1919 in the United Kingdom

1920 in the United Kingdom:

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1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921

British and Irish current events

Sport

1919 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

Events from the year 1919 in the United Kingdom.

Contents 1 Incumbents 2 Events 2.1 Undated 3 Publications 4 Births 5 Deaths 5.1 Unknown dates 6 Notes 7 See also

Incumbents

• Monarch - King George V
• Prime Minister - David Lloyd George, coalition

Events

• 1 January - In Scotland, HMS Iolaire is wrecked on rocks: 205 die.
• 31 January - Battle of George Square: The Army is called in to deal with riots and protests against high rents in Glasgow.
• 27 February - Marriage of Princess Patricia of Connaught to Commander The Hon. Alexander Ramsay, the first royal wedding at Westminster Abbey since the 14th century.
• 4–5 March - Kinmel Park Riots by troops of the Canadian Expeditionary Force awaiting repatriation at Kinmel Camp, Bodelwyddan, in North Wales. Five men are killed, 28 injured, and 25 convicted of mutiny.^[1]
• 13 April - Amritsar Massacre: British and Gurkha troops in India kill 400 and injure more than 1200 people in a massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar.
• May - Beginning of the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
• 29 May - Observations made by Arthur Eddington during a solar eclipse confirm part of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.

• 15 June - Aviators John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown complete the first non-stop transatlantic plane flight.^[2]
• 21 June - Scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow.
• 28 June - Treaty of Versailles signed.
• 6 July - The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship.^[2]
• 15 July - Sloops HMS Gentian and HMS Myrtle sunk by mines in the Gulf of Finland while assisting Estonia against the Bolsheviks, with nine crew lost.^[3]
• 18 July - The Cenotaph in London, as designed by Edwin Lutyens, is unveiled to commemorate the dead of World War I.^[2]
• 19 July - Victory parades across Britain celebrate the end of World War I.^[4]
• 31 July - Police strike in London and Liverpool for recognition of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers. Over 2,000 strikers are dismissed.
• 8 August - Treaty of Rawalpindi ends the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
• 19 August - Afghanistan gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• 30 August - The Football League is resumed, four years after it was abandoned due to the war.^[5]
• 1 September - Forestry Commission set up.^[6]
• 27 September - Last British troops leave Archangel, Russia, and leave fighting to the Russians.
• 13 October - Leeds City, of the Football League Second Division, are expelled from the Football League amid financial irregularities.^[7]
• 17 October - With the collapse of Leeds City, a new football club is formed for the city - Leeds United. With Port Vale set to take the old club's place in the Football League, the new Leeds club will have to wait until at least the next football season for a chance of Football League membership.^[8]
• 20 October - Collapse of the man engine at Levant Mine in Cornwall kills 31.
• 1 December - Lady Astor becomes the second woman elected to the British House of Commons and the first to take her seat.^[9]
• 23 December - Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act removes legal disabilities on women entering the secular professions.^[10]
• 25 December - Opening of Cliftonhill stadium in Coatbridge the home of Albion Rovers F.C. The opening match sees them lose 2 - 0 to St. Mirren.
• 30 December - Lincoln's Inn, in London, admits its first female bar student.

Undated

• Britain comes off the Gold standard.^[11]
• Housing Act provides government subsidy for the provision of council houses.^[12]
• Creation of the "Mobile Patrol Experiment", the forerunner of the Metropolitan Police Service's Flying Squad.
• By bribing corrupt Iranians liberally, the UK negotiates a treaty allowing the installation of British advisers in every department of the government. The Majlis refuses to ratify the treaty.

Publications

• 22 March - The Children's Newspaper begins publication.
• Daisy Ashford's novel The Young Visiters (written in 1890 when she was nine).
• Gilbert Frankau's novel Peter Jackson, Cigar Merchant: a romance of married life.^[13]
• John Maynard Keynes' book The Economic Consequences of the Peace.
• W. Somerset Maugham's novel The Moon and Sixpence.
• Siegfried Sassoon's The War Poems of Sigfried Sassoon.
• P. G. Wodehouse's short story collection My Man Jeeves.

Births

• 23 January - Bob Paisley, football player and manager (died 1996)
• 24 February - Betty Marsden, comedy actress (died 1998)
• 18 May - Margot Fonteyn, ballet dancer (died 1991)
• 17 June - Beryl Reid, actress (died 1996)
• 7 July - Jon Pertwee, actor (died 1996)
• 15 July - Iris Murdoch, novelist and philosopher (died 1999)
• 26 July - James Lovelock, scientist and proponent of the Gaia hypothesis
• 1 August - Stanley Middleton, novelist (died 2009)
• 28 August - Godfrey Hounsfield, electrical engineer and inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2004)
• 27 September - James H. Wilkinson, mathematician (died 1986)
• 5 October - Donald Pleasence, actor (died 1995)
• 22 October - Doris Lessing, writer

Deaths

• 18 January - Prince John of the United Kingdom (born 1905)
• 4 April - William Crookes, chemist and physicist (born 1832)
• 14 June - Weedon Grossmith, writer (born 1854)
• 30 June - John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1842)
• 26 July - Edward Poynter, painter (born 1836)
• 11 August - Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American philanthropist (born 1835)
• 18 October - William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor, financier and statesman (born 1848)

Unknown dates

• Ernest Albert Waterlow, painter (born 1850)
• Charles Wyndham, actor (born 1837)

Notes

See also

Years in the United Kingdom Years in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 Years in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012