1919 in the United Kingdom explained
Events from the year 1919 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Events
- 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.[5]
- 3 April – Government agrees to begin release of imprisoned conscientious objectors.
- 7 April – the Original Dixieland Jazz Band brings Dixieland jazz to England, opening a 15-month tour at the Hippodrome, London.
- 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 – Third Anglo-Afghan War begins.
- 15 May – Greek landing at Smyrna (as part of the Greco-Turkish War): The Hellenic Army lands at Smyrna assisted by ships of the British Royal Navy.
- 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 6 November).[6]
- June – riots break out in west midlands towns.[1]
- 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 and Labrador, to Clifden, Connemara, Ireland.[7]
- 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.
- 23 June – Women's Engineering Society founded.[8]
- 28 June – Treaty of Versailles signed, formally ending World War I.
- 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.[7]
- 15 July – naval sloops HMS Gentian and HMS Myrtle sunk by mines in the Gulf of Finland while assisting Estonia against the Bolsheviks, with nine crew lost.[9]
- 18 July – the Cenotaph in London, as designed by Edwin Lutyens, is unveiled to commemorate the dead of World War I.[7]
- 19 July – Peace Day: victory parades across Britain celebrate the end of World War I.[10] 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. Rioting breaks out in Liverpool on 1 August.[1] Over 2,000 strikers are dismissed.
- Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1919 provides government subsidy for the provision of council houses,[11] with the target of completing 500,000 houses by 1922.[12]
- 8 August – the Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919, signed in Rawalpindi, ends the Third Anglo-Afghan War, with the UK recognising the right of the Emirate of Afghanistan to manage its own foreign affairs and Afghanistan recognising the Durand Line as the border with British India.
- 9 August – the Anglo-Persian Agreement, signed in Tehran, grants the UK access to all Iranian oilfields in exchange for financial and other contributions. The Majlis (Iranian parliament) refuses to ratify it on 22 June 1921.[13]
- 15 August – the Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act provides for returning servicemen to get their old jobs back.[14]
- 18 August – Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War: The Bolshevik fleet at Kronstadt, protecting Petrograd on the Baltic Sea, is substantially damaged by seven British Royal Navy Coastal Motor Boats (torpedo boats) and military aircraft in a combined operation.
- 30 August – the Football League is resumed, four years after it was abandoned due to the war.[15]
- 1 September – Forestry Commission set up.[16]
- 27 September – Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War: The last British troops leave Archangel, leaving fighting to the Russians.
- 27 September–6 October – railway workers stage a strike, called by the National Union of Railwaymen.[17]
- 29 September – Rupert D'Oyly Carte returns the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company to London's West End for the first time in a decade with an initial 18-week season of Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas opening at the Prince's Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue.
- 30 September – compositors and pressmen working at the Daily Sketch newspaper in London refuse to print the paper until an editorial criticising the railway strike is deleted.
- October – creation of the "Mobile Patrol Experiment", the forerunner of the Metropolitan Police Service's Flying Squad.
- 1 October – Women's Royal Naval Service disbanded.
- 13 October – Leeds City F.C., of the Football League Second Division, are expelled from the Football League amid financial irregularities.[18]
- 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.[19]
- 20 October – collapse of the man engine at Levant Mine in Cornwall kills 31.
- 21 October – Atlas Copco Ltd is incorporated in the UK as a subsidiary of the Swedish mechanical engineering company.
- 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.[20]
- 11 November – first Remembrance Day observed with two minutes silence at 11:00 hrs.[21]
- December
- 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.[23]
- 15 December – meat rationing ends.[24]
- 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.[25]
- 23 December – Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act removes legal disabilities on women entering the secular professions, becoming justices of the peace or being granted university degrees.[26]
- 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.
- 31 December – first female justice of the peace sworn in, Ada Summers, Mayor of Stalybridge.[27]
- Undated
- Ongoing – 1918 flu pandemic.
