This article is about the particular significance of the year 1941 to Wales and its people.
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- January – RAF Llandwrog opens near Caernarfon as a Bomber Command training airfield.[2]
- 2 January – Cardiff Blitz: 165 people are killed in Luftwaffe air raids on Cardiff, and Llandaff Cathedral is seriously damaged.[3]
- 17 January – Swansea Blitz: 58 people are killed in an air raid on Swansea, the town's worst individual raid.[4]
- 20 January – Welsh press magnate William Ewart Berry is created Viscount Camrose.
- 13 February – RAF Valley opens on Anglesey as a Fighter Command station.
- 14 February – Six people are killed in an air raid on Port Talbot.[5]
- 17 February – Noted Baptist minister Samuel James Leeke finds his Swansea home destroyed by an air raid.[6]
- 19-21 February – Swansea Blitz: 240 people are killed in air raids on Swansea. Much of the city centre is destroyed.[7][8]
- 26 February – Four people are killed in an air raid on Cardiff. Buildings damaged include Cardiff University and a children's home.[9]
- February – Six cattle are killed in an air raid on Cwmbran.
- 3 March – 51 people are killed in air raids at Cardiff and Penarth.
- 11 March – Three people are killed in air raids on Swansea.
- 21 March – The coaster Millisle is sunk by German planes off Caldey Island, killing ten crew.[10]
- 27 March – The Faraday, a cable-laying ship, is sunk by German planes off St. Ann's Head in Pembrokeshire, killing 16 crew.[10]
- 31 March – Three people are killed in air raids on Swansea.
- March – Co-developer Edward George Bowen is on board the first American experimental airborne 10 cm radar.
- 12 April – Three people are killed in air raids on Swansea.
- 15 April – 12 people are killed in an air raid on RAF Carew Cheriton.[11]
- 29 April – 26 people are killed in air raids aimed at coal mines in the Rhondda, and a further seven in Cardiff.
- May – The Ministry of Information issues more than 14 million copies across the United Kingdom of a leaflet Beating the Invader, with a preface from Churchill, giving advice on what to do "if invasion comes"; there are also 160,400 copies of a Welsh version headed Trechu'r Goressgynnydd.[12]
- 8 May – Three German Heinkel He 111s are shot down. Nine German crew members are killed, and the remaining three taken prisoner.
- 11 May – Three people are killed in an air raid on RAF Saint Athan.
- 12 May – 32 people are killed in an air raid on Pembroke Dock.
- 26–27 May – "Operation David": Western Command stages an exercise involving 20,000 troops simulating an invasion landing between Porthcawl and Kidwelly and a "Battle of Pontardulais".[13]
- 30 May – Major air raid on Newport.
- 1 June – A German Junkers Ju 88 is shot down near Llandudno, killing four crew.
- 11 June – The Baron Carnegie, a cargo ship, is sunk by German planes off Strumble Head, killing 25 crew.[14]
- 13 June – The ferry St Patrick is sunk by German planes off Strumble Head, killing thirty.[15][16]
- 1 July – 37 people are killed in an air raid on Newport.
- 5 July – Alun Lewis marries Gwenno Ellis in Gloucester.[17]
- 11 July – In a mining accident at Rhigos Colliery in Glamorgan, 16 miners are killed.[18]
- 28 July – An RAF Wellington bomber crashes into Garn Fadryn on the Lleyn peninsula, killing six crew.
- 7 August – An RAF Wellington bomber crashes into Rhosfach in the Berwyn range, killing six crew.
- 28 August – An RAF Blackburn Botha with a crew of three crashes into the sea off Rhosneigr, Anglesey. A further eleven people die in the rescue attempt.
- September – Sir Archibald Rowlands joins the Beaverbrook and Harriman mission to Moscow.
- 10 October – Two planes collide at RAF Llandwrog, killing seventeen.[19][20]
- 12 October – A German Heinkel He 111 is shot down near Holyhead, killing four crew.[21]
- 22 October – A German Heinkel 111 is shot down near Nefyn, killing four crew.[21]
- October – Alun Lewis receives his army commission.
- 25 November – Five miners are killed in a mining accident at Abergorki Colliery, Rhondda.
