1921 in the United Kingdom
| 1921 in the United Kingdom |
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Events from the year 1921 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch – George V
- Prime Minister – David Lloyd George (Coalition)
- Parliament – 31st
Events
January to June
- 1 January – car tax discs introduced.[1]
- 8 January – Chequers becomes an official residence of the Prime Minister.[1]
- 14 January – unemployment stands at 927,000.
- 20 January – the Royal Navy K-class submarine HMS K5 sinks in the English Channel with the loss of all 56 crew on board.
- 26 January – Abermule train collision: seventeen people are killed when two passenger trains collide head-on in Montgomeryshire.
- January – Lord Rothermere's Sunday Pictorial announces formation of the Anti-Waste League as a political party opposing excessive government expenditure.[2]
- 12 February – Winston Churchill is appointed as Colonial Secretary.
- 16 February – unemployment now stands at over 1,000,000. The Government announces an increase in unemployment benefit.
- 5 March – Irish War of Independence: Clonbanin Ambush – Irish Republican Army kills Brigadier General Cumming.
- 11 March – Queen Mary becomes the first woman to be awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University.
- 16 March – The United Kingdom signs a trade agreement with the Russian SFSR.
- 17 March
- Bonar Law, the Conservative Party leader, resigns due to ill health.
- Dr Marie Stopes opens the United Kingdom's first birth control clinic in Holloway, London.[1]
- 19 March – Irish War of Independence: Crossbarry Ambush – British troops fail to encircle an outnumbered column of Irish Republican Army volunteers in County Cork, with at least ten British and three IRA deaths.
- 21 March
- Austen Chamberlain replaces Bonar Law as Conservative leader.
- Irish War of Independence: Headford Ambush: The IRA kills at least nine British troops.
- 26 March – Shaun Spadah wins the Grand National.
- 31 March – A state of emergency is declared after another coal miners' strike is called.
- 1 April – Airship R36, the first to carry a British civilian registration (G-FAAF), makes her maiden flight from William Beardmore and Company's works at Inchinnan, Scotland. (Work on R37 at Cardington Airfield was suspended in February.)[3]
- 3 April – Coal rationing begins.
- 13 April – Lloyds Bank takes over Fox, Fowler and Company of Wellington, Somerset, the last provincial English bank to issue its own banknotes.
- 15 April – "Black Friday": Transport union members of the 'Triple Alliance' refuse to support national strike action by coal miners.
- 23 April – Tottenham Hotspur beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1–0 in the FA Cup Final.
- 26 April – Police patrol London on motorcycles for the first time.
- 3 May – The province of Northern Ireland is created within the United Kingdom under terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920.[4][5]
- 4 May – The IRA kill a former Royal Irish Constabulary inspector in Glasgow.
- 5 May – Only thirteen paying spectators attend the football match between Leicester City and Stockport County played at Old Trafford, the lowest attendance in The Football League's history.[6]
- 7 May – Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan arrives on an official visit.
- 15 May – The British Legion is founded as a voice for ex-servicemen by merger of the Comrades of the Great War, the National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers, the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers and the Officers' Association, under the Presidency of Earl Haig.[7]
- 22 May – The United States beats the United Kingdom 9 rounds to 3 in the first golf international between the two countries.
- 24 May – Irish elections, under terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920: In the Northern Ireland general election for the new Parliament of Northern Ireland (held by single transferable vote), Ulster Unionists win 40 out of 52 seats. The dominant-party system in Northern Ireland will last for fifty years.
- 25 May – Irish War of Independence: the Irish Republican Army occupies and burns The Custom House in Dublin, the centre of local government in Ireland. Five IRA men are killed, and over eighty are captured by the British Army which surrounds the building.[8]
- 1 June – Humorist wins The Derby. For the first time the result is broadcast live by wireless.
- 6 June – King George V opens Southwark Bridge in London.
- 7 June
- The new Parliament of Northern Ireland assembles in Belfast City Hall; James Craig is elected as first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
- J. M. M. Erskine, standing as an "Independent Anti-Waste" candidate, wins the Westminster St George's parliamentary seat in a by-election.
