1900 in the United Kingdom

1900 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1898 | 1899 | 1900 (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.
• 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.
• 31 January — The Gramophone Company copyrights the His Master's Voice illustration.
• 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.
• 28 February — Second Boer War: The 118-day Siege of Ladysmith is lifted.
• 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.
• 24 April — The Daily Express newspaper published for the first time.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 8 August — Great Britain loses to the United States in the first Davis Cup tennis competition.
• 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.
• 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.
• 22–14 November 1903 — Strike of Welsh slate workers at Penrhyn Quarry.
• 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.
• 28 December — The Liverpool barque Primrose Hill is wrecked on South Stack off Holyhead, with the loss of 33 lives.
• 31 December — A storm causes a stone and a lintel to fall at Stonehenge; they are restored in 1958.

Undated

• Beer Scare: beer drinkers in North West England suffer poisoning from arsenic in brewing sugars: 6,000 people affected and 70 killed.
• 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, construction of which began 10 years previously. -

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.
• 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)

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)
• 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)