- 6 December – Ruperra Castle is seriously damaged by fire while soldiers are billeted there.[22]
- unknown dates
Awards
- National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Old Colwyn)
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair – Rowland Jones, "Hydref"[29]
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown – J. M. Edwards, "Peiriannau"[30]
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal – withheld
- Stars of BBC radio's ITMA programme are moved to Bangor to record the show, because of the Blitz in London.[32]
- 1 January – Martin Evans, geneticist and academic (in Stroud, Gloucestershire)
- 5 February – Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn, politician (d. 2003)
- 26 February – Rhys Jones, archaeologist (d. 2001)
- 27 February – Charlie Faulkner, rugby union footballer
- 28 February – Tristan Garel-Jones, politician (d. 2020)
- 31 March – David Trefgarne, 2nd Baron Trefgarne, politician[33]
- 11 April – Arthur Davies, operatic tenor (d. 2018)
- 13 April – Margaret Price, operatic soprano (d. 2011)
- 20 April – Grace Coddington, fashion model and editor
- 16 June – Bill Morris, rugby union footballer
- 7 July
- 11 August – Nerys Hughes, actress
- 20 August – Anne Evans, operatic soprano
- 26 September – Patrick Hannan, political journalist (d. 2009)
- 26 October – Charlie Landsborough, singer and composer
- 10 December – Jeff Jones, cricketer
- Approximate date – Ieuan Rees, calligrapher and stonecutter
- 2 January – Sir John Rowland, civil servant
- 11 January – Frederick Llewellyn-Jones, lawyer, 75[34]
- 20 January – Margaret Lloyd George, first wife of David Lloyd George, 74[35]
- 22 January – David Williams, Swansea politician, 75
- 3 February – Sir Clifford John Cory, 1st Baronet, coal-owner, 81[36]
- 10 March – Sir William Henry Seager, politician, 79
- 11 March
- 16 March – Sir David Hughes-Morgan, solicitor and landowner, 70?
- 20 March – Jack Powell, Wales rugby union international, 58
- 17 April – Sir William Henry Hoare Vincent, civil servant, 75[39]
- 11 July – Arthur Evans, archaeologist of Welsh descent, 90[40]
- 13 July – Lot Jones, footballer, 59
- 15 July – Jack Elwyn Evans, rugby footballer, 43 or 44
- 23 July – Joe Jones, footballer, 54
- 27 July – Thomas Alfred Williams, Dean of Bangor, 71
- 17 August – David Edward Lewis, businessman and philanthropist, 75[41]
- 11 September – Harry Grindell Matthews, inventor, 61[42]
- 16 September – George Irby, 6th Baron Boston, scientist and archaeologist, 81[43]
- 18 October – Geraint Goodwin, writer, 38[44]
- 10 December – Admiral Tom Phillips, Welsh-descended naval officer, 53 (killed in Japanese attack on HMS Prince of Wales)[45]
- 22 December – Richard Summers, Wales rugby union international, 81
- 31 December – George Isaac Thomas (Arfryn), composer and conductor, 46[46]
Michael J. F. Bowyer (1990). Action Stations: Military airfields of Wales and the North-West. Stephens. p. 116.
Griffiths, Ralph (1991). The City of Swansea : challenges and change. Wolfeboro Falls, NH: A. Sutton. p. 131. ISBN 9780862996765.
Callan, Michael (1993). Anthony Hopkins : in darkness and light. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. p. 21. ISBN 9780283061561.
Alban, J. R. (1994). The three nights' blitz : select contemporary reports relating to Swansea's air raids of February 1941. Swansea: City of Swansea. pp. 10–13. ISBN 9780946001255.
James Edgar Johnson; John Foreman (1994). Air War, 1941: From the Blitz to the non-stop Offensive. Air Research Publications. p. 72.
Slater, D. (2019). "The Teme aqueduct". Journal of the Railway & Canal Historical Society. 39: 493.
"Channel Steamer Sunk By Bombs". The Times. No. 48954. London. 17 June 1941. col E, p. 4.
"Railway Steamers Help In The War". The Times. No. 49902. London. 7 July 1944. col G, p. 8.
May, John (1994). Reference Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 252. ISBN 9780708312346.
Bosman, Suzanne (2008). The National Gallery in Wartime. London: National Gallery Company. ISBN 978-1-85709-424-4.
Issued 24 January 1941 in the USA and 6 February 1942 in the UK (not published in 1940 and 1941 as shown in the texts). Dante Thomas, A Bibliography of the Principal Writings of John Cowper Powys, unpublished Ph.D thesis (State University of New York at Albany, 1971), p. 55.
Stenton, Michael (1976). Who's who of British members of Parliament : a biographical dictionary of the House of Commons based on annual volumes of Dod's Parliamentary companion and other sources. Hassocks, Sussex, Eng. Atlantic Highlands, N.J: Harvester Press Humanities Press. p. 210. ISBN 9780855273255.
Staff (21 January 1941). "Dame Margaret Lloyd George". The Times. London, UK. p. 4.
Michael Stenton (976). Who's who of British Members of Parliament: 1919-1945. Harvester Press. p. 77.
Who was who. A. & C. Black. 1952. p. 964.
Steven R. Fischer (1997). Glyph-Breaker. Springer New York. p. 29. ISBN 9780387982410.
Sam Adams (1975). Geraint Goodwin. University of Wales Press [for] the Welsh Arts Council.