# 1931 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1931 to Wales and its people.

## Incumbents

* Archbishop of Wales – Alfred George Edwards, Bishop of St Asaph
* Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Pedrog

## Events

* 3 March - Bertrand Russell succeeds to his brother's earldom.
* 14 April - A meteorite falls to earth on farmland in Pontllynfi, near Caernarfon.
* June - Border Breweries (Wrexham) is formed by a merger.
* date unknown
** The Welsh School of Medicine is founded at Cardiff, later becoming the University of Wales College of Medicine.
** Nancy Astor addresses a meeting in Cardiff on the subject of recruiting women into the police.

## Arts and literature

* Edward Tegla Davies becomes editor of Yr Efrydydd.

### Awards

* National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Bangor)
* National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - David James Jones
* National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Albert Evans Jones

### New books
#### English language

* Eliot Crawshay-Williams - Night in the Hotel
* John Morris-Jones - Welsh Syntax: An Unfinished Draft
* Bertrand Russell - The Scientific Outlook
* Lily Tobias – My Mother's House

#### Welsh language

* John Jenkins (Gwili) - Hanfod Duw a Pherson Crist
* Moelona - Beryl
* Jennie Thomas – Llyfr Mawr y Plant (first appearance of Wil Cwac Cwac)

### Music

* Grace Williams – Sextet for oboe, trumpet, violin, viola, cello and piano

## Film

* Ray Milland appears in The Bachelor Father, Strangers May Kiss, Just a Gigolo, Son of India, Bought, Ambassador Bill, and Blonde Crazy.
* Mary Glynne appears in Inquest

## Broadcasting

* The BBC's Daventry radio transmitter increases its Welsh language output from a monthly to a fortnightly "Welsh interest" programme and includes a regular religious service broadcast entirely in Welsh.

## Sport

* Rugby union
* Wales, under the captaincy of Jack Bassett, win the Five Nations Championship.
** 7 February Wales beat Scotland 13–8 at the Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff.

## Births

* 4 January - Harry Griffiths, footballer (died 1978)
* 10 January - Rosalind Howells, Baroness Howells of St Davids, politician
* 2 February - Glynn Edwards, actor (died 2018)
* 4 March - Gwilym Prichard, landscape painter (d. 2015)
* 13 March - Ted Grace, Swansea-born politician in Australia (died 2020)to 1984.
* 20 March - Orig Williams, wrestler and TV presenter (died 2009)
* 22 March - Leslie Thomas, novelist (died 2014)
* 30 March - Emrys Jones, literary scholar (died 2012)
* 7 April - Eifion Evans, church historian (died 2017)
* 11 April - Lewis Jones, rugby player
* 30 April - Merfyn Jones, footballer (died 2016)
* 11 May - Gerry Humphreys, sound engineer (died 2006)
* 29 May – Christopher Evans, computer scientist (died 1979)
* 23 June - Brian Sparks, Wales international rugby union player (died 2013)
* 29 June - Howard Morgan, cricketer
* 2 July - Frank Williams, actor
* 13 July - Philip Jones, businessman and civil servant (died 2000)
* 13 August
** Roy Evans, trade union leader (died 2015)
** Gareth Lewis, canon of Newport (died 1997)
* 15 August - Gwyn Evans, bowls player
* 1 September - Mair Wynn Hughes, children's author
* 18 September - Roger Howells, footballer (died 1975)
* 5 November - John Morris, Baron Morris of Aberavon, politician (died 2023)
* 17 November - Dudley Price, footballer (died 2021)
* 27 November - Gareth Griffiths, Wales and British Lions rugby union player
* 29 November - Glyn Hughes, footballer (died 1995)
* 25 December - Dafydd Rowlands, Eisteddfod-winning author (died 2001)
* 27 December - John Charles, footballer (died 2004)
* 30 December - John T. Houghton, climate scientist (died 2020)
* date unknown - Brynley F. Roberts, scholar, librarian, National Library of Wales

## Deaths

* 24 January - George Hay Morgan, politician, 64
* 28 January - Robert Henderson, cricketer, 65
* 30 January - Sir Garrod Thomas, physician and politician, 77
* 4 February - David Thomas Jones, administrator, 64
* 22 February - Sir Hugh Vincent, solicitor and Wales international rugby player, 68
* 3 March - Frank Russell, 2nd Earl Russell, 65
* 13 March
** Vernon Hartshorn MP, miners' leader and politician
** Edward Thomas John, politician, 73
* 14 April - John Bryn Roberts, lawyer and politician, 88
* 19 April - Evan Richards, Wales international rugby player, 69
* 12 May - Beddoe Rees, industrialist and politician
* 22 June - Sir Henry Reichel, academic, 74
* 28 July - John Neale Dalton, chaplain and tutor to the British royal family, settled in South Wales, 91
* 7 October - William John Griffith, author,
* 26 October - Edward Perkins Alexander, Wales rugby international, 68
* 29 October - Edward Maes Llaned Owen, engineer, surveyor and merchant, a pioneer of Welsh colonisation in Patagonia, 85
* 2 November - Arthur Cook, miners' leader, 47
* 24 November - Jack Jones, footballer, 62
* 27 December - Alfred Perceval Graves, Irish author settled in Wales, 85