- 10 June – unemployment reaches 2,200,000.
- 12 June – Sunday postal collection and delivery is suspended.[1]
- 14 June – First performance of the orchestral version of Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending conducted by Adrian Boult with Marie Hall as violin soloist.
- 15 June – 2,000,000 workers are currently involved in pay disputes.
- 19 June – census in the United Kingdom.
- 22 June – New Parliament of Northern Ireland, assembled at Belfast City Hall, is formally opened by King George V, making a speech (drafted by Jan Smuts) calling for reconciliation in Ireland.
- 24 June – The world's largest airship, the R.38, makes its maiden flight at Bedford.
- 25 June – Rainfall ends a drought, which has lasted for one hundred days.
- 28 June – The coal strike ends.
July to December
- 2 July – Bill Tilden and Suzanne Lenglen retain their Wimbledon titles.
- 7 July – General Jan Smuts meets King George V to discuss the Irish situation.
- 9 July – The Irish War of Independence comes officially to an end when a truce, coming into effect on 11 July, is agreed between British and Irish forces.
- 10 July – Bloody Sunday: clashes between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast result in sixteen deaths (23 over the surrounding four-day period) and the destruction of over two hundred (mostly Catholic) homes.[9]
- 12 July – Sinn Féin representatives arrive in London for talks.
- 18 July – Ulster Unionist negotiators walk out of the truce talks in London.
- 3 August – "Geddes Axe": announcement that the Prime Minister is appointing an advisory Committee on National Expenditure, made up of businessmen chaired by Sir Eric Geddes, to recommend reductions in government spending.[10]
- 19 August – unemployment falls to 1,640,600.
- 24 August – R38 class airship ZR-2 explodes on her fourth test flight near Kingston upon Hull, killing 44 of the 49 Anglo-American crew on board.[11][12]
- 27 August – The first games in the new Football League Third Division North are played, a year after the southern section was formed.[13] Among the new division's members are Stockport County, Walsall, Rochdale, Chesterfield and Tranmere Rovers.[14]
- 30 August – England defeat Australia, for the first time this year, in the final Test Match.
- 1 September – Poplar Rates Rebellion: led by George Lansbury, the Borough council in Poplar, London withholds collection of part of its rates, leading to six weeks' imprisonment for thirty councillors (including six women) and hasty passage of The London Authorities (Financial Provision) Act through Parliament to equalise tax burdens between rich and poor boroughs.[15][16]
- 7 September – David Lloyd George summons a meeting of the Cabinet at Inverness to discuss an independent Ireland's relationship with the British Empire.
- 9 September – Charlie Chaplin visits London and is met by thousands.
- 17 September – Shackleton-Rowett Expedition: Ernest Shackleton sets sail on his last expedition to Antarctica.[17]
- 23 September – The second female MP enters Parliament (Margaret Wintringham, in succession to her late husband at the Louth by-election).
- October – The first women are admitted to study for full academic degrees at the University of Cambridge, but have no associated privileges.[18]
- 8 October – The steamer SS Rowan sinks off the coast of Scotland. Twenty-two people lose their lives.
- 11 October – The Irish Treaty Conference opens in London.[19]
- 11 November – The British Legion holds the first official Poppy Day.[1]
- 21 November – Troops are sent to restore order after rioting breaks out in East Belfast.
- 22 November – At least ten people are killed in widespread shootings in Belfast.
- 30 November – Sir Basil Thomson retires after forty years as the head of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch.
- 6 December – British and Irish negotiators sign the Anglo-Irish Treaty in London giving independence to the Irish Free State.
- 10 December – Frederick Soddy wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contributions to our knowledge of the chemistry of radioactive substances, and his investigations into the origin and nature of isotopes".[20]
- 16 December – Parliament ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Undated
- National Unemployed Workers' Committee Movement set up by members of the Communist Party.[21]
- Dentists Act requires the registration of anyone practicing dentistry, making it a fully regulated profession.[22]
- The Scottish county of Haddingtonshire is renamed East Lothian.
