1957 in Wales

← 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1957 in Wales → 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
See also:	List of years in Wales Timeline of Welsh history 1957 in The United Kingdom Scotland Elsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1957 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

For United Kingdom incumbents, see 1957 in the United Kingdom § Incumbents.

• Minister of Welsh Affairs – Henry Brooke[1]
• Archbishop of Wales
  • John Morgan, Bishop of Llandaff (died 26 June)[2]
  • Edwin Morris, Bishop of Monmouth (elected)[3]
• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales
  • Dyfnallt (outgoing)[4]
  • William Morris (incoming)[5]

Events

• 18 January – Nigel Birch is appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury.[6]
• 25 February – Goronwy Rees, Principal of the University of Wales College Aberystwyth, resigns following allegations that he has spied for the Soviet Union.[7]
• 28 February – Carmarthen by-election is held following the death of Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris the previous year. The Liberal Party lose the seat to Labour's Lady Megan Lloyd George, herself a former Liberal MP.[8]
• 1 July – Royal physician Horace Evans is created 1st Baron Evans of Merthyr Tydfil.[9]
• 6 July – The Royal Welsh Show is held at Blaendolau; the showground is flooded to a depth of 1 metre.
• 16 July – Five people drown in a boating accident at Barmouth.
• 31 July – The Tryweryn Bill, permitting Liverpool City Council to build a reservoir which will drown the village of Capel Celyn, becomes law.[10]
• 8 September – The town hall at Aberystwyth is seriously damaged by fire.
• 21 November – Morgan Phillips and Aneurin Bevan, along with Richard Crossman, successfully sue The Spectator for libel.[11]
• 12 December – Wales gets its own minister of state in the Westminster government for the first time. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan rejects requests for a Secretary of State.[12]
• date unknown – Brecon Beacons becomes the third of Wales's national parks.[13]

Arts and literature

• 5 October – Paul Robeson (blacklisted at this time from travelling outside the United States) addresses the Miners' Eisteddfod at the Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl via a transatlantic telephone link to the miners' leader Will Paynter.

Awards

• National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Llangefni)
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – Gwilym Tilsley, "Cwm Carnedd"[14]
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – Dyfnallt Morgan, "Drama Fydryddol Rhwng Dau"[15]
• National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal – Tom Parri Jones, Teisennau Berffro[16]

New books

Welsh language

• Käte Bosse-Griffiths – Mae'r Galon wrth y Llyw
• Islwyn Ffowc Elis – Wythnos Yng Nghymru Fydd
• Bobi Jones – Y Gân Gyntaf
• W. Leslie Richards – Telyn Teilo
• Gwilym Tilsley – Y glöwr a cherddi eraill

English language

• John Charles – King of Soccer
• Rhys Davies – The Perishable Quality
• Trevor Ford – I Lead the Attack
• Dick Francis – The Sport of Queens
• T. Harri Jones – The Enemy in the Heart

New drama

• Albert Evans-Jones – Absalom Fy Mab

Music

• Shirley Bassey – Banana Boat Song (her first chart single)[17]
• Alun Hoddinott – Harp Concerto (written for Osian Ellis)[18]
• Daniel Jones – String Quartet 1957[19]

Film

• Donald Houston stars in The Girl in the Picture.

Broadcasting

• Alun Oldfield-Davies becomes senior regional BBC controller, after several years of successful campaigning for Welsh-language television.

Welsh-language television

• February – Cefndir (first regular Welsh-language programme)
• September – Dewch i Mewn (magazine programme)[20]

English-language television

• Adaptation of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, starring Donald Houston and William Squire.

Sport

• Football
  • Swansea-born John Charles transfers from Leeds United to Juventus of Turin for a transfer fee of £65,000 (almost double the previous British record)
  • Pelé scores a hattrick against Wales
• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year – Dai Rees[21]
• Inaugural Glamorgan County Silver Ball Trophy competition held; Taibach RFC are champions.

Births

• 10 March – Terry Holmes, rugby player[22]
• 19 March (in Birmingham) – Jane Davidson AM, politician
• 20 April – Geraint Wyn Davies, actor
• 26 April – Edwina Hart AM, politician
• 8 May – Eddie Butler, rugby union player and commentator (died 2022)[23]
• 17 May – Anne Main, educator and politician
• 12 June – Javed Miandad, Glamorgan cricketer
• 1 July – Wayne David MP, politician
• 20 July – Chris Bromham, stuntman
• 11 August – Leighton Andrews AM, politician
• 11 September – Julie Williams, neuropsychological geneticist and Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales
• 11 October
  • (in Holyhead) Dawn French, actress and comedian
  • Jon Langford, musician
• 19 October – Karl Wallinger, folk rock songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (died 2024)
• 10 November – Nigel Evans MP, politician
• 21 December – Roger Blake, actor
• Charlotte Voake, children's illustrator[24]

