1903 in the United Kingdom

1903 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1901 | 1902 | 1903 (1903) | 1904 | 1905

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport

1903 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland

Events from the year 1903 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - Edward VII
• Prime Minister - Arthur Balfour (Conservative)

Events

• 1 January - Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India.
• 19 January - First transatlantic radio broadcast between United States and Britain.
• 27 January - Fire at Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum kills 51.^[1]
• 12 February - Randall Davidson enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he will hold for 25 years.^[2]
• 3 March - British admiralty announces plans to build naval base at Rosyth on the Firth of Forth.
• 24 March & 3 May - Derby earthquakes.^[3]
• 1 April - Midwives Act 1902 comes into effect, regulating the profession of midwifery.
• 14 April - Aberdeen Football Club is established.
• 18 April - Bury F.C. beat Derby County by an all-time record 6 goals to nil to win the 1903 FA Cup Final.
• 23 April - Budget removes Corn Duty.
• 29 May - Bradford City Football Club is established.
• 19 June - Caernarfon earthquake.
• 7 July - British take over the Fulani empire.
• August - 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party moves from Brussels to London.
• September - First Garden City Ltd formed to develop Letchworth.
• 16 September - Joseph Chamberlain resigns as Colonial Secretary.
• 10 October - Foundation of the militant Women's Social and Political Union by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst in Manchester.^[4]
• 31 October - Opening of Hampden Park football ground in Glasgow in Scotland.^[4]
• October:
  • Opening of Willow Tearooms, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for Catherine Cranston.
  • The wettest month in the EWP series with 218.1 millimetres (8.59 in), beating November 1852 with 202.5 millimetres (7.97 in)^[5]
• 2 November - Daily Mirror launched^[4] as a newspaper for women, run by women.

Undated

• First Poor Prisoners' Defence Act provides for limited legal aid.
• University of Liverpool becomes independent of Victoria University.
• "Typhoo Tipps" tea first marketed.^[6]
• William Randal Cremer wins the Nobel Peace Prize.^[7]
• The remains of "Cheddar Man" are found within Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Britain’s oldest complete human skeleton, dating to approximately 7150 BCE.^[8]
• Osea Island off Maldon, Essex, is bought by Frederick Nicholas Charrington to provide an addiction treatment centre.
• Rock Sand wins the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the Epsom Derby, 2,000 Guineas and St Leger.

Publications

• Edward Harold Begbie's novel Lost in Blunderland (under the pseudonym Caroline Lewis).
• Samuel Butler's semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh (posthumous).
• George Gissing's semi-autobiographical novel The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft.
• John Morley's biography The Life of Gladstone, which sells more than 25,000 copies in its first year.^[9]

Births

• 7 January - Alan Napier, actor (died 1988)
• 18 January
  • Gladys Hooper, née Nash, pianist and supercentenarian
  • Kathleen Shaw, figure skater (died 1983)
• 22 February - Frank P. Ramsey, mathematician (died 1930)
• 4 March - Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (died 1990)
• 24 March - Malcolm Muggeridge, journalist, author and media personality (died 1990)
• 31 March - H. J. Blackham, humanist and author (died 2009)
• 15 April - John Williams, actor (died 1983)
• 20 May - Barbara Hepworth, sculptor (died 1975)
• 29 May - Bob Hope, British-born comedian (died 2003)
• 19 June - Wally Hammond, cricketer (died 1965)
• 25 June - George Orwell, author (died 1950)
• 29 June - Alan Blumlein, electronics engineer (died 1942)
• 1 July - Amy Johnson, aviator (died 1941)
• 2 July - Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister (died 1995)
• 10 July - John Wyndham, author (died 1969)
• 11 July - Rudolf Abel (alias of Vilyam "Willie" Genrikhovich Fisher), English-born spy for the Soviet Union (died 1971)
• 13 July - Kenneth Clark, art historian (died 1983)
• 26 July - Amy Gentry, rower (died 1976)
• 7 August - Louis Leakey, paleoanthropologist, born in British East Africa (died 1972)
• 23 August - William Primrose, violist (died 1982)
• 24 August - Graham Sutherland, artist (died 1980)
• 9 September - Edward Upward, author (died 2009)
• 28 October - Evelyn Waugh, writer (died 1966)
• 29 October - Vivian Ellis, composer and lyricist (died 1996)
• 31 October - Joan Robinson, economist (died 1983)
• 1 November - Max Adrian, Irish-born actor (died 1973)
• 5 December - Cecil Frank Powell, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1969)
• 10 December - Mary Norton, children's author (died 1992)
• 12 December - A. L. Rowse, historian (died 1997)
• unknown date – John Illingworth, yachtsman, yacht designer, and naval officer (died 1980)

Deaths

• 17 January - Quintin Hogg, philanthropist (born 1845)
• 1 February - Sir George Gabriel Stokes, mathematician and physicist (born 1819)
• 7 February - James Glaisher, meteorologist and aeronaut (born 1809)
• 4 March - Joseph Henry Shorthouse, novelist (born 1834)
• 13 March - George Granville Bradley, vicar and scholar (born 1821)
• 19 June - Herbert Vaughan, Catholic cardinal and archbishop (born 1832)
• 11 July - W. E. Henley, poet, critic, and editor (born 1849)
• 5 August - Phil May, artist (born 1864)
• 22 August - Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1830)
• 18 September - Alexander Bain, philosopher (born 1818)
• 8 December - Herbert Spencer, philosopher (born 1820)
• 28 December - George Gissing, novelist (born 1857)

References

See also