- Wicksteed Park in Kettering opens as the first inland amusement park in England.
- An exceptionally dry year over England and Wales with only 629.0 millimetres (24.8 in) making it the driest year on record since 1788, and not approached subsequently – the nearest being 1854 with 672.9 millimetres (26.5 in), 1864 with 703.3 millimetres (27.7 in), 1887 with 669.3 millimetres (26.4 in) and 1933 with 717.7 millimetres (28.3 in), 1964 with 725.5 millimetres (28.6 in) and 1973 with 739.9 millimetres (29.1 in).[23] In South East England the average is only 396.4 millimetres (15.6 in)[23] with some stations recording less than 300 millimetres (11.8 in). It reached 34C (94F) in Southern and Eastern England on 10 and 11 July.[24]
Publications
- Dorita Fairlie Bruce's children's novel The Senior Prefect, first of The Dimsie books.
- Agatha Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introducing Hercule Poirot (21 January; issued in the United States October 1920).
- Walter de la Mare's novel Memoirs of a Midget.
- Eleanor Farjeon's children's stories Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard.
- John Galsworthy's novel To Let, last of The Forsyte Saga.
- A. S. M. Hutchinson's novel If Winter Comes.[25]
- Aldous Huxley's novel Crome Yellow.
- Sheila Kaye-Smith's novel Joanna Godden.
- D. H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love (10 June; issued in a limited edition in the United States November 1920).
Births
- 1 January
- John Strawson, English general and military writer (died 2014)[26]
- Helen Yate, swimmer
- 2 January – Kenneth Griffith, actor (died 2006)
- 9 January – Roy Farran, soldier and author (died 2006)
- 14 January – Kenneth Bulmer, author (died 2005)
- 15 January – Frank Thornton, actor (died 2013)
- 16 January – George Thomson, journalist and politician (died 2008)
- 19 January – Denys Roberts, British colonial official, judge (died 2013)
- 21 January – Charles Eric Maine, writer (died 1981)
- 22 January – Kevin Stoney, actor (died 2008)
- 1 February
- Peter Sallis, actor (died 2017)
- Patricia Robins, writer and WAAF officer (died 2016)
- 5 February
- Marion Eames, novelist (died 2007)
- John Pritchard, conductor (died 1989)
- Sir Ken Adam, German-born British production designer (died 2016)
- 6 February – Margaret Moncrieff, cellist (died 2008)
- 24 February – Pat Kirkwood, actress (died 2007)
- 28 February – J. F. C. Harrison, historian (died 2018)
- 2 March
- Christopher Lloyd, gardener and gardening writer (died 2006)
- Robert Simpson, composer (died 1997)
- 4 March
- Joan Greenwood, actress (died 1987)
- John Ryan, cartoonist (died 2009)
- 13 March – Cyril Poole, cricketer (died 1996)
- 19 March – Tommy Cooper, Welsh-born comedian and magician (died 1984)
- 25 March – Mary Douglas, social anthropologist (died 2007)
- 27 March – Richard Marner, actor (born in the Soviet Union; died 2004)
- 28 March – Dirk Bogarde, actor and author (died 1999)
- 29 March
- Hugh Neill, businessman (died 2017)
- Johnny Lawrenson, English rugby league winger (died 2010)
- 30 March – Tony Honoré, lawyer and jurist (died 2019)
- 1 April – Steve Race, pianist, composer and radio presenter (died 2009)
- 5 April – Les Jackson, English cricketer (died 2007)
- 10 April – Robert Wade, New Zealand-born chess player (died 2008)
- 16 April – Peter Ustinov, actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur (died 2004)
- 20 April – Peter Baker, English soldier, author, publisher and politician (died 1966)
- 27 April – John Stott, British Anglican cleric, Christian author (d. 2011)
- 4 May – John Goodwin, theatre publicist and writer (died 2018)
- 7 May – Asa Briggs, historian (died 2016)
- 15 May – Alan Huggins, judge (died 2009)
- 18 May
- Joan Eardley, painter (died 1963)
- Sir Michael A. Epstein, medical researcher
- 21 May – Peggy Cripps Appiah, children's author and socialite (died 2006)
- 22 May – John Francis Marchment Middleton, anthropologist (died 2009)
- 23 May – Humphrey Lyttelton, jazz musician and broadcaster (died 2008)
- 27 May – Cyril Tamplin, cricketer
- 8 June
- Gordon Campbell, Baron Campbell of Croy, politician (died 2005)
- Alwyn Williams, geologist (died 2004)
