1982 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1982 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

 * Secretary of State for Wales – Nicholas Edwards
 * Archbishop of Wales – Gwilym Williams, Bishop of Bangor (retired)
 * Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Jâms Nicholas

Events

 * 2 January – The Welsh Army of Workers claims responsibility for a bomb explosion at the Birmingham headquarters of Severn Trent Water.
 * May – Swansea City complete their first season in the English Football League First Division with a sixth-place finish.
 * 2 June – 100,000 people gather in Pontcanna Fields, Cardiff, to welcome Pope John Paul II on the first-ever papal visit to Wales.
 * 8 June – 32 men from the Welsh Guards are killed when the Sir Galahad burns during the Falklands War. The most famous of the survivors is Simon Weston, who is severely burned.
 * 16 June – Welsh miners go on strike to support health workers demanding a 12% pay rise.
 * 30 August – St David's Hall opens in Cardiff.
 * 11 September – 14 skydivers from Wales die when a Chinook helicopter crashes at an airshow in Mannheim in Germany.
 * 16 September – At the Gower by-election brought about by the death of Ifor Davies, Gareth Wardell holds the seat for Labour.
 * 17 October – First issue of Sulyn, the first Sunday newspaper in the Welsh language.
 * 26 November – A plaque is unveiled by the Prince of Wales at the monument erected in memory of those who died in the Gresford Disaster of 1934.
 * date unknown
 * The Inmos microprocessor factory in Newport, Wales, designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership, is completed.
 * Swansea is given the right to have a Lord Mayor. Councillor Paul Valerio becomes the first incumbent.
 * First students begin courses at the Welsh language study centre at Nant Gwrtheyrn.

Arts and literature

 * Roger Rees wins a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
 * Alice Thomas Ellis is shortlisted for the Booker Prize for The 27th Kingdom.

Awards

 * National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Swansea)
 * National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Gerallt Lloyd Owen
 * National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Eirwyn George
 * National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Gwilym M. Jones

New books

 * Gwynfor Evans - Bywyd Cymro
 * Alun Jones - Pan Ddaw'r Machlud
 * R. Merfyn Jones - The North Wales Quarrymen 1874-1922
 * Rhiannon Davies Jones - Eryr Pengwern
 * Kenneth O. Morgan - Rebirth of a Nation: Wales 1880-1980
 * Wynford Vaughan-Thomas - Princes of Wales

Music

 * John Cale - Music For A New Society (album)
 * Dafydd Iwan with Ar Log - Rhwng Hwyl a Thaith

Film

 * Political Annie’s Off Again, film of a local industrial dispute made by Chapter Video Workshop.

Welsh-language television

 * Cefn Gwlad
 * Joni Jones
 * Noson Lawen appears for the first time.
 * S4C starts broadcasting on 1 November

English-language television

 * The Citadel (BBC), filmed in Tredegar.

Sport

 * BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Steve Barry
 * Boxing
 * 14 September – Kelvin Smart becomes British flyweight champion after beating fellow Welsh fighter Dave George.
 * Darts – Ann-Marie Davies wins the Women's World Masters Championship.
 * Snooker
 * 13 January – Terry Griffiths wins the Lada Classic.
 * 4 December – Terry Griffiths wins the UK Snooker Championship, to complete his career Triple Crown (snooker).
 * Terry Parsons wins the World Amateur Championship.

Births

 * 9 January – Catherine Middleton, future Princess of Wales (in England)
 * 14 January – Joe Dunthorne, novelist and poet
 * 1 February – Gavin Henson, rugby player
 * 4 February – Kevin Gall, footballer
 * 2 May – Timothy Benjamin, athlete
 * 12 May – David Thaxton, actor and singer
 * 21 June – Prince William, first child of the Prince and Princess of Wales (in London)
 * 29 August – Mike Phillips, rugby player
 * 2 September – Matthew Rees, footballer
 * 29 November – Imogen Thomas, model
 * 25 December – Rob Edwards, footballer
 * 2 October – Amanda Hale, actress

Deaths

 * 5 January – Jeanetta Thomas, UK's oldest person and oldest Welsh-born woman of all time, 112
 * 11 January – Ronald Lewis, actor, 53
 * 5 February – Ronald Welch, historical novelist, 72
 * 8 February – Cedric Morris, artist, 92
 * 6 May – Jennie Eirian Davies, politician and magazine editor
 * 19 May – Elwyn Jones, television writer, 58
 * 31 May – Eryl Davies, educationist, 59
 * 6 June – Ifor Davies, politician, 71
 * 10 July
 * Gwilym Jenkins (in Lancaster), statistician and systems engineer, 49
 * Gwilym Ellis Lane Owen, philosopher, 60
 * 17 July – Bob John, footballer, 83
 * 16 August – Sydney Hinam, Wales international rugby player, 83
 * 18 October – Idwal Jones, politician, 82
 * 19 October – Iorwerth Peate, social anthropologist and poet, founder of St Fagans National Museum of History, 81
 * 4 November – Talfryn Thomas, character actor, 60
 * 16 November – Ivor Jones, rugby union international, 80
 * 19 November – Herbie Evans, footballer, 88
 * 4 December – Ivor Williams, portrait painter, 74