1881 in Wales

• Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Clwydfardd^[1]

• Lord Lieutenant of Anglesey – William Owen Stanley^[2][3][4][5]
• Lord Lieutenant of Brecknockshire – Joseph Bailey, 1st Baron Glanusk^[6]
• Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire – Edward Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn^[7]
• Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire – Edward Pryse^[8][3]
• 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^[9]
• Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire – Edward Lloyd-Mostyn, 2nd Baron Mostyn^[10]
• Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire – Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort^[11]
• Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire – Edward Herbert, 3rd Earl of Powis^[12]
• Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire – William Edwardes, 4th Baron Kensington^[3]
• Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire – Arthur Walsh, 2nd Baron Ormathwaite

• Bishop of Bangor – James Colquhoun Campbell^[13][14]
• Bishop of Llandaff – Alfred Ollivant^[15]
• Bishop of St Asaph – Joshua Hughes^[16][15]
• Bishop of St Davids – Basil Jones^[15][17]

• January – At least five people freeze to death during blizzards and extreme low temperatures throughout Wales.
• 4 March – Physician William Price marries 22-year-old Gwenllian Llywelyn in a Druidic ceremony at Pontypridd on his 81st birthday.
• 27 August – The Sunday Closing (Wales) Act prohibits the sale of alcohol on a Sunday. This is the first Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom since the 1542 Act of Union whose application is restricted to Wales.^[18]
• 13 October – 19 people drown when the Cyprian is wrecked off the Lleyn peninsula.
• date unknown
  • Welsh Regiment formed as part of the Childers Reforms of the British Army, incorporating the 41st (Welsh) Regiment of Foot.^[19]
  • River Vyrnwy is dammed to create Lake Vyrnwy.

The Cambrian Academy of Art is formed by English and Welsh artists in North Wales.

National Eisteddfod of Wales – held at Merthyr Tydfil

• Chair – Evan Rees ("Dyfed"), "Cariad"^[20]
• Crown – Watkin Hezekiah Williams

• Rugby union
  • 19 February – First Wales national game, played at Blackheath against England. Wales lose heavily.
  • 12 March – The Welsh Rugby Union is formed as the Welsh Football Union in a meeting in Neath.

• 1 January – George Latham, footballer (died 1939)
• 3 January – Lewis Pugh Evans, VC recipient (died 1962)^[21]
• 14 February – William John Gruffydd, academic and politician (died 1954)
• 9 April – John Hart Evans, Wales international rugby player (died 1959)
• 15 April – David Thomas ("Afan"), composer (died 1928)
• 16 April – Ifor Williams, academic (died 1965)^[22]
• 5 May – Rupert Price Hallowes, VC recipient (died 1915)
• 16 June – David Grenfell, politician (died 1968)^[23]
• 20 June – John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute, landowner (died 1947)^[24]
• August – John Lewis, footballer (died 1954)
• 30 September – Philip Lewis Griffiths, lawyer (died 1945)
• 1 October – Cliff Pritchard, Wales international rugby player (died 1954)
• 28 October – Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, explorer (died 1957)
• 10 December – David Phillips Jones, Wales international rugby player (died 1936)
• December – George Hall, politician (died 1965)
• date unknown
  • Robert Williams, trade union leader (died 1936)

• 3 January – William H. C. Lloyd, clergyman, 78
• 19 January – John Roose Elias, poet, 60^[25]
• 11 March – Thomas Brigstocke, portrait painter, 71
• 20 April – William Burges, architect, 53^[26]
• 7 June – William Milbourne James, judge, 74^[27]
• 26 July – George Borrow, author of Wild Wales, 78^[28]
• 13 October – Edwin Barber Morgan, Welsh-descended president of Wells Fargo, 67^[29]
• 20 November – Hugh Owen, educationist, 77^[30]
• 22 November – John Owen Griffith (Ioan Arfon), poet and critic, 53^[31]
• 10 December – Walter Powell, industrialist and politician, 39

• 1881 in Ireland