangor
 * Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Crwys

Events

 * 21 January - Lowest ever temperature recorded in Wales, -23.3 °C (-9.9 °F) at Rhayader.
 * 27 January - A freak ice storm across the UK brings down telephone and electricity lines in many parts of Wales.
 * 3 March - The steamer Cato is damaged by a mine off Nash Point and 13 of the crew are killed.
 * March - The scenic railway opens at Barry Island Pleasure Park.
 * May
 * The newly created Coalition Government includes Hugh Dalton as Minister of Economic Warfare.
 * Alun Lewis enlists.
 * 8 May - Three Nazi German Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111s crash in separate incidents over Wales: one near Wrexham, one at Malpas in Denbighshire, and one at Bagillt, Flint. In all nine crew are killed and four captured.
 * 3 July - Cardiff is bombed for the first time.
 * 9 July - Cardiff suffers its first bombing fatalities.
 * 10 July - Ten people are killed in an air raid on Swansea Docks, as shipping convoys become a target.
 * 11 July - Communist minister and poet Thomas Evan Nicholas ("Niclas y Glais") and his son are arrested and interned for "endeavouring to impede recruitment to HM Forces". Nicholas is eventually released on 20 October.
 * 11 August - Seventeen people are killed in an air raid on Manselton, Swansea.
 * 14 August - Three German Heinkel 111s are shot down during an air-raid on Cardiff, and another over North Wales after a raid on RAF Hawarden.
 * 22 August - A steamer, the Thorold, is sunk by German aircraft off the Skerries. Ten crew are killed.
 * 2 September - 33 people are killed in an air raid on Swansea.
 * 3 September - Eleven people are killed in an air raid on Cardiff.
 * 4 September - A German Junkers Ju 88 crashes near Machynlleth. Four crew and a Gestapo officer are captured.
 * 13 September - A German Heinkel 111 crashes into a house in Newport, Monmouthshire.
 * 22 November - The steamer Pikepool is damaged by a mine off Linney Head, Pembrokeshire, with the loss of 17 crew.
 * The Urdd changes its policy to include 16- to 25-year-olds.
 * Gwilym Williams becomes chaplain of St David's College, Lampeter.
 * Percy Cudlipp becomes editor of the Daily Herald.
 * Alun Talfan Davies and his brother Aneirin found the publishing house Llyfrau'r Dryw.

Arts and literature

 * Lewis Casson directs John Gielgud in King Lear.

Awards

 * National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Bangor (radio))
 * National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - withheld
 * National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - T. Rowland Hughes
 * National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - withheld

New books

 * Richard Bennett - Cyfrol Goffa Richard Bennett
 * Clara Novello Davies - The Life I Have Loved
 * David Delta Edwards - Rhedeg ar ôl y Cysgodion
 * John Cowper Powys - Owen Glendower (U.S. publication)
 * Howard Spring - Fame is the Spur
 * Ransom Riggs - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (published 2011; partially set in Wales, 1940)

Music

 * Mai Jones & Lyn Joshua - "We'll Keep a Welcome" (performed for the first time in the forces' variety show, Welsh Rarebit on 29 February)
 * Grace Williams - Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes (score dated 9 February)

Film

 * March 25 - Plaza Cinema opens in Port Talbot.
 * April 6 - Paul Robeson and Rachel Thomas star in The Proud Valley (cinematic release)

Broadcasting

 * 25 February - The Proud Valley is the first film to have its première on radio, when the BBC broadcasts a 60-minute version.
 * May - The BBC Radio Variety Department relocates to Bangor because of wartime disruption; it will broadcast from here until August 1943.
 * August - The National Eisteddfod of Wales is broadcast on the British Home Service, including 15 minutes each for the crown and chair ceremonies.

Sport

 * Football
 * 13 April - Wales defeat England 1 - 0.
 * Quoits - Jack Price wins the Welsh championship for the third time.

Births

 * 4 January - Brian Josephson, theoretical physicist
 * 17 January - Leighton Rees, darts champion (died 2003)
 * 23 January - Ted Rowlands, politician
 * 1 March - David Broome, show jumping champion
 * 16 May - Sir Gareth Roberts, physicist (died 2007)
 * 7 June - Tom Jones, singer
 * 29 June - John Dawes, rugby player (died 2021)
 * 17 July - C. W. Nicol, Japanese writer and environmentalist (died 2020 in Japan)
 * 3 September - Eduardo Hughes Galeano, Uruguayan writer of Welsh descent
 * 20 September - Anna Pavord, gardening writer
 * 1 October - Atarah Ben-Tovim, flautist and children's concert promoter (died 2022)
 * 14 October - Christopher Timothy, actor
 * 31 October - Eric Griffiths, skiffle guitarist with The Quarrymen (died 2005)
 * 4 November - Daniel Sperber, Talmudic scholar
 * 30 November - Peter Shreeves, footballer, coach and manager
 * 5 December
 * Michael Jones, medieval historian
 * "Exotic" Adrian Street, professional wrestler (died 2023)
 * 24 December - John Marek, politician
 * date unknown
 * Donald Evans, Welsh-language poet
 * Keith Miles, detective novelist and screenwriter

Deaths

 * 12 February - William Edwards, educationist, 89
 * 21 February - Sir Alfred Edward Lewis, banker, 71
 * 15 March - John Davies, author, 71
 * 20 March - William Thomas Edwards (Gwilym Deudraeth), poet
 * 7 April - Ernest Rowland, priest and Wales international rugby player, 75
 * 27 April - Fred Cornish, Wales international rugby player
 * 23 May - Hugh Hesketh Hughes, polo player, 37 (killed in action)
 * 4 June - Owen Picton Davies, businessman and politician, 68
 * 25 June - Stanley Winmill, Wales international rugby union player, 51
 * 3 July - George Bevan Bowen, landowner, 82
 * 8 August - Daniel Lleufer Thomas, lawyer and biographer, 76
 * 20 August - Henry Maldwyn Hughes, Wesleyan minister
 * 26 September - W. H. Davies, poet and author, 69
 * 9 October - Sir Wilfred Grenfell, medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador
 * 9 November - Gwilym Owen, physicist
 * 15 December
 * Robert Thomas Jones, quarrymen's leader, 66
 * Sir David Richard Llewellyn, 1st Baronet, industrialist