Publications
Births
- 1 January – Sheila Mercier, actress (died 2019)
- 8 January – Gabrielle Blunt, actress (died 2014)
- 11 January
- 20 January – Derick Ashe, diplomat (died 2000)
- 21 January
- 23 January – Bob Paisley, football player and manager (died 1996)
- 26 January – Bill Nicholson, footballer and manager (died 2004)
- 27 January
- 29 January – N. F. Simpson, playwright (died 2011)
- 4 February
- 6 February – Sidney De Haan, businessman (died 2002)
- 16 February – Irene Brown, author and codebreaker (died 2017)
- 17 February – Marguerite Wolff, pianist (died 2011)
- 19 February – Samuel Falle, diplomat (died 2014)
- 20 February – James O'Meara, Battle of Britain Spitfire flying ace (died 1974)
- 23 February – Derek Ezra, chairman of the National Coal Board (died 2015)
- 24 February
- 28 February – Brian Urquhart, war veteran and diplomat (died 2021)
- 1 March – Jock Hamilton-Baillie, World War II soldier and escapee (died 2003)
- 3 March – Mary Cosh, journalist, historian and author (died 2019)
- 11 March – Hans Keller, Austrian-born musician and writer (died 1985)
- 12 March – Donald Zec, journalist[29] (died 2021)
- 16 March – Julian Pitt-Rivers, social anthropologist and ethnographer (died 2001)
- 17 March – Mad Mike Hoare, mercenary leader (died 2020)
- 18 March – G. E. M. Anscombe, analytic philosopher (died 2001)
- 20 March – Peter Conder, ornithologist and conservationist (died 1993)
- 21 March – R. M. Hare, moral philosopher (died 2002)
- 26 March – Joe Egan, rugby player (died 2012)
- 28 March – Tony Bartley, television executive (died 2001)
- 29 March – William S. Anderson, Chinese-born businessman, president and chairman of NCR Corporation (died 2021)
- 30 March – Henry Danton, dance teacher (died 2022)
- 3 April
- 4 April – Frederick E. Smith, author (died 2012)
- 5 April
- 9 April
- 11 April
- 12 April – Ion Calvocoressi, Army officer and stockbroker (died 2007)
- 14 April – Leslie Lloyd Rees, Anglican prelate (died 2013)
- 15 April
- 18 April – Natasha Spender, pianist and writer (died 2010)
- 19 April – Nancie Colling, lawns bowls player (died 2020)
- 20 April
- 23 April – Andrew Roth, biographer and journalist (died 2010)
- 25 April – Ambrose Weekes, Anglican priest (died 2012)
- 26 April – Barrie Edgar, television producer (died 2012)
- 4 May – Basil Yamey, South African-born economist and academic (died 2020)[30]
- 7 May
- 9 May – Arthur English, actor (died 1995)
- 14 May – Denis Cannan, dramatist, playwright and scriptwriter (died 2011)
- 16 May – Richard Mason, novelist (died 1997)
- 18 May – Margot Fonteyn, born Margaret Hookham, ballet dancer (died 1991)
- 22 May – Glyn Davies, Welsh economist (died 2003)
- 29 May – Dickie Dodds, English cricketer (died 2001)
- 30 May – Eric Lomax, Army officer and author (died 2012)
- 1 June – Tod Sweeney, Army officer (died 2001)
- 6 June – Peter Carington, politician (died 2018)
- 11 June
- 12 June – David Innes Williams, paediatric urologist (died 2013)
- 14 June – June Spencer, actress (died 2024)
- 15 June – Eleanor Warren, cellist (died 2005)
- 17 June
- 18 June – Gordon A. Smith, English-born Canadian artist (died 2020)[31]
- 19 June
- 24 June – Michael Schofield, sociologist and campaigner (died 2014)
- 26 June
- 27 June
- 29 June – Walter Babington Thomas, Commander of British Far East Land Forces (died 2017)
- 4 July
- 7 July
- 10 July
- 14 July – John Pott, British Army officer (died 2005)
- 15 July – Iris Murdoch, Irish-born novelist and philosopher (died 1999)
- 17 July – Alan Cottrell, metallurgist (died 2012)
- 19 July – Patricia Medina, actress (died 2012)
- 20 July – Jacquemine Charrott Lodwidge, writer (died 2012)
- 21 July
- 26 July
- 27 July
- 29 July – Patricia H. Clarke, biochemist (died 2010)
- 31 July – Frank Giles, journalist and historian (died 2019)
- 1 August – Stanley Middleton, novelist (died 2009)
- 3 August
- 8 August – John David Wilson, artist and animator (died 2013)
- 13 August – George Shearing, musician (died 2011)
- 14 August – Richard Keynes, physiologist (died 2010)
- 15 August – Bernard Barrell, composer (died 2005)
- 16 August – Reginald James Wallace, civil servant and governor (died 2012)
- 18 August – Patrick Shovelton, civil servant (died 2012)
- 22 August – Michael Langham, actor and director (died 2011)
- 27 August
- 28 August – Godfrey Hounsfield, electrical engineer and inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2004)
- 29 August – Helen Shingler, actress (died 2019)
- 2 September – Lance Macklin, racing driver (died 2002)
- 4 September – Teddy Johnson, popular singer (died 2018)
- 6 September – Philip Woodward, mathematician and radar engineer (died 2018)
- 7 September – Neil Shields, politician and businessman (died 2002)
- 8 September – Alistair Urquhart, Scottish businessman and author (died 2016)
