This article is about the particular significance of the year 1883 to Wales and its people.

• 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 – Richard Lewis^[15] (from 25 April)
• Bishop of St Asaph – Joshua Hughes^[16][15]
• Bishop of St Davids – Basil Jones^[15][17]

• 27 January – In the same storm, the James Gray is wrecked on Tusker Rocks, Porthcawl, and the Agnes Jack off Port Eynon. The Mumbles lifeboat puts out, and 5 of its crew are drowned in the rescue attempt, in which Jessie Ace and Margaret Wright assist.^[18]
• 16 February – Six million tons of rock collapse at the Welsh Slate Company's underground quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog.
• 1 February – Five miners are killed in an accident at the Lewis Merthyr Colliery.
• 25 June – Six miners are killed in an accident at the New Duffryn Colliery, Rhymney.
• July – The steamship Rishanglys leaves three seamen, who are believed to be suffering from cholera, on the island of Flat Holm; one of them subsequently dies.^[19]
• 21 August – Five miners are killed in an accident at the Gelli Colliery, Gelli, Glamorgan.
• 24 October – Cardiff University opens (under the name of University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire).
• 31 October – 18 people are drowned when the German barque Alhambra sinks off Holyhead.
• 13 November – Merthyr Tydfil-born Samuel Griffith becomes Premier of Queensland for the first time.
• c. November? – Closure of Point of Ayr lighthouse.
• Peak year for zinc production in Wales.
• Penydarren Ironworks closes completely.
• Welsh-Canadian artist Robert Harris is commissioned to paint the Meeting of the Delegates of British North America.

• Football – Wrexham win the Welsh Cup for the second time in its six-year history.
• Rugby union
  • Wales take part in the inaugural Home Nations Championship
  • First home international game played, hosted at St. Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea.
  • First Wales match against Scotland. Wales lose by three goals to one.

• 6 January (in Shirehampton) – Harry Uzzell, Wales international rugby union captain (died 1960)
• 23 March – William Evans, Wales dual code international rugby player (died 1946)
• 30 April – David John de Lloyd, composer (died 1948)^[21]
• 7 May – Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley, newspaper magnate (died 1968)
• 12 May (in Glasgow) – James Walker, MP for Newport 1929–31 (died 1945)
• 28 May (in Gayton) – Clough Williams-Ellis, architect (died 1978)^[22]
• 12 June (in London) – Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda, suffragette (died 1958)^[23]
• 8 August – Iesu Grist Price, son of William Price (died 1884)
• 13 September (in South Shields) – Percy Thomas, architect (died 1969)^[24]
• 14 October – Dick Thomas, Wales international rugby player (died 1916)
• 23 November – James 'Tuan' Jones, Wales and British Lion rugby player (died 1964)
• 13 December – Sir Frederick Rees, historian and academic (died 1967)^[25]
• date unknown – John Jones (Tydu), poet (died 1968)

• 25 January – John Elias Davies, harpist, 35^[26]
• 29 January
  • John Owen (Owain Alaw), composer, 61
  • Owen Gethin Jones, industrialist and poet, 66^[27]
• May – John Batchelor, businessman and politician, 63^[28]
• 28 May – Hugh Jones, Principal of Llangollen Baptist College, 51
• 18 August – Roger Vaughan, Benedictine monk and priest, Archbishop of Sydney, 49^[29]
• 5 November – James Walton, Yorkshire-born textile inventor and industrialist, 80
• 8 November – William Rees (Gwilym Hiraethog), poet, 81^[30]
• 25 December – Townshend Mainwaring, politician, 76^[31]

• 1883 in Ireland