1905 in the United Kingdom

1905 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1903 | 1904 | 1905 (1905) | 1906 | 1907

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport

1905 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland

Events from the year 1905 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - Edward VII
• Prime Minister - Arthur Balfour, Conservative (until 5 December), Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal

Events

• 1 January - East Coast gales: Great Yarmouth flooded and pier at Scarborough washed away.^[1]
• 5 January - The play The Scarlet Pimpernel opens at the New Theatre in London and begins a run of 122 performances and numerous revivals.
• 16 February - At Haulbowline Base in Ireland, two explosions on board HM Submarine A5, due to gasoline fumes after refueling, kill six of the eleven crew.
• February - Alf Common becomes the first £1,000 footballer in his transfer from Sheffield United to Middlesbrough.
• 10 March
  • An underground explosion at Cambrian Colliery in Clydach Vale kills 33.^[2]
  • Chelsea Football Club founded.^[3]
• 12 May - First public protest by suffragettes, led by Emmeline Pankhurst, at Westminster.^[4]
• 23 May - First performance of George Bernard Shaw's 1903 play Man and Superman at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
• 29 May - The recently formed Chelsea FC are elected to the Football League for the next football season. They are to be based at the new Stamford Bridge stadium, which the existing Fulham F.C. declined an offer to become tenants of.^[5]
• 1 June - GPO London to Brighton horse-drawn parcel post coach makes its last run, being replaced by a motor lorry the following day.^[1]
• 9 June - The Charlton Athletic F.C. is founded.
• 15 June - Princess Margaret of Connaught marries Gustaf, Crown Prince of Sweden.
• 29 June - The Automobile Association inaugurated.^[6]
• 3 July - Release of Cecil Hepworth's short silent drama film Rescued by Rover presenting a significant advance in film techniques.^[7][8]
• 11 July - National Colliery disaster at Wattstown in the Rhondda: an underground explosion kills 120, with just one survivor.^[9]
• 12 August - First running of the Shelsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb, the world's oldest motorsport event to have been staged continuously on its original course
• 25 August - 'Ancient Order of Druids' initiate neo-druidic rituals at Stonehenge.
• 3 October - HMS Dreadnought is laid down, revolutionizing battleship design and triggering a naval arms race.
• 18 October - London County Council's new street at Kingsway and redevelopment of Aldwych are opened.
• 21 October - Henry Wood first conducts a performance of his Fantasia on British Sea Songs at a Trafalgar Day concert in London.
• 26 October - Aspirin sold in the UK for the first time.^[6]
• 5 November - Edward VII declares his eldest daughter The Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife, the Princess Royal. He also orders that the daughters of Princess Louise, Lady Alexandra Duff and Lady Maud Duff are to be styled as Princesses of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with the style Highness.
• 19 November - 39 men die in a fire at a model lodging house in Watson Street, Glasgow.^[10]
• 28 November - Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin in Dublin as a political party whose goal is independence for all of Ireland.
• 4 December - Conservative Party splits over tariff reform lead to the resignation of Balfour as Prime Minister. Campbell-Bannerman takes over for the Liberal Party, pending a general election in the new year.^[4]
• 6 December - ”Jacky” Fisher promoted to Admiral of the Fleet.^[11]

Undated

• The title Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is officially recognized by Edward VII.
• Carmaker Vauxhall opens a factory at Luton, Bedfordshire, as its main manufacturing base following expansion from London.^[12]
• The Naval, Shipping and Fisheries Exhibition is held in Earl's Court to mark 100 years since the Battle of Trafalgar

Publications

• E. Clerihew Bentley's first published collection of clerihews Biography for Beginners, illustrated by G. K. Chesterton.
• Angela Brazil's first novel A Terrible Tomboy.
• Arthur Conan Doyle's anthology The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
• E. M. Forster's novel Where Angels Fear to Tread.
• Robert Hichens' novel The Garden of Allah.^[13]
• W. J. Locke's novel The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne.^[13]
• H. E. Marshall's Our Island Story: A Child's History of England.
• Baroness Orczy's historical novel The Scarlet Pimpernel.^[13]
• H. A. Vachell’s school story The Hill.^[13]
• H. G. Wells' novel Kipps.

Births

• 2 January - Michael Tippett, composer (died 1998)
• 6 January - Idris Davies, Anglo-Welsh poet (died 1953)
• 10 February - Rachel Thomas, actress (died 1995)
• 18 March - Robert Donat, actor (died 1958)
• 3 May - Sebastian Shaw, actor (died 1994)
• 16 May - H. E. Bates, novelist (died 1974)
• 12 July - Prince John (died 1919)
• 23 August - Constant Lambert, composer (died 1951)
• 4 September - Mary Renault, novelist (died 1983)
• 15 October - C. P. Snow, novelist and physicist (died 1980)
• 29 October - Henry Green, novelist (died 1973)
• 26 November - Emlyn Williams, dramatist and actor (died 1987)
• 21 December - Anthony Powell, novelist (died 2000)

Deaths

• 9 April - Frederic Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford, British general (born 1827)
• 3 June - James Hudson Taylor, British missionary (born 1832)
• 25 July - Tom Spencer, joint founder of retailer Marks & Spencer (born 1851)^[14]
• 14 August - Simeon Solomon, artist (born 1840)
• 18 September - George MacDonald, Scottish author and poet, Christian minister (born 1824)
• 19 September - Thomas John Barnardo, philanthropist (born 1845)
• 13 October - Henry Irving, stage actor (born 1838)
• 6 November - George Williams, founder of the YMCA (born 1821)
• 10 November - Rowland Williams (Hwfa Môn), poet and archdruid (born 1823)
• 5 December - Henry Eckford, British horticulturist (born 1823)
• 9 December - Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, British scholar and politician (born 1841)
• 17 December - Robert Jones Derfel, poet and dramatist (born 1824)

References

See also