1917 in the United Kingdom

1917 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1915 | 1916 | 1917 (1917) | 1918 | 1919

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport

1917 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland

Events from the year 1917 in the United Kingdom. This year is dominated by World War I.

Incumbents

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

Events

Women's Land Army recruitment poster

• 19 January - Silvertown explosion: a blast at a munitions factory in London kills 73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over £2M-worth of damage.^[1]
• 25 January - Armed merchantman SS Laurentic (1908) is sunk by mines off Lough Swilly with the loss of 354 of the 475 aboard.
• 26 January - The sea defences at the village of Hallsands, Devon are breached, leading to all but one of the houses becoming uninhabitable.
• 1 February - Atlantic U-boat Campaign (World War I): Germany announces its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare, rescinding the 'Sussex pledge'.
• 2 February - Bread rationing introduced.^[2]
• 21 February - Elder Dempster Line troopship SS Mendi is rammed by SS Darro off the Isle of Wight, killing 646.
• February - Formation of the Women's Land Army, superseding the Women's National Land Service Corps.^[3]
• March - Establishment of the Imperial War Cabinet, a body composed of the chief British ministers and the prime ministers of the Dominions (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa) to set policy.
• 11 March - World War I: British forces led by Sir Stanley Maude capture Baghdad, the southern capital of the Ottoman Empire.
• 26 March - World War I: First Battle of Gaza - British cavalry troops retreat after 17,000 Turks block their advance.
• 28 March - The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps founded.^[2]
• 5 April - Food Hoarding Order issued to prevent households from hoarding food in short supply.^[4]
• 6/7 May - World War I: First bomb dropped on London by a fixed-wing aircraft (one death).^[5]
• 25 May - World War I: First daylight bombing raid on the UK by fixed-wing aircraft: 95 killed in Folkestone area.^[5]
• 4 June - The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is established as an order of chivalry by George V under letters patent.^[6][7]
• 7 June - World War I: Battle of Messines in Flanders opens with the British Army detonating 19 ammonal mines under the German lines, killing 10,000 in the deadliest deliberate non-nuclear man-made explosion in history, which can be heard in London.
• 13 June - World War I: Second daylight bombing raid on London by fixed-wing aircraft: 162 killed.^[5]
• 9 July - HMS Vanguard is blown apart by an internal explosion at her moorings in Scapa Flow, Orkney, killing an estimated 843 crew with no survivors.^[8]
• 17 July
  • King George V issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal Family will bear the surname Windsor.
  • Winston Churchill is appointed Minister of Munitions.

December: British troops on parade at Jaffa Gate after the capture of Jerusalem and occupation of southern Palestine

• July - First Cottingley Fairies photographs taken, apparently depicting fairies; a hoax not admitted by the child creators until 1981.
• 2 August - Squadron Commander E.H. Dunning becomes the first pilot to land his aircraft on a ship^[9] when he lands his Sopwith Pup on HMS Furious in Scapa Flow but is killed five days later during another landing on the ship.
• 17 August - One of English literature's most important and famous meetings takes place when Wilfred Owen introduces himself to Siegfried Sassoon at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh.
• 21 August - Most provisions of Corn Production Act come into force. This guarantees minimum prices for wheat and oats and specifies a minimum wage for agricultural workers.
• 5 October - Sir Arthur Lee donates the country house Chequers to the nation.^[2]
• November - Women's Royal Naval Service established.^[10]
• 2 November - Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour makes the Balfour Declaration proclaiming British support for establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine.
• 7 November - World War I: Third Battle of Gaza ends — British forces capture Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.
• 16 November - British troops occupy Tel Aviv and Jaffa in Palestine.
• 17 November - People's Dispensary for Sick Animals established by Maria Dickin.
• 20 November - World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins^[2] — British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are soon beaten back.
• 11 December - World War I: Battle of Jerusalem — General Edmund Allenby leads units of the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force into Jerusalem on foot following the Ottoman Empire's surrender of the city.
• 31 December - World War I: British government imposes rationing of sugar (8 oz per person per week).^[11]

Undated

• Early? - J. R. R. Tolkien, on medical leave from the British Army, begins writing The Book of Lost Tales (the first version of The Silmarillion); thus Middle-earth is first chronicled.^[12]
• Women's Forestry Service under Miss Rosamond Crowdy instituted under the Timber Supply Department of the Board of Trade.
• Charles Glover Barkla wins the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements."^[13]
• Gay Crusader wins the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the Derby, 2,000 Guineas and St. Leger.

Publications

• The anthology of British war poetry The Muse in Arms.
• Joseph Conrad's novella The Shadow Line (in book form).
• Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short story collection His Last Bow.
• T. S. Eliot's poems Prufrock, and other observations.
• Robert Graves' poems Fairies and Fusiliers.
• Ivor Gurney's poems Severn and Somme.
• Daniel Jones's An English Pronouncing Dictionary.
• Siegfried Sassoon's The Old Huntsman, and Other Poems.
• Edward Thomas's collection Poems (posthumous) (including Adlestrop).
• P. G. Wodehouse's short story collection The Man with Two Left Feet.
• W. B. Yeats's poetry collection The Wild Swans at Coole.

Births

• 19 January - Graham Higman, mathematician (died 2008)
• 25 February - Anthony Burgess, author (died 1993)
• 2 March - John Gardner, composer (died 2011)
• 12 March - Googie Withers, actress (died 2011)
• 20 March - Vera Lynn, actress and singer
• 22 March - Paul Rogers, actor (died 2013)
• 24 March - John Kendrew, molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (died 1997)
• 10 June - Ruari McLean, typographer (died 2006)
• 1 July - Humphry Osmond, psychiatrist (died 2004)
• 10 July - Reg Smythe, cartoonist (died 1998)
• 30 August - Denis Healey, author and politician
• 3 September - Anthony Robert Klitz, artist (died 2000)
• 2 October - Christian de Duve, biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2013)
• 8 October - Rodney Robert Porter, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 1985)
• 22 October - Joan Fontaine, actress in Tokyo (died 2013)
• 22 November - Andrew Huxley, scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2012)
• 22 November - Shabtai Rosenne, British-born Israeli diplomat and recipient of the Israel Prize (died 2010)
• 16 December - Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction author and inventor (died 2008)
• Mary Berry, canoness, choral conductor and musicologist (died 2008)

Deaths

• 2 January - Edward Burnett Tylor, anthropologist (born 1832)
• 19 March - Samuel Pasco, United States Senator from Florida from 1887 till 1899 (born 1834 in the United States)
• 25 March - John George Will, Scottish international rugby player (killed in action) (born 1892)
• 2 April - Bryn Lewis, Wales international rugby player (killed in action) (born 1891)
• 9 April - Edward Thomas, poet (killed in action) (born 1878)
• 18 May - John Nevil Maskelyne, stage magician (born 1839)
• 31 July
  • Ellis Humphrey Evans ("Hedd Wyn"), Welsh-language poet (killed in action) (born 1887)
  • James Llewellyn Davies, Victoria Cross recipient (killed in action) (born 1886)
  • James Young Milne Henderson, Scottish international rugby player (killed in action) (born 1891)
  • Francis Ledwidge, Irish poet (killed in action) (born 1887)
• 15 August - Thomas Crisp, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1876)
• 30 August - Alan Leo, astrologer (born 1860)
• 8 November
  • Colin Blythe, cricketer (born 1879)
  • Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, astronomer (born 1850)
• 14 December - Phil Waller, Wales and British Lions rugby player (killed in action) (born 1889)

References

See also