1919 in the United Kingdom
UK-related events during the year of 1919
Events from the year 1919 in the United Kingdom
Incumbents
Events
1 January: Iolaire January: David Kirkwood is detained by police during the Battle of George Square . 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 . 6 July: R34 Mineola, New York . 2–6 July – the British airship R34 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] Luton Town Hall .
31 July
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
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]
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
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
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
^ a b c d e f Webb, Simon (2016). 1919: Britain's year of revolution . Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-47386-286-9 ^ Tatchell, Peter (1 August 2014). "WW1: The hidden story of soldier's mutinies, strikes and riots" . Left Foot Forward . Retrieved 5 January 2019 .^ "Peace Conference Opens: Memorable Ceremony at the Quai d'Orsay ". The Globe ^ MacMillan, Margaret (2002). Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World ^ 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: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 220 (571–581). London: 291–333. Bibcode :1920RSPTA.220..291D . doi :10.1098/rsta.1920.0009 ^ a b c Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0 ^ "History | Women's Engineering Society" . www.wes.org.uk . Retrieved 23 April 2019 .^ 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 24 August 2010 . ^ Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 357–358. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2 ^ The History Today Companion to British History 392 . ISBN 1-85585-178-4 ^ "Council housing" . Parliament of the United Kingdom . Retrieved 25 September 2012 .^ "Anglo–Iranian Agreement (1919)" . Encyclopedia.com . Retrieved 7 April 2022 .^ "Royal Assent. (Hansard, 15 August 1919)" . api.parliament.uk . Retrieved 23 April 2019 .^ "English Division One (old) 1919-1920: Results" . statto.com . Archived from the original on 22 August 2011. Retrieved 25 September 2012 .^ "History of the Forestry Commission" . Forestry Commission. Archived from the original on 17 April 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2010 .^ Wells, Jeffrey (2010). "The Nine Days' Strike of 1919". BackTrack . 24 : 22–7, 120–4. ^ "History of the Club – The birth of Leeds United, 1919" . The Mighty Mighty Whites . Retrieved 25 September 2012 .^ "Review of 1920-21" . The Mighty Mighty Whites . Retrieved 25 September 2012 .^ Fox, Seamus (31 August 2008). "November 1919" . Chronology of Irish History 1919–1923 . Dublin. Archived from the original on 23 November 2004. Retrieved 31 October 2012 . ^ Beadle, Jeremy ; Harrison, Ian (25 September 2007). "First two-minute silence". Military . Firsts, Lasts & Onlys. London: Robson. p. 113. ISBN 9781905798063 ^ "Economic slump" . The Cabinet Papers 1915–1986 . Kew: The National Archives (United Kingdom) . Retrieved 16 February 2016 .^ Sykes, Christopher (1984). Nancy: the Life of Lady Astor . Academy Chicago Publishers. ISBN 0-89733-098-6 Constance Markievicz in 1918 .^ "The Family Butcher: Further Concessions By Controller". The Times ^ Fox, Seamus (31 August 2008). "December 1919" . Chronology of Irish History 1919–1923 . Dublin. Archived from the original on 15 November 2004. Retrieved 31 October 2012 . ^ Oliver & Boyd's New Edinburgh Almanac and National Repository for the Year 1921 . p. 213.^ "History" . About Magistrates . Magistrates' Association. 19 October 2006. Archived from the original on 19 October 2006 – via Wayback Machine.^ Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.^ Noble, Peter (1970). British film and television year book . Cinema TV Today. p. 394. ^ Stephen W. Massil (2003). The Jewish Year Book ISBN 9780853034667 ^ "The most loved artist in B.C., Gordon Smith, turns 100 | Vancouver Sun" . 17 June 2019. Archived from the original on 22 June 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019 .
