1900 in the United Kingdom

1900 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1898 | 1899 | 1900 | 1901 | 1902

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport

1900 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland

Events from the year 1900 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch — Victoria
• Prime Minister — Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative)

Events

• 3 January — Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert almost capsizes while being floated out of dry dock at Pembroke Dock on completion of her construction.^[1]
• 9 January — Influenza outbreak in London.
• 24 January — Second Boer War: Boers repel British troops under General Sir Redvers Buller at the Battle of Spion Kop.^[2]
• 31 January — The Gramophone Company copyrights the His Master's Voice illustration.^[3]
• 5 February — The UK and the United States sign a treaty for the building of a Central American shipping canal through Nicaragua.
• 6 February — The House of Commons vote of censure over the government's handling of the Second Boer War is defeated by a majority of 213.
• 8 February — Second Boer War: British troops are defeated by Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa.
• 12 February — Meeting held at Mile End to protest against the Boer War ends in uproar.
• 14 February — Second Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.

Plaque recording the location of the formation of the Labour Party

• 27 February
  • Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé.
  • Creation of the Labour party; Ramsay MacDonald is appointed its first secretary.^[4]
• 28 February — Second Boer War: The 118-day Siege of Ladysmith is lifted.^[4]
• March–September — War of the Golden Stool fought against the Ashanti Empire.
• 1 April — Irish Guards formed by Queen Victoria.
• 4 April — An anarchist shoots at The Prince of Wales during his visit to Belgium for the birthday celebrations of the King of Belgium.
• 4 April — Queen Victoria arrives in Dublin on a rare visit.
• 23 April–12 May — The Automobile Club of Great Britain stages a Thousand Mile Trial, a reliability motor rally over a circular route from London to Edinburgh and return.^[5]
• 24 April — The Daily Express newspaper published for the first time.^[4]
• 14 May–28 October — Great Britain and Ireland compete at the Olympics in Paris and win 15 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze medals.
• 17 May — Second Boer War: Siege of Mafeking ends.^[4]
• 18 May — The UK proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.
• 5 June — Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria, South Africa.
• 19–21 July — Bernard Bosanquet first bowls a googly in first-class cricket, playing for Middlesex against Leicestershire at Lord's.^[6]
• 27 July — Louise, Princess Royal, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, marries Alexander Duff, Earl of Fife, in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace, London; 2 days later he is created Duke of Fife, the last Dukedom created in Britain for a person who is not a son, grandson or consort of the Sovereign.
• 30 July
  • The Duke of Albany becomes Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as Carl Eduard following the death of his uncle, Duke Alfred, a son of Queen Victoria who is the third of the reigning monarch's children to die.
  • Mines (Prohibition of Child Labour Underground) Act prohibits children under the age of thirteen from working in mines.^[7]
• 8 August — Great Britain loses to the United States in the first Davis Cup tennis competition.^[4]
• 14 August — An international contingent of troops, under British command, invades Peking and frees the Europeans taken hostage.
• 27 August — British defeat Boer commandos at Bergendal.
• 3 September — West Bromwich Albion F.C. move into The Hawthorns, a new stadium on the border of West Bromwich and Handsworth.^[8]
• 3 October — Edward Elgar’s oratorio The Dream of Gerontius receives its first performance in Birmingham Town Hall.
• 25 October — Second Boer War: United Kingdom annexes Transvaal.^[4]
• 22–14 November 1903 — Strike of Welsh slate workers at Penrhyn Quarry.^[9]
• 3 December — The Conservative Party under Lord Salisbury wins the 'Khaki' general election. Winston Churchill is elected Member of Parliament for Oldham; and two Labour candidates are successful: Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby.^[10]
• 28 December — The Liverpool barque Primrose Hill is wrecked on South Stack off Holyhead, with the loss of 33 lives.^[11]
• 31 December — A storm causes a stone and a lintel to fall at Stonehenge; they are restored in 1958.^[4]

Undated

• Beer Scare: beer drinkers in North West England suffer poisoning from arsenic in brewing sugars: 6,000 people affected and 70 killed.^[12]
• William Harbutt of Bathampton begins commercial production of Plasticine modelling clay.
• Diamond Jubilee wins the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the Epsom Derby, 2,000 Guineas and St Leger, ridden by Herbert Jones.
• Completion of the Arnold Cross estate, Shoreditch, London; Britain's first council estate to be commenced (10 years previously).^[13]

Publications

• Ernest Bramah's oriental fantasy stories The Wallet of Kai Lung.
• Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim.
• Maurice Hewlett's historical novel The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay.^[14]
• Gertrude Jekyll's book Home and Garden: notes and thoughts, practical and critical, of a worker in both.
• Arthur Quiller-Couch's anthology The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1900.
• H. G. Wells' novel Love and Mr Lewisham.

Births

• 31 March — Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (died 1974)
• 27 May — Ethel Lang, née Lancaster, supercentenarian (died 2015)
• 30 May — Gerald Gardiner, Lord High Chancellor (died 1990)
• 6 June — Arthur Askey, comedian (died 1982)
• 25 June — Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten, naval officer and statesman (assassinated 1979 in Ireland)
• 4 August — Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, queen consort of George VI (died 2002)
• 4 September — Maxwell Knight, spymaster and naturalist (died 1968)
• 9 September — James Hilton, novelist (died 1954)
• 1 October — Tom Goddard, English cricketer (died 1966)
• 6 October — Stan Nichols, English cricketer (died 1961)
• 8 October — Geoffrey Jellicoe, landscape architect (died 1996)
• 9 October — Alastair Sim, actor (died 1976)
• 16 October — Edward Ardizzone, painter, printmaker and author (born in Vietnam; died 1979)

Deaths

• 20 January — John Ruskin, writer and social critic (born 1819)
• 22 January — David E. Hughes, musician and professor of music (born 1831)
• 31 January — John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, nobleman and boxer (born 1844)
• 23 February — William Butterfield, architect (born 1814)
• 24 April — George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, politician (born 1823)
• 30 July — Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, second eldest son of Queen Victoria (born 1844)
• 22 November — Arthur Sullivan, composer (born 1842)
• 30 November — Oscar Wilde, playwright, writer and poet (born 1854)

See also

References

1. Pembroke Dock Community Website
2. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 329–330. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
3. Baren, Maurice (1997). How Household Names Began. London: Michael O'Mara Books. pp. 71–2. ISBN 1-85479-257-1.
4. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
5. "1900 One Thousand Mile Trial". Grace's Guide. 2013-02-15. Retrieved 2013-07-29.
6. "Middlesex v Leicestershire". CricketArchive. Retrieved 2012-10-13.
7. Bedwell, C. E. A.; The Earl of Roseberry; MacDonell, Sir John (1909). The Legislation of the Empire (Vol. 1). London: Butterworth & Co. p. 63. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
8. "Grounds for debate". West Bromwich Albion. 12 January 2012. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
9. Lindsay, Jean (1987). The Great Strike : a History of the Penrhyn Quarry Dispute of 1900–1903. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-8635-2.
10. Thorpe, Andrew (2001). A History Of The British Labour Party. Palgrave. ISBN 0-333-92908-X.
11. "The Shipwreck of the Primrose Hill in 1900 off South Stack, Holyhead". Anglesey Môn Information Website. Retrieved 2011-02-22.
12. Blocker, Jack S.; Fahey, David M.; Tyrrel, Ian R. Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: a Global Encyclopedia. p. 56.
13. "Boundary Estate, Arnold Circus, Shoreditch, London, E2". London: Base. 2013-02-05. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
14. Leavis, Q.D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.