1912 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1912 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

* Monarch – George V
* Prime Minister – H. H. Asquith (Liberal)
* Parliament – 30th

Events

* 1 January – General Post Office (GPO) takes over National Telephone Company.
* 17 January – British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four reach the South Pole to find that Roald Amundsen had beaten them to it.
* 31 January – G. K. Sowerby's drama '' Rutherford and Son'' premières at the Royal Court Theatre in London.
* 2 February – ''With Our King and Queen Through India'', a 2-hour Kinemacolor feature film of the Delhi Durbar of 1911 made by Charles Urban, is first shown at the Scala Theatre, London.
* 26 February–6 April – National coal strike of 1912.''The Annual Register''.
* 1 March – suffragettes smash shop windows in the West End of London, especially around Oxford Street.
* 16 March – Lawrence Oates, ill member of Scott's South Pole expedition leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time". He is not seen again.
* 19 March – minimum wage introduced for miners after national strike.
* 29 March – the remaining members of Scott's expedition die.
* 30 March – the University Boat Race on the Thames in London is abandoned after both crews sink.
* 1 April – the University Boat Race is restarted, and the race is won by Oxford by six lengths.
* 11 April – Irish Home Rule Bill introduced in the House of Commons, but fails to receive the support of the House of Lords.
* 13 April – the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) is established by royal charter.
* 14–15 April – the RMS ''Titanic'' sinks: The White Star liner strikes an iceberg and sinks on her maiden voyage from the United Kingdom to the United States.
* 15 April – the syndicalist '' Daily Herald'' newspaper is first published on a permanent basis.
* 22 April – English aviator Denys Corbett Wilson completes the first aeroplane crossing of the Irish Sea, from Goodwick in Wales to Crane near Enniscorthy in Ireland.
* April/May – thousands of Jewish workers in London's garment trade in the West End strike, followed by thousands more in the East End inspired by Rudolf Rocker.
* May – Liberal Unionist Party formally merges into the Conservative And Unionist Party.
* 2 May–3 July – Board of Trade inquiry into the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic''.
* 5 May–22 July – Great Britain and Ireland compete at the Olympics in Stockholm and win 10 gold, 15 silver and 16 bronze medals.
* 13 May – the Air Battalion Royal Engineers becomes the Military Wing of the Royal Flying Corps.
* 9 July – Cadeby Main pit disaster: two underground explosions in the South Yorkshire Coalfield kill 91 miners.
* 15 July – the National Insurance Act 1911 comes into force introducing National Insurance payments.
* 27 July – Bonar Law, leader of the Conservative Party in opposition, makes a defiant speech at a massive Irish Unionist rally at Blenheim Palace against Irish Home Rule implying support for armed resistance to it in Ulster.
* August
** Cabinet ministers accused of corruption in the Marconi scandal.
** Wettest British August on record.
* 10 August – Frank McClean flies a Short Brothers floatplane up the River Thames between the upper and lower parts of Tower Bridge and underneath London Bridge.
* 25–27 August – the wet summer climaxes in a major rainstorm across England, causing floods particularly in Norfolk and Norwich.
* September – the tradition of the Blackpool Illuminations begins.
* 24 October – formation of the Edinburgh and Leith Branch of the Workers' Educational Association at a meeting addressed by Albert Mansbridge.
* 31 October – Robert Baden-Powell marries Olave St Clair Soames at Parkstone.
* 5 November – establishment of the British Board of Film Censors.
* 12 November – the bodies of Captain Scott and his team are found in the Antarctic.
* 27 November – concerted suffragette attacks on pillar boxes.
* 18 December – Piltdown Man, thought to be the fossilised remains of a hitherto unknown form of early human, presented to the Geological Society of London. It is revealed to be a hoax in 1953.

Undated

* Sir Rufus Isaacs, the Attorney General, becomes the first believing Jew appointed to the Cabinet.
* Judges' Rules are issued by the judges of the King's Bench to give English police forces guidance on the procedures to be followed in detaining and questioning suspects.
* Glucozade, the predecessor of Lucozade, is first produced.

Publications

* Walter de la Mare's ''The Listeners, and Other Poems''.
* Ethel M. Dell's first novel ''The Way of an Eagle''.
* Arthur Conan Doyle's novel ''The Lost World''.
* The first Georgian Poetry anthology '' Georgian Poetry 1911–12'' edited by Edward Marsh.
* Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell's book ''Principia Mathematica'' vol. 2, one of the most important and seminal works in mathematical logic and philosophy.

