1918 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1918 in the United Kingdom. This year sees the end of the First World War after four years, which Britain and its allies won (beginning the Interwar period), and a major advance in women's suffrage.

Incumbents

* Monarch – George V
* Prime Minister – David Lloyd George ( Coalition)
* Parliament – 30th (until 25 November)

Events

* 12 January
** Minnie Pit disaster, a mining accident at Halmer End in the North Staffordshire Coalfield, kills 155 as the result of an explosion caused by firedamp.
** Admiralty M-class destroyers and run aground and are wrecked off Orkney in a severe storm with only one survivor.
* 15 January – the keel of is laid on Tyneside, the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be laid down.
* 28 January – night of unusually heavy bombing in London and south-east England.
* 31 January – " Battle of May Island": in a confused series of collisions as a large Royal Navy fleet steams down the Firth of Forth this evening, submarines and are sunk, three other submarines and a light cruiser are damaged and 104 men are killed.
* 6 February – Representation of the People Act gives women the vote provided they are over 30 and are (or are married to) a local government elector. It also removes most property qualifications, giving all adult (over-21) male resident householders the vote, and requires elections to be restricted to a single day. Many conscientious objectors are barred from voting until 5 years after the end of the war.
* 1 March – armed merchant cruiser is torpedoed and sunk off Rathlin Island, Ireland, by Imperial German Navy U-boat SM ''U-19'' with the loss of 49 lives.
* 23 March – in London at the Wood Green Empire, Chung Ling Soo (William E Robinson, US-born magician) dies during his trick where he was supposed to "catch" two separate bullets – one of them perforates his lung. He dies the following morning in hospital.

* 1 April – the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service are merged to form the Royal Air Force; the Royal Air Force; the Women's Royal Air Force is also founded to provide mechanics.
* 23 April
** Conscription Crisis of 1918 in Ireland: a general strike is held here against conscription.
** Zeebrugge Raid, an attempt by the Royal Navy to seal off the German U-boat base here.
* 9 May – Maurice Debate in the House of Commons.
* June – standard clothing introduced.
* 3 June – GPO raises postage rates: the ordinary letter rate is now 1½d., bringing an end to the Uniform Penny Post which has existed since 1840; and the rate for postcards doubles from ½d. to 1d.
* 1 July – explosion of 8 tons of TNT at the National Shell Filling Factory, Chilwell (Nottinghamshire) kills 134; only 32 bodies can be positively identified.
* 15 July – ration books introduced for butter, margarine, lard, meat and sugar.
* 17 July – is torpedoed and sunk off the east coast of Ireland by Imperial German Navy U-boat SM ''U-55''; 218 of the 223 on board are rescued.
* 1 August – British anti-Bolshevik forces occupy Archangel, Russia. On 10 August their commander is told to help White Russians.
* 8 August – Education Act (drafted by H. A. L. Fisher) raises the school leaving age in England and Wales to fourteen (with children obliged to attend school full-time) and remits all fees in elementary schools.
* 30 August – strike of 20,000 London policemen with demands of increased pay and union recognition.
* 16 September – HMS ''Glatton'', never having gone into action, is scuttled in Dover Harbour to prevent an accidental fire causing a serious explosion; 79 are killed.
* 29 September – first performance of Gustav Holst's orchestral suite ''The Planets'', before an invited audience at the Queen's Hall in London, conducted by Adrian Boult.
* 6 October – troopship is wrecked off Islay with 351 United States troops and 80 crew lost.
* 26 October – Cecil Chubb donates Stonehenge to the nation.
* 27 October–2 November – 2,200 deaths in London over this period due to "Spanish flu". Barnsley is the town with the highest mortality rate from the pandemic.
* 3 November – armistice with Austria-Hungary signed in Padua.
* 5 November – former Cunarder HMS ''Campania'' sinks in an accident in the Firth of Forth with no loss of life.
* 9 November – battleship HMS ''Britannia'' is sunk by a German submarine off Trafalgar with the loss of around fifty lives, the last major naval engagement of World War I.
* 11 November – World War I ends: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in the " Compiègne Wagon" in France with Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss as British representative. George Edwin Ellison becomes the last British soldier to be killed in the War, near Mons in Belgium.
* 14 November – Labour Party leaves the wartime coalition government.
* 15 November – first released British prisoners of war reach Calais.
* 20 November – U-boats start to rendezvous off Harwich to begin the surrender of the High Seas Fleet to the Royal Navy; in the following week the German warships are escorted to internment in Scapa Flow.
* 21 November – the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 receives Royal Assent, giving women over 21 the right to stand as a Member of Parliament.
* 23 November – British military government of Palestine begins.
* 5 December – light cruiser HMS ''Cassandra'' sunk by mine in the Gulf of Finland while assisting Estonia against the Bolsheviks, with eleven crew lost.
* 14 December – general election polling held. It is the first national election in the United Kingdom at which women are entitled to vote or stand, and the male franchise is extended. This is known as the "Coupon election" from the letter of endorsement given to candidates of the official (and victorious) Coalition by Bonar Law and Lloyd George.
* 24 December – first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge, held.
*28 December – Countess Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway Prison, becomes the first woman MP elected to (but not to take her seat in) the British House of Commons. Sinn Féin has won 73 out of 105 Irish seats in the British Parliament. In accordance with their manifesto, Sinn Féin members refuse to take their seats in the Palace of Westminster and instead form the First Dáil in Ireland in 1919.
* 29 December – the '' Sunday Express'' newspaper published for the first time.