Deaths

• 6 March – Gwladys Evan Morris, actress and writer, 77[25]
• 21 March – Russell Thomas, doctor, lawyer and politician, 60
• 30 July – William Richard Arnold, rugby player, 76
• 26 June – John Morgan, Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Llandaff, 71[26]
• 1 August – Llewellyn Lloyd, Wales international rugby union player, 80
• 15 August – Alice Williams, writer, painter and voluntary worker, 94[27]
• 20 August – Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, explorer and admiral, 75
• 12 September – Tom Pearson, Wales national rugby player, 85
• 26 September – Arthur Powell Davies, Unitarian minister and writer, 55[28]
• 10 October – Lloyd Davies, footballer, 80[29]
• 12 November – Wilfred Hodder, Wales international rugby player, 61
• 7 December
  • Maurice Jones, priest and academic, 94[30]
  • Alfred Ernest Watkins, footballer, 79[31]
• 9 December – Llewellyn Gwynne, first bishop of Egypt and Sudan, 94[32]

See also

• 1957 in Northern Ireland

References

1. Thomas Glyn Watkin (2012). The Legal History of Wales. University of Wales Press. p. 192.
2. Mary Gwendoline Ellis (2001). "Morgan, John (1886-1957), Archbishop of Wales". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
3. John Stuart Peart-Binns (1 January 1990). Alfred Edwin Morris, Archbishop of Wales. Gomer. ISBN 978-0-86383-636-7.
4. National Library of Wales (1955). Annual Report – Presented by the Council to the Court of Governors. The Library.
5. "Former home of poet William Morris, Caernarfon". HistoryPoints. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
6. The Accountant. Lafferty Publications, Limited. 1957. p. 93.
7. Tony Curtis (7 February 2007). After the First Death: An Anthology of Wales and War in the Twentieth Century. Seren Books. ISBN 978-1-85411-450-1.
8. Craig, F. W. S. (1971). British parliamentary Election Results 1950-1970. Chichester: Political Reference Publications. p. 570. ISBN 0 900178 02 7.
9. "No. 41116". The London Gazette. 2 July 1957. p. 3964.
10. Matthew Jarvis (2008). Welsh Environments in Contemporary Poetry: Writing Wales in English. University of Wales Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-7083-2152-2.
11. Alan Watkins (1 January 1990). A slight case of libel: Meacher v Trelford and others. Duckworth. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-7156-2334-3.
12. James Mitchell (15 October 2009). Devolution in the UK. Manchester University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-7190-5358-0.
13. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Commission on Education and Communication (2002). Education and Sustainability: Responding to the Global Challenge. IUCN. p. 82. ISBN 978-2-8317-0623-8.
14. "Winners of the Chair". National Eisteddfod of Wales. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
15. "Winners of the Crown". National Eisteddfod of Wales. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
16. "Winners of the Prose Medal". National Eisteddfod of Wales. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
17. Colin Larkin (1993). The Guinness who's who of fifties music. Guinness Publishing. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-85112-732-3.
18. The Anglo-Welsh Review. Dock Leaves Press. 1980. p. 129.
19. Marianne Barton (1979). British Music Yearbook. Classical Music. p. 623. ISBN 978-0-7136-1963-8.
20. Jamie Medhurst (1 June 2010). A History of Independent Television in Wales. University of Wales Press. pp. 29–. ISBN 978-0-7083-2308-3.
21. "BBC Wales Sport Personality winners". BBC Sport. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
22. Peter Jackson (1998). Lions of Wales: A Celebration of Welsh Rugby Legends. Mainstream. ISBN 978-1-84018-026-8.
23. "Eddie Butler, Wales rugby union international who went on to succeed Bill McLaren as the BBC's 'voice of rugby' – obituary". The Telegraph. 16 September 2022. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
24. "Charlotte Voake - Literature". literature.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
25. "Obituary: Gwladys Evan Morris". The Stage. 14 March 1957. p. 10. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
26. 'MORGAN, Most Rev. John', Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 29 May 2017
27. Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan, ‘Williams, Alice Helena Alexandra (1863–1957)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 20 Oct 2017
28. Felice Levy; Facts on File, Inc (1979). Obituaries on File. Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-87196-372-7.
29. Joyce, Michael (2004). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Soccerdata. ISBN 1-899468-67-6.
30. Mary Gwendoline Ellis. "Jones, Maurice (1863-1957), priest and college principal". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
31. "Watkins, Alfred Ernest (Alf) (Ernie) (Fred)". astonvillaplayerdatabase.com. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
32. H̤̊asan Makkī Muh̤̊ammad Ah̤̊mad (1989). Sudan, the Christian design: a study of the missionary factor in Sudan's cultural and political integration, 1843-1986. Islamic Foundation. ISBN 978-0-86037-193-9.