Births

* 16 January – Norman Gash, historian (born in India; died 2009)
* 17 January – Edward Fennessy, electrical engineer (died 2009)
* 19 January – Margaret Wingfield, politician (died 2002)
* 20 January – Reg Smith, footballer and football manager (died 2004)
* 21 January – Laurence Whistler, poet and artist (died 2000)
* 3 February – John Bryan Ward-Perkins, archaeologist (died 1981)
* 6 February – Christopher Hill, historian (died 2003)
* 8 February
**Ann Lambton, historian (died 2008)
**Richard Southern, historian (died 2001)
* 12 February
** Eric Barker, comedy actor (died 1990)
** Gabrielle Brune, actress (died 2005)
* 11 February – Roy Fuller, poet and novelist (died 1991)
* 13 February
** Jenny Laird, actress (died 2001)
** Margaretta Scott, actress (died 2005)
* 20 February – Olive Cook, writer and artist (died 2002)
* 27 February – Lawrence Durrell, writer (born in India; died 1990)
* 4 March – Judith Furse, character actress (died 1974)
* 5 March – David Astor, editor of ''The Observer'' newspaper (died 2001)
* 10 March
**Muriel Angelus, actress (died 2004)
**Frank Smithies, mathematician (died 2002)
* 14 March – Vernon Harrison, photographer (died 2001)
* 19 March – Bill Frankland, immunologist (died 2020)
* 23 March – Betty Astell, actress (died 2005)
* 25 March – Melita Norwood, née Sirnis, secret agent (died 2005)
* 27 March
** James Callaghan, Prime Minister (died 2005)
** John Crofton, medical pioneer (died 2009)
* 29 March – Constance Chapman, actress (died 2003)
* 5 April
** John Le Mesurier, actor (died 1983)
** Bill Roberts, athlete (died 2001)
* 18 April – Sandy Glen, explorer (died 2004)
* 22 April – Kathleen Ferrier, contralto (died 1953)
* 4 May – Frith Banbury, actor and theatre director (died 2008)
* 7 May – Frank Reginald Carey, fighter pilot (died 2004)
* 10 May – Edward Gardner, politician (died 2001)
* 17 May – Percy M. Young, musicologist and composer (died 2004)
* 19 May – Noel Mander, organ builder (died 2005)
* 22 May – Herbert C. Brown, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004)
* 28 May – Derek Cooper, soldier and campaigner for refugees (died 2007)
* 31 May – Alfred Deller, countertenor (died 1979)
* 8 June – Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, artist (died 2004)
* 9 June – Gerald James Whitrow, mathematician and cosmologist (died 2000)
* 10 June – William Gordon Harris, civil engineer (died 2005)
* 16 June – Enoch Powell, politician (died 1998)
* 19 June – Archie Butterworth, racing car designer (died 2005)
* 20 June
** Anthony Buckeridge, children's author (died 2004)
** Olive Hirst, advertising agent (died 1994)
* 23 June – Alan Turing, mathematician (died 1954)
* 24 June
** Brian Johnston, BBC cricket commentator (died 1994)
** Mary Wesley, novelist (died 2002)
* 30 June – Arthur Walter James, journalist and Liberal Party politician (died 2015)
* 11 July – Peta Taylor, cricketer (died 1989)
* 12 July – Joseph Gold, lawyer (died 2000)
* 17 July – Michael Gilbert, lawyer and crime fiction writer (died 2006)
* 21 July – Tommy Butler, Detective Chief Superintendent (died 1970)
* 30 July – Anne Ridler, poet and editor (died 2001)
* 31 July – Peter John Stephens, writer (died 2002)
* 7 August – Paul Hawkins, politician (died 2002)
* 13 August – Terence Wilmot Hutchison, economist (died 2007)
* 15 August – Wendy Hiller, actress (died 2003)
* 16 August – Ted Drake, footballer (died 1995)
* 17 August – Margaret Scriven, tennis player (died 2001)
* 26 August – Alex Stuart-Menteth, naval officer (died 2000)
* 28 August – George Alcock, astronomer (died 2000)
* 1 September – Gwynfor Evans, Welsh politician (died 2005)
* 2 September – David Daiches, literary critic (died 2005)
* 11 September – Robin Jenkins, novelist (died 2005)
* 18 September – Frank Farmer, physicist (died 2004)
* 28 September – Peter Finch, actor (died 1977)
* 2 October – Eric Wilson, soldier (died 2008)
* 10 October – Clare Fell, archaeologist (died 2002)
* 12 October – Doreen Gorsky, politician and television producer (died 2001)
* 24 October – Peter Gellhorn, composer and conductor (born in Germany; died 2004)
* 27 October – Grahame Farr, maritime historian (died 1983)
* 28 October – Richard Doll, physiologist (died 2005)
* 30 October – Ian Robertson, Lord Robertson, judge (died 2005)
* 5 November – Paul Dehn, screenwriter and poet (died 1976)
* 7 November – Alex Henshaw, test pilot (died 2007)
* 12 November – Kenneth Porter, Air Force officer (died 2003)
* 13 November – John Hill, politician (died 2007)
* 25 November – Francis Durbridge, playwright and author (died 1998)
* 14 December – Desmond Fitzpatrick, general (died 2002)
* 27 December
** Conroy Maddox, painter (died 2005)
** Cyril Philips, historian (died 2005)