- 11 September
- 13 September
- 14 September – Olga Lowe, actress (died 2013)
- 15 September – Alfie Scopp, English-born Canadian actor (died 2021)
- 21 September – Nigel Stock, actor (died 1986)
- 27 September
- 2 October
- 4 October – John Sawyer, romance novelist in collaboration with his wife Nancy Buckingham (died 1994)
- 5 October
- 6 October
- 7 October – Irene Astor, Baroness Astor of Hever, philanthropist (died 2001)
- 8 October – Peter Ramsbotham, diplomat (died 2010)
- 14 October – Shaun Sutton, television executive (died 2004)
- 15 October
- 18 October – George E. P. Box, statistician (died 2013)
- 19 October – David Pritchard, chess player (died 2005)
- 20 October – Maurice Michael Stephens, World War II fighter pilot (died 2004)
- 21 October – Maurice Hodgson, business executive (died 2014)
- 22 October
- 23 October
- 25 October – Peter Howell, actor (died 2015)
- 28 October – Grahame Vivian, army officer (died 2015)
- 31 October
- 3 November
- 4 November
- 10 November – Cliff Ashby, poet and novelist (died 2012)
- 11 November – Hamish Henderson, Scottish poet (died 2002)
- 15 November – Nova Pilbeam, actress (died 2015)
- 16 November – Geoffrey Lilley, aeronautical scientist (died 2015)
- 17 November – Colin Hayes, artist (died 2003)
- 18 November – Norman Cornish, artist (died 2014)
- 19 November – Alan Young, English-born character actor (died 2016 in the United States)
- 20 November – Lucilla Andrews, Egyptian-born romantic novelist (died 2006)
- 21 November – Martin Aitchison, illustrator (died 2016)
- 23 November – P. F. Strawson, philosopher (died 2006)
- 24 November
- 26 November – Harry Catterick, footballer and manager (died 1985)
- 29 November – Frank Kermode, literary critic (died 2010)
- 1 December – John Freeborn, World II air ace (died 2010)
- 3 December – Charles Chester, rugby player (died 2011)
- 5 December – Alun Gwynne Jones, Baron Chalfont, politician and historian (died 2020)
- 6 December
- 7 December
- 8 December – Ian Sneddon, mathematician (died 2000)
- 11 December – Cliff Michelmore, broadcast presenter (died 2016)
- 12 December – Cliff Holden, painter and designer (died 2020)
- 14 December – M. R. D. Foot, military historian (died 2012)
- 18 December – Ken Reid, comic artist and writer (died 1987)
- 19 December – Albert Richards, war artist (died 1945)
- 23 December – Peggy Fortnum, illustrator (died 2016)
- 25 December
- 29 December – David Nixon, magician (died 1978)
- 30 December – David Willcocks, choirmaster (died 2015)
- 31 December – Morris Sugden, physical chemist (died 1984)
Deaths
- 2 January – Arthur Gould, Wales international rugby captain (born 1864)
- 3 January – James Hills-Johnes, Indian-born Welsh Victoria Cross recipient (born 1833)
- 12 January – Sir Charles Wyndham, actor-manager (born 1837)
- 18 January – Prince John of the United Kingdom (born 1905)
- 24 February – Edward Bishop, Wales international rugby player (born 1864)
- 26 February – Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, novelist and essayist (born 1837)
- 27 February – Robert Harris, Welsh-born painter (born 1849)
- 20 March – Pauline Markham, English-born vaudeville actress (born 1847)
- 4 April – Sir William Crookes, chemist and physicist (born 1832)
- 12 June – Jeremiah Williams, Coalition Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Swansea East (born 1872)
- 14 June – Weedon Grossmith, humorous writer, actor and artist (born 1854)
- 30 June – John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1842)
- 1 July – Sir John Brunner, British industrialist and politician (b. 1842)
- 13 July – Theo Harding, Wales international rugby player (born 1860)
- 26 July
- 31 July – Dick Barlow, cricketer (born 1851)
- 11 August – Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American philanthropist (born 1835)
- 21 August – Laurence Doherty, tennis champion (born 1875)
- 23 August – Augustus George Vernon Harcourt, chemist (born 1834)
- 15 October
- 17 October – James Wolfe Murray, British Army general (born 1853)
- 18 October – William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor, American-born financier and statesman (born 1848)
- 23 October – Charles Judd, missionary to China (born 1842)
- 25 October – Ernest Albert Waterlow, painter (born 1850)
- 2 December – Sir Evelyn Wood, field marshal and Victoria Cross recipient (born 1838)
- 18 December – Sir John Alcock, aviator, pilot of first nonstop transatlantic flight by aeroplane, June 1919, in aviation accident (born 1892)
- 22 December – Boy Capel, industrialist, polo player, writer, and lover/muse of Coco Chanel (b. 1881)
See also
Notes and References
- Book: Webb, Simon. 1919: Britain's year of revolution. Barnsley. Pen & Sword. 2016. 978-1-47386-286-9.