- 12 June – Christopher Derrick, writer (died 2007)
- 22 June – Roland Gibbs, head of the British Army, from 1976 to 1979 (died 2004)[27]
- June – Dennis Wilson, poet
- 4 July – Frederick Sydney Waller, shipbuilder (died 2016)
- 7 July – Joe Wade, English footballer and manager (died 2005)
- 14 July – Leon Garfield, children's historical novelist (died 1996)
- 15 July – Jean Heywood, actress[28] (died 2019)
- 19 July – Diana Elles, Baroness Elles, British barrister, United Nations representative from the United Kingdom (died 2009)
- 31 July – Peter Benenson, lawyer and human rights campaigner (died 2005)
- 8 August
- Alan Muir Wood, civil engineer (died 2009)
- David Pears, philosopher (died 2009)
- 10 August – Jack Archer, athlete (died 1997)
- 11 August – Tom Kilburn, co-inventor of the Williams-Kilburn tube, used for memory in early computer systems (died 1971)
- 17 August – Elinor Lyon, children's writer (died 2008)
- 1 September – Daphne Park, diplomat and spy (died 2010)
- 3 September – Thurston Dart, harpsichordist, conductor (died 1971)
- 6 September – John Bickersteth, British Anglican prelate (died 2018)
- 8 September – Harry Secombe, entertainer (died 2001)
- 15 September
- Richard Gordon, author (died 2017)
- Clive Rose, diplomat (died 2019)
- 20 September – Leon Comber, author
- 21 September – Jimmy Young, singer and radio broadcaster (died 2016)
- 29 September
- James Cross, Irish-English diplomat
- Francis Rose, botanist (died 2006)
- 30 September – Deborah Kerr, actress (died 2007)
- 2 October
- Edmund Crispin, writer and composer (died 1978)
- Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 2000)
- 8 October – Michael Fox, judge (died 2007)
- 11 October – Paddy Ridsdale, Lady Ridsdale, politician and World War II agent (died 2009)
- 12 October
- Kenneth Griffith, actor (died 2006)
- Logie Bruce Lockhart, Scottish rugby player and journalist
- 23 October – Archie Lamb, diplomat, writer and businessman
- 2 November
- Pearl Carr, singer (died 2020)
- Sally Gilmour, ballerina (died 2004)
- 4 November – Hugh Cunningham, army officer (died 2019)
- 11 November – Ron Greenwood, footballer and manager (died 2006)
- 25 November – Johnny Johnson, Royal Air Force officer
- 8 December – Terence Morgan, actor (died 2005)
- 11 December – Liz Smith, character actress (died 2016)
- 12 December – John Papworth, clergyman, writer and activist
- 14 December – Simon Towneley, politician
- 22 December – John Aiken, air marshal (died 2005)
Deaths
- 1 January – Mary Macarthur, trade unionist (born 1880)
- 12 January – Gervase Elwes, tenor (born 1866)
- 18 January – Elizabeth Anne Finn, writer (born 1825 in Poland)
- 8 February – George Formby Sr, entertainer (born 1876)
- 27 February – Schofield Haigh, cricketer (born 1871)
- 22 March – E. W. Hornung, author (born 1866)
- 27 March – Sir Harry Barron, army officer and Governor of Tasmania (1909-1913) and Western Australia (1913-1917) (born 1847)
- 1 April – Sir Edmund Poë, admiral (born 1849)
- 2 April – Charles Blackader, general (born 1869)
- 27 April – Arthur Mold, cricketer (born 1863)
- 12 May – Sir Melville Macnaghten, police officer (born 1853)
- 19 May – Michael Llewelyn Davies, inspiration for Peter Pan, drowned (born 1900)
- 25 May – Sir Arthur Wilson, admiral of the fleet (born 1842)
- 26 June – Alfred Percy Sinnett, theosophist (born 1840)
- 29 June – Lady Randolph Churchill, socialite mother of Winston Churchill (born 1854 in the United States)
- 13 July – Emily Davies, pioneer of women's rights and education (born 1830)
- 2 September – Henry Austin Dobson, poet (born 1840)
- 7 September – Alfred William Rich, watercolourist (born 1856)
- 23 October – John Boyd Dunlop, inventor (born 1840)
- 10 December – George Ashlin, architect (born 1837)
- 11 December – Hardinge Giffard, 1st Earl of Halsbury, lawyer, Lord Chancellor (born 1823)
- 25 December – Sir George Atkinson-Willes, Royal Navy admiral (born 1847)
References
- Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- Boothroyd, David (2001). Politico's Guide to the History of British Political Parties. London: Politico's Publishing. p. 15. ISBN 1-902301-59-5.
