1949 in Wales

Centuries:	18th; 19th; 20th; 21st; ;
Decades:	1920s; 1930s; 1940s; 1950s; 1960s;
See also:	List of years in Wales; Timeline of Welsh history1949 inThe United KingdomScotlandElsewhere

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1949 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

Easter - Urdd Gobaith Cymru holds its first "Celtic camp".^[2]
April - The government decides to establish an Advisory Council for Wales.^[3]
20 May - Council for Wales and Monmouthshire first meets, with Huw T. Edwards as its first chairman.^[4]
12 June - Britain’s first all-world Muslim conference is held in Cardiff.
21 September
- The first comprehensive school in Wales is opened in Holyhead, Anglesey.^[5]
- A meteorite falls through the roof of the Prince Llewelyn Hotel, Beddgelert.^[6]
- John Morgan is enthroned as Archbishop of Wales.^[1]
4 November - Cwmbran is designated as the first New Town in Wales under powers of the New Towns Act 1946.^[7]
26 December - The Gwyn Nicholls memorial gates at Cardiff Arms Park are officially opened.^[8]
date unknown
- Closure of the granite quarry at Llanbedrog, the last in the town.
- Sale of Bron-y-garth, Porthmadog, ancestral home of Sir Lewis Casson.
- Bodnant Garden is donated to the National Trust.^[9]
- Meteorologist David Brunt is knighted.
- Gwynfor Evans is elected to Merionethshire County Council.^[10]
- Jack Jones spends three months in the USA promoting the Moral Re-Armament Movement.

National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Dolgellau)
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Roland Jones, "Y Graig"^[11]
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - John Tudor James, "Meirionnydd"^[12]
- National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - withheld^[13]

Dannie Abse - After Every Green Thing^[14]
Stan Awbery - Labour's Early Struggles in Swansea
David James Davies - Towards an Economic Democracy
Cledwyn Hughes - A Wanderer in North Wales
Arthur Leach - Charles Norris of Tenby and Waterwynch
Gordon Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald of Gwaenysgor - Newfoundland at the Cross Roads
Thomas Mardy-Jones - Character, Coal and Corn – the Roots of British Power^[15]
Bertrand Russell - Authority and the Individual^[16]
Gwyn Thomas - All Things Betray Thee^[17]

Aneirin Talfan Davies - Gwyr Llen
Richard Davies (Isgarn) - Caniadau Isgarn (posthumously published)^[18]
John Daniel Vernon Lewis - Bydd melys fy myfyrdod: detholiad o lyfr y Salmau^[19]
Kate Roberts - Stryd y Glep^[20]
Louie Myfanwy Thomas
- as Jane Ann Jones - Y bryniau pell^[21]
- as Ffanni Llwyd - Diwrnod yw ein bywyd (submitted to National Eisteddfod; published 1954)
William Nantlais Williams - Emynau'r daith

Ivor Novello - King's Rhapsody^[22]
Grace Williams - Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes - first recording, made by London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mansel Thomas (first recording of any work by a female Welsh composer)

Blue Scar, starring Kenneth Griffith and Rachel Thomas^[23]
The Last Days of Dolwyn, starring Emlyn Williams, Richard Burton and Hugh Griffith
Yr Etifeddiaeth (The Heritage), documentary by Geoff Charles and John Roberts Williams, depicting traditional ways of life in rural North Wales, with narration by Cynan; the first film to be made in the Welsh language
The Fruitful Year, a promotional film about Wales, commissioned by the Post Office National Savings
The Road to Yesterday, travelogue made for troops serving abroad

January - Glyn Griffiths writes: "It would be advisable now for Wales to weigh in with its campaign of aggravation and persuasion to get a Welsh Radio Corporation."^[24]

Football - John Charles joins Leeds United
Netball - The Welsh team plays its first international matches, against Scotland and England
Rugby Union
- 26 March - France beats Wales 5–3 at the Stade Colombes in Paris
- 26 December - Rhys Gabe officially opens the Gwyn Nicholls Memorial Gates at Cardiff Arms Park.^[25]
Steeplechasing - The first Welsh Grand National to be run at Chepstow Racecourse is won by Dick Francis riding Fighting Line.

20 January - Artie Moore, wireless operator (born 1887)^[35]
21 January
- J. H. Thomas, politician, 72^[36]
- Rowley Thomas, Wales international rugby player, 85
7 March - T. Gwynn Jones ("Tir-na-Nog"), poet and journalist, 77
20 April - Sir Evan Davies Jones, 1st Baronet, civil engineer and politician, 90^[37]
21 April - Sir Alfred Thomas Davies, civil servant, 88
27 April - Evan Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar, poet and occulist, 55
1 May - Horace Lyne, Wales international rugby player and WRU president, 88^[38]
3 May - David John Tawe Jones, composer, 64
8 May - Abel J. Jones, teacher, writer and public servant
6 June - Walter E. Rees, Secretary of the Welsh Rugby Union, 86
3 July - William McCutcheon, Wales international rugby player, 78/79^[39]
23 July - John Bodvan Anwyl (Bodfan), lexicographer, 74^[40]
10 August - William Jones Williams, public servant, 86
26 August - Edgar Chappell, sociologist, 70^[41]
1 September - Dr Teddy Morgan, Welsh international rugby player, 69
24 October - T. Rowland Hughes, author, 46
9 November - William Dowell, Wales dual code rugby international, 64
16 December - George Maitland Lloyd Davies, pacifist politician, 59^[42]