1919 in the United Kingdom
1919 in the United Kingdom: |
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Events from the year 1919 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch - George V
- Prime Minister - David Lloyd George, coalition
Events
- 1 January – In Scotland, HMS Iolaire is wrecked on rocks: 205 die.
- 18 January – Bentley Motors Ltd is incorporated in England.
- 21 January – Dáil Éireann meets for the first time in the Mansion House, Dublin. It comprises Sinn Féin members elected in the 1918 general election who, in accordance with their manifesto, have not taken their seats in the Parliament of the United Kingdom but chosen to declare an independent Irish Republic. In the first shots of the Anglo-Irish War, two Royal Irish Constabulary men are killed in an ambush at Soloheadbeg in County Tipperary.
- 31 January – Battle of George Square: The Army is called in to deal with riots and protests against high rents in Glasgow.
- 3 February – Éamon de Valera, the leader of Sinn Féin, and two other prisoners escape from Lincoln Prison in England in a break personally arranged by Michael Collins and Harry Boland.
- 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]
- 3 April – Government agrees to begin release of imprisoned conscientious objectors.
- 13 April – Amritsar Massacre: British and Gurkha troops kill 379 Sikhs and injure more than 1200 at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab Province (British India).
- May – Beginning of the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
- 12 May – The Pip, Squeak and Wilfred comic strip debuts in the Daily Mirror.
- 29 May – Observations made by Arthur Eddington during a solar eclipse test part of Einstein's general theory of relativity (confirmed 19 November).[2]
- 14–15 June – A Vickers Vimy piloted by John Alcock DSC with navigator Arthur Whitten Brown makes the first nonstop transatlantic flight, from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Connemara, Ireland.[3]
- 17 June – Epsom Riot by Canadian troops: English police sergeant Thomas Green is killed.
- 21 June – Scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow: Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the interned German fleet in Scapa Flow, Scotland. Nine German sailors are killed.
- 28 June – Treaty of Versailles signed.
- 2–6 July – The British airship R34 makes the first transatlantic flight by dirigible, and the first westbound flight, from RAF East Fortune, Scotland, to Mineola, New York.[3]
- 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.[4]
- 18 July – The Cenotaph in London, as designed by Edwin Lutyens, is unveiled to commemorate the dead of World War I.[3]
- 19 July – Peace Day: Victory parades across Britain celebrate the end of World War I.[5] Rioting ex-servicemen burn down Luton Town Hall.
- 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.
- 15 August – The Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act provides for returning servicemen to get their old jobs back.
- 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.[6]
- 1 September – Forestry Commission set up.[7]
- 27 September – Last British troops leave Archangel, Russia, and leave fighting to the Russians.
- 13 October – Leeds City F.C., of the Football League Second Division, are expelled from the Football League amid financial irregularities.[8]
- 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.[9]
- 20 October – Collapse of the man engine at Levant Mine in Cornwall kills 31.
- 4 November – The Cabinet's Irish Committee settles on a policy of creating two Home Rule parliaments in Ireland - one in Dublin and one in Belfast - with a Council of Ireland to provide a framework for possible unity.[10]
- 11 November – First Remembrance Day observed with two minutes silence at 11:00 hrs.[11]
- December – Meat rationing ends.
- 1 December – Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor becomes the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons, and the second to be elected, having stood at the Plymouth Sutton by-election on 28 November to succeed her husband as a Unionist member.[12]
- 22 December – A Bill "to provide for the better government of Ireland" is introduced into the House of Commons, proposing two parliaments: one for the six counties of north-east Ulster and one for the other twenty-six.[13]
- 23 December – The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act removes legal disabilities on women entering the secular professions.[14]
- 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.[15]
- Housing Act provides government subsidy for the provision of council houses,[16] with the target of completing 500,000 houses by 1922.[17]
- 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.
- Ongoing – 1918 flu pandemic.
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.[18]
- Dean William Inge's first series of Outspoken Essays.
- 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.
- Arthur Graeme West's posthumous The Diary of a Dead Officer.
- P. G. Wodehouse's short story collection My Man Jeeves.
