1872 in Wales

Incumbents

• Prince of Wales — Albert Edward
• Princess of Wales — Alexandra

  Events

• 5 January — In a mining accident at Blackwood Colliery, five men are killed.
• 2 March — In a mining accident at Victoria Colliery, Ebbw Vale, nineteen men are killed.
• 18 June — A derailment occurs in the Pencader Tunnel on the Carmarthen & Cardigan Railway.
• 12 July — Cardiff Tramways Company begins operation of horse trams.
• 1 August — Minffordd railway station is opened.
• 9 October — University College Wales, Aberystwyth, opens with 26 students; Thomas Charles Edwards is its first principal.
• Stocks are used on the last recorded occasion in the UK, at Adpar in Cardiganshire, when a man is imprisoned in them for drunkenness.
• Nitrocellulose manufacture at Penrhyndeudraeth begins.
• Colwyn Bay Hotel opened.

  Arts and literature

New books

• R. D. Blackmore — The Maid of Sker
• Thomas Thomas — Hynodion Hen Bregethwyr Cymru

  Music

• The South Wales "Cor Mawr", conducted by Griffith R. Jones wins a national choral competition at Crystal Palace.

  Sport

• Cricket — First game played at Elwy Grove Park, St Asaph.
• Football — 28 September: Wrexham Football Club is founded. They play at the Racecourse Ground.

  Births

• 21 February — Evan Lorimer Thomas, clergyman and academic
• 16 March — Vernon Hartshorn, politician
• 6 May — William Llewellyn Thomas, Wales international rugby player
• 10 May — Tom Pearson, Wales international rugby player
• 18 May — Bertrand Russell, philosopher
• 14 July — David Morgan, Wales international rugby player
• 14 September — Albert Jenkin, Wales international rugby player
• 8 October — John Cowper Powys, Anglo-Welsh writer
• date unknown — Thomas Jeremiah Williams, lawyer and politician

  Deaths

• 9 January — Crawshay Bailey, industrialist
• 24 March — James Williams, clergyman and philanthropist, 81
• 13 April — Thomas Vowler Short, Bishop of St Asaph
• 3 August — William Davies Evans, chess player, 82
• 18 August — Evan Jones, missionary, 84
• 22 August — Evan Davies, educator, 84
• 26 September — William Williams, poet
• 16 October — David Lewis, MP for Carmarthen, 75
• 11 November — Mary Anne Disraeli, wife of British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, 80