Undated

* United Newspapers Ltd. founded in London.
* The Scottish county of Elginshire is officially renamed as the County of Moray (Morayshire).
* Gainsborough wins the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the Derby, 2,000 Guineas and St Leger.

Publications

* Ethel M. Dell's '' Greatheart''
* Gerard Manley Hopkins' ''Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins'' (posthumous).
* Daniel Jones's textbook ''An Outline of English Phonetics'' (containing the first comprehensive description of British Received Pronunciation).
* Wyndham Lewis's novel ''Tarr'' (in book form).
* André Maurois' novel ''Les Silences du Colonel Bramble''.
* Siegfried Sassoon's ''Counter-Attack and Other Poems''.
* Dr Marie Stopes' books ''Married Love'' and ''Wise Parenthood''.
* Lytton Strachey's historical biography ''Eminent Victorians''.
* Rebecca West's novel '' The Return of the Soldier''.

Births

* 1 January
** Patrick Anthony Porteous, Scottish soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross (born in the British Raj; died 2000)
** Albert McQuarrie, Scottish politician (died 2016)
* 2 January – Basil Hall, civil servant (died 2011)
* 15 January
** Diana Barnato Walker, aviator (died 2008)
** David George Kendall, mathematician (died 2007)
** Deryck Stapleton, Royal Air Force officer (died 2018)
* 16 January – Robin Dunn, Army officer and judge (died 2014)
* 19 January – Terence Miller, academic and palaeontologist (died 2015)
* 24 February – Michael Hanley, intelligence officer (died 2001)
* 26 January – Archie Scott, Scottish cricketer (died 2019)
* 28 January
** Harry Corbett, English puppeteer, actor and screenwriter (died 1989)
**Trevor Skeet, lawyer and politician (born in New Zealand; died 2004)
* 1 February – Muriel Spark, Scottish author (died 2006)
* 2 February – Stuart Blanch, Anglican prelate and Archbishop of York (died 1994)
* 4 February – Clive Bossom, politician (died 2017)
* 8 February – Max Rayne, property developer (died 2003)
* 9 February – Morris Barry, television producer (died 2000)
* 10 February – Idwal Pugh, Welsh cival servant (died 2010)
* 11 February – Maurice Mounsdon, RAF pilot (died 2019)
* 18 February – Lilian Bader, aircraftwoman and teacher (died 2015)
* 19 February – Nigel Forbes, 22nd Lord Forbes, nobleman, soldier, businessman and politician (died 2013)
* 25 February – Frederic Mullally, journalist and novelist (died 2014)
* 28 February – Alfred Burke, actor (died 2011)
* 1 March
** Roger Delgado, actor (died 1973)
** Lewis Hodges, air marshal and pilot (died 2007)
* 2 March – Lady Moyra Browne, nursing administrator and noblewoman (died 2016)
* 7 March – Joan Stafford-King-Harman, socialite and intelligence officer (died 2018)
* 13 March
** Marjorie Blamey, illustrator (died 2019)
** Jack Butterworth, lawyer (died 2003)
** John Gray, physiologist (died 2011)
* 15 March
** Michael Barratt Brown, economist and political activist (died 2015)
** George Haig, 2nd Earl Haig, soldier, artist and peer (died 2009)
** Mary Malcolm

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