Births
- 21 January - Jim Wallwork, World War II glider pilot (died 2013)
- 23 January - Bob Paisley, football player and manager (died 1996)
- 24 February - Betty Marsden, comedy actress (died 1998)
- 20 April - Richard Hillary, British pilot and author (d. 1943)
- 26 April - Barrie Edgar, television producer (died 2012)
- 14 May - Denis Cannan, British dramatist, playwright and scriptwriter (d. 2011)
- 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)
- 19 July - Patricia Medina, actress (died 2012)
- 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)
- 4 October 4 - John Sawyer (Nancy Buckingham, Christina Abbey, Erica Quest, Nancy John, Hilary London), British romance novelist (d. 1994)
- 5 October - Donald Pleasence, actor (died 1995)
- 22 October - Doris Lessing, novelist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, born in Persia (died 2013)
- 31 October - Daphne Oxenford, English actress (d. 2012)
- 19 November - Alan Young, English-born character actor
- 20 November - Lucilla Andrews, British writer (d. 2006)
Deaths
- 2 January - Arthur Gould, Wales international rugby captain (born 1864)
- 3 January - James Hills-Johnes, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1833)
- 12 January - Charles Wyndham, actor (born 1837)
- 18 January - Prince John of the United Kingdom (born 1905)
- 24 February - Edward Bishop, Wales international rugby player (born 1864)
- 27 February - Robert Harris, Welsh-born painter (born 1849)
- 20 March - Pauline Markham, British-born actress of Gaslight era (born 1847)
- 4 April - William Crookes, chemist and physicist (born 1832)
- 12 June - Thomas Jeremiah Williams, Coalition Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Swansea East (born 1872)
- 14 June - Weedon Grossmith, writer (born 1854)
- 30 June - John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1842)
- 13 July - Theo Harding, Wales international rugby player
- 26 July
- Richard Hughes Williams (Dic Tryfan), writer (born 1878)
- Edward Poynter, painter (born 1836)
- 11 August - Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American philanthropist (born 1835)
- 21 August - Laurence Doherty, British tennis champion (born 1875)
- 15 October - Arthur Owen Vaughan (Owen Rhoscomyl), novelist (born 1863)
- 17 October - James Wolfe-Murray, British Army general (born 1853)
- 18 October - William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor, financier and statesman (born 1848)
- 25 October - Ernest Albert Waterlow, painter (born 1850)
- 18 December - Sir John Alcock, British aviator; pilot of first nonstop transatlantic flight in airplane, June 1919 (born 1892)
Notes
- ↑ Nicholson, G. W. L. (1962). Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War. Ottawa: Queen's Printer.
- ↑ Dyson, F.W.; Eddington, A.S.; Davidson, C.R. (1920). "A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun's Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Physical, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences 220 (571-581): 291–333. Bibcode:1920RSPTA.220..291D. doi:10.1098/rsta.1920.0009.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ↑ Wainwright, Martin (23 August 2010). "British warships sunk 90 years ago found off Estonian coast". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
- ↑ Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 357–358. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ↑ "English Division One (old) 1919-1920: Results". statto.com. Retrieved 2012-09-25.
- ↑ "History of the Forestry Commission". Forestry Commission. Retrieved 2010-10-22.
- ↑ "History of the Club - The birth of Leeds United, 1919". The Mighty Mighty Whites. Retrieved 2012-09-25.
- ↑ "Review of 1920-21". The Mighty Mighty Whites. Retrieved 2012-09-25.
- ↑ Fox, Seamus (31 August 2008). "November 1919". Chronology of Irish History 1919-1923. Dublin. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
- ↑ Beadle, Jeremy; Harrison, Ian. "First two-minute silence". Military. Firsts, Lasts & Onlys. London: Robson. p. 113. ISBN 9781905798063.
- ↑ Sykes, Christopher (1984). Nancy: the Life of Lady Astor. Academy Chicago Publishers. ISBN 0-89733-098-6. The first elected was Constance Markievicz in 1918.
- ↑ Fox, Seamus (31 August 2008). "December 1919". Chronology of Irish History 1919-1923. Dublin. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
- ↑ Oliver & Boyd's New Edinburgh Almanac and National Repository for the Year 1921. p. 213.
- ↑ EH.Net Encyclopedia: Gold Standard
- ↑ The History Today Companion to British History. London: Collins & Brown. 1995. p. 392. ISBN 1-85585-178-4.
- ↑ "Council housing". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 2012-09-25.
- ↑ Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.