# 1878 in Wales

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This article is about the particular significance of the year 1878 to Wales and its people.

## Incumbents

* Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Clwydfardd
* Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – William Owen Stanley
* Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire – Joseph Bailey, 1st Baron Glanusk
* 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 – William Cornwallis-West
* Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire – Hugh Robert Hughes
* 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 – 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 – Alfred Ollivant
* Bishop of St Asaph – Joshua Hughes
* Bishop of St Davids – Basil Jones

## Events

* March
** The 'basic' process, enabling the use of phosphoric iron ore in steelmaking, developed at the failing Blaenavon Ironworks by Percy Gilchrist and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, is first made public.
** The Swansea Improvements and Tramway Company SITC) opens a street tramway from Gower Street, Swansea, to join up with the Oystermouth Railway.
* 16–17 July – Spanish seaman Joseph Garcia, just released from Usk Prison, murders all 5 members of the Watkins family at Llangybi, Monmouthshire.
* 17 July – Swansea tramways are forced by legal action to return to horse-drawn operation after experimenting with steam locomotives.
* 11 September – In a mining accident at the Prince of Wales Colliery, Abercarn, 268 men are killed.
* Founding of Dr Williams School for Girls at Dolgellau with Eliza Ann Fewings as first head.
* Opening of Marine Drive around the Great Orme at Llandudno.
* A passenger ferry service is established between Bangor and Porthaethwy on the Menai Strait.
* Industrialist John Corbett buys Ynysymaengwyn.
* Slate industry in Wales: The Oakeley quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog absorbs the previously independently-worked Upper and Middle quarries.
* The prison system in Wales is nationalised and brought under centralised government control.
* Nanteos Cup first exhibited.

## Arts and literature
### New books

* Daniel Silvan Evans – Celtic Remains
* William Rees (Gwilym Hiraethog) – Llythyrau 'Rhen Ffarmwr

### Music

* John Owen (Owain Alaw) – Jeremiah (oratorio)

## Sport

* Football – The Welsh Cup competition takes place for the first time, and is won by Wrexham.

## Births

* 4 January – Augustus John, painter (died 1961)
* 30 January – Reg Skrimshire, Wales and British Lions rugby union player (died 1963)
* 24 February – Lou Phillips, Wales international rugby player (killed in action 1916)
* 3 March – Edward Thomas, poet (killed in action 1917)
* 12 March – Mary Sophia Allen, women's rights activist (died 1964)
* 15 March – Thomas Richards, historian and librarian (died 1962)
* 21 March – Edwin Thomas Maynard, Wales international rugby player (died 1961)
* 16 April – Owen Thomas Jones, geologist (died 1967)
* 26 May – Abel J. Jones, writer (died 1949)
* 5 June – Billy O'Neill, Wales national rugby player (died 1955)
* 8 June – Evan Roberts, religious revivalist (died 1951)
* 20 June – Seymour Farmer, politician in Canada (died 1951)
* 1 July – Billy Trew, rugby player and Welsh Triple Crown winning captain (died 1926)
* 27 August – Edgar Rees Jones, lawyer and politician (died 1962)
* 28 October – Charles Benjamin Redrup, aeronautical engineer (died 1961)
* 30 October – Caradog Roberts, musician (died 1935)
* 8 November – Dorothea Bate, palaeontologist (died 1951)
* 31 December – Caradoc Evans, writer (died 1945)
* date unknown – Richard Hughes Williams (Dic Tryfan), Welsh language short story writer (died 1919)

## Deaths

* 16 February – Alexander Jones, footballer, 23 (accidentally shot)
* 25 February – Townsend Harris, Welsh-descended American diplomat, 73
* 30 March – Peter Maurice, priest and writer, 74
* 4 July – William Roos, Welsh artist and engraver, 70
* 13 August – Francis Rice, 5th Baron Dynevor, 74
* 30 September – Evan James, poet, lyricist of the Welsh national anthem, 69
* 18 November – John Jones (Mathetes), clergyman and writer, 57
* 20 November – William Thomas (Islwyn), poet, 46
* 25 November – Llewelyn Lewellin, clergyman and academic, 80
* 5 December – David Price, minister, 67
* 13 December – David Charles, secretary of the University for Wales movement, 56