Deaths

* 7 January – Sophia Jex-Blake, physician and feminist (born 1840)
* 14 January – Samuel Waite Johnson, railway locomotive engineer (Midland Railway) (born 1831)
* 24 January – James Allen, self-help writer and poet (born 1864)
* 29 January – Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, Scottish aristocrat and politician (born 1849)
* 10 February – Joseph Lister, surgeon (born 1827)
* 17 February – Edgar Evans, Welsh-born naval officer, member of the Scott expedition to the South Pole (born 1876)
* 21 February – Osborne Reynolds, physicist (born 1842)
* 28 February – Bill Storer, footballer and cricketer (born 1867)
* 1 March – George Grossmith, actor and comic writer (born 1847)
* 17 March – Lawrence Oates, army officer, member of the Scott expedition (born 1880)
* 29 March – remaining members of the Scott expedition:
** Henry Robertson Bowers, Scottish-born naval officer (born 1883)
** Robert Falcon Scott, naval officer and explorer (born 1868)
** Edward Wilson, physician and naturalist (born 1872)
* 15 April – some victims of the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic'':
** Thomas Andrews, Jr., shipbuilder (born 1873)
** Dai Bowen, boxer (born 1891)
** Thomas Byles, Catholic priest (born 1870)
** Sidney Leslie Goodwin, youngest victim (born 1910)
** Wallace Hartley, ship's band leader and violinist (born 1878)
** William McMaster Murdoch, First Officer (born 1873)
** Jack Phillips, ship's senior wireless officer (born 1887)
** Edward Smith, ship's captain (born 1850)
** William Thomas Stead, campaigning journalist (born 1849)
* 20 April – Bram Stoker, writer (born 1847)
* 24 April – Justin McCarthy, Irish nationalist politician, historian and novelist (born 1830)
* 21 May – Sir Julius Wernher, businessman and art collector (born 1850 in Germany)
* 13 June – Alice Diehl, novelist and concert pianist (born 1844)
* 24 June – Sir George White, field marshal (born 1835)
* 25 June – Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, painter (born 1836 in the Netherlands)
* 2 July – Tom Richardson, cricketer (born 1870)
* 20 July – Andrew Lang, Scottish poet, novelist and critic (born 1844)
* 31 July – Allan Octavian Hume, civil servant and ornithologist in India (born 1829)
* 13 August – Octavia Hill, social reformer (born 1838)
* 20 August
** William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army (born 1829)
** Walter Goodman, painter, illustrator and author (born 1838)
* 1 September – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, composer (born 1875)
* 6 September – Sir Charles Gough, general and Victoria Cross recipient (born 1832)
* 28 September – Frederick Richards, admiral (born 1833)
* 30 September – Frances Allitsen, Scottish-born railway locomotive engineer (born 1840)
* 17 November – Richard Norman Shaw, architect (born 1831)
* 25 November – Sir Edward Moss, theatrical impresario (born 1852)
* 14 December – Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis, explorer and officer, lost on Antarctic expedition (born 1887)

See also

* List of British films before 1920

References

{{Year in Europe, 1912

Years of the 20th century in the United Kingdom