- Web site: WW1: The hidden story of soldier's mutinies, strikes and riots. Peter. Tatchell. Peter Tatchell. Left Foot Forward. 2014-08-01. 2019-01-05.
- News: Peace Conference Opens: Memorable Ceremony at the Quai d'Orsay. The Globe. London. 38539. 1919-01-18. 1.
- Book: MacMillan, Margaret. Margaret MacMillan. Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World. registration. 2002. Random House.
- Book: Nicholson, G. W. L.. G. W. L. Nicholson . Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War. Ottawa. Queen's Printer. 1962.
- 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. . London. 220. 571–581. 291–333. 1920RSPTA.220..291D. 10.1098/rsta.1920.0009. free.
- Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
- Web site: History Women's Engineering Society. www.wes.org.uk. 2019-04-23.
- News: British warships sunk 90 years ago found off Estonian coast. Martin. Wainwright. The Guardian. London. 2010-08-23. 2010-08-24. https://web.archive.org/web/20100826102921/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/23/british-warships-cassandra-myrtle-gentian-estonia. 2010-08-26. live.
- Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer . Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd.. London. 357–358. 0-7126-5616-2.
- Book: The History Today Companion to British History. registration. London. Collins & Brown. 1-85585-178-4. 1995. 392.
- Web site: Council housing. Parliament of the United Kingdom. 2012-09-25.
- Web site: Anglo–Iranian Agreement (1919). Encyclopedia.com. 2022-04-07.
- Web site: Royal Assent. (Hansard, 15 August 1919). api.parliament.uk. 2019-04-23.
- Web site: English Division One (old) 1919-1920: Results. statto.com. 2012-09-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20110822061206/http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/division-one-old/1919-1920/results. 22 August 2011. dead.
- Web site: History of the Forestry Commission. Forestry Commission. 2010-10-22. 17 April 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120417060054/http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/cmon-4uum6r. dead.
- Jeffrey. Wells. The Nine Days' Strike of 1919. BackTrack. 24. 2010. 22–7, 120–4.
- Web site: History of the Club – The birth of Leeds United, 1919. The Mighty Mighty Whites. 2012-09-25.
- Web site: Review of 1920-21. The Mighty Mighty Whites. 2012-09-25.
- Web site: November 1919. Seamus. Fox. Chronology of Irish History 1919–1923. 31 August 2008. Dublin. 2012-10-31. https://web.archive.org/web/20041123084808/http://www.dcu.ie/~foxs/irhist/november_1919.htm. 23 November 2004. dead.
- Book: First two-minute silence. Military. Jeremy. Beadle. Jeremy Beadle. Ian. Harrison. Firsts, Lasts & Onlys. London. Robson. 9781905798063. 113. 25 September 2007.
- Web site: Economic slump. The Cabinet Papers 1915–1986. The National Archives (United Kingdom). Kew. 2016-02-16.
- Book: Sykes, Christopher. Christopher Sykes (author). Nancy: the Life of Lady Astor. Academy Chicago Publishers. 1984. 0-89733-098-6. The first elected was Constance Markievicz in 1918.
- News: The Family Butcher: Further Concessions By Controller. The Times. London. 1919-12-13. 14. 42282.
- Web site: December 1919. Seamus. Fox. Chronology of Irish History 1919–1923. 31 August 2008. Dublin. 2012-10-31. https://web.archive.org/web/20041115023824/http://www.dcu.ie/~foxs/irhist/december_1919.htm. 15 November 2004. dead.
- Book: Oliver & Boyd's New Edinburgh Almanac and National Repository for the Year 1921. 213.
- Web site: History. dead. About Magistrates. https://web.archive.org/web/20061019035314/http://www.magistrates-association.org.uk/about_magistrates/history.htm. 2006-10-19. Magistrates' Association. Wayback Machine. 2006-10-19.
- Book: Leavis, Q. D.. Q. D. Leavis. Fiction and the Reading Public. rev.. London. Chatto & Windus. 1965.
- Book: Noble, Peter. British film and television year book. 1970. Cinema TV Today. 394.
- Book: Stephen W. Massil. The Jewish Year Book. 2003. Greenberg & Company. 9780853034667.
- Web site: The most loved artist in B.C., Gordon Smith, turns 100 | Vancouver Sun. 2019-06-17. 2019-12-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20190622081648/https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/the-most-loved-artist-in-b-c-gordon-smith-turns-100. 2019-06-22. live.