- "R 37". The Airship Heritage Trust. 6 July 2019. Missing or empty
|url=(help) - Statutory Rules & Orders published by authority, 1921, No. 533
- Jackson, Alvin (2004). Home Rule – An Irish History. Oxford University Press. p. 198.
- It is estimated that between 1,000 and 2,000 people actually attended the match; Manchester United and Derby County had played immediately beforehand, and some of the spectators for that match had stayed on to watch the Stockport match for free. However, only thirteen people paid at the gate to watch the Stockport match by itself, staged here because bottom-of the-League Stockport's home ground had been closed due to earlier crowd trouble. "Two grounds have doubled up on staging League matches on the same day". footballsite.co.uk. Archived from the original on 31 July 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
- "Our history". Royal British Legion. Archived from the original on 24 February 2011. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
- Foy, Michael T. Michael Collins's Intelligence War. pp. 214–218. ISBN 0-7509-4267-3.
- "Parades and Marches – Chronology 2: Historical Dates and Events". Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN). Retrieved 28 January 2010.
- McDonald, Andrew (1989). "The Geddes Committee and the Formulation of Public Expenditure Policy, 1921–1922". The Historical Journal. 32: 643–74. doi:10.1017/s0018246x00012462. JSTOR 2639537.
- Driggs, Laurence La Tourette (7 September 1921). "The Fall of the Airship". The Outlook. New York. 129: 14–15. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
- Smith, Alfred Emanuel (21 September 1921). "Lessons of the ZR-2". The Outlook. New York. 129: 80, 82. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
- Bishop, Peter (19 August 2010). "History". TheCowsheds.co.uk. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
- "Results : Saturday 27th August 1921". statto.com. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
- Branson, Noreen (1979). Poplarism, 1919–1925: George Lansbury and the councillors' revolt. Lawrence and Wishart.
- Booth, Janine (2009). Guilty and Proud of it – Poplar's Rebel Councillors and Guardians 1919–1925. Merlin Press. ISBN 978-0-85036-694-5.
- "Shackleton Returns to Europe". South-Pole.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2007. Retrieved 19 August 2007.
- "Fact sheet: Women at Cambridge: A Chronology". University of Cambridge. 2010. Archived from the original on 7 November 2007. Retrieved 13 September 2010.
- Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 490–491. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1921". NobelPrize.org.
- The History Today Companion to British History. London: Collins & Brown. 1995. pp. 538–9. ISBN 1-85585-178-4.
- "History of Dental Surgery in Edinburgh". Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Archived from the original on 13 February 2011. Retrieved 14 January 2011.
- Hadley Centre. "Monthly England & Wales precipitation". Meteorological Office. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
- http://www.torro.org.uk/hightempsyear.php
- Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.
- Ann Evory (April 1978). Contemporary Authors. Gale. ISBN 978-0-8103-0035-4.
- "Field Marshal Sir Roland Gibbs". 2 November 2004 – via The Telegraph.
- Jean Heywood. Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins (5th ed.). p. 228 – via Google Books.
External links
See also
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