1900 in the United Kingdom

• Monarch – Victoria
• Prime Minister – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Coalition)

• 3 January – Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert capsizes while being floated out of dry dock at Pembroke Dock on completion of her construction.{{Cite web|url=http://www.pembrokedock.org/h_dockyard_2.htm|title=Pembroke Dock Community Website|access-date=2 May 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207042402/http://www.pembrokedock.org/h_dockyard_2.htm|archive-date=7 February 2012|url-status=dead}}
• 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.{{cite book|last=Palmer|first=Alan|last2=Palmer |first2=Veronica|year=1992|title=The Chronology of British History|publisher=Century Ltd.|location=London|pages=329–330|isbn=0-7126-5616-2}}
• 31 January – the Gramophone Company copyrights the His Master's Voice illustration.{{cite book|first=Maurice|last=Baren|title=How Household Names Began|location=London|publisher=Michael O'Mara Books|year=1997|isbn=1-85479-257-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/howhouseholdname0000bare/page/71 71–2]|url=https://archive.org/details/howhouseholdname0000bare/page/71}}

• 5 February – the UK and the United States sign a treaty for the building of a Central American shipping canal through Nicaragua.
• 6 February – a 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 in London to protest against the Boer War ends in an uproar.
• 14 February – Second Boer War: 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State in South Africa.

File:LabourPartyPlaque.jpg

• 27 February
• Second Boer War: British military leaders in South Africa receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé.
• Creation of the Labour Party; Ramsay MacDonald is appointed its first secretary.{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-14-102715-0|year=2006}}
• 28 February – Second Boer War: the 118-day Siege of Ladysmith is lifted.

• 3 March – official inauguration of the Boundary Estate, Shoreditch, London; Britain's first council estate to be commenced (10 years previously).{{cite web|url=http://www.baseps.co.uk/featured-london-developments/boundary-estate-arnold-circus-shoreditch-london-e2|title=Boundary Estate, Arnold Circus, Shoreditch, London, E2|publisher=Base|location=London|date=2013-02-05|access-date=2016-07-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030010551/http://www.baseps.co.uk/featured-london-developments/boundary-estate-arnold-circus-shoreditch-london-e2|archive-date=30 October 2012|url-status=dead}}
• 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.
• Queen Victoria arrives in Dublin on her fourth and last visit to Ireland.
• 23 April–12 May – the Automobile Club of Great Britain stages a Thousand Mile Trial, a reliability motor rally over a circular route between London and Edinburgh.{{cite web|title=1900 One Thousand Mile Trial|work=Grace's Guide|url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1900_One_Thousand_Mile_Trial|date=2013-02-15|access-date=2013-07-29}}
• 24 April – the Daily Express newspaper is 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 – Second 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.{{cite web|url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/5/5507.html|title=Middlesex v Leicestershire|work=CricketArchive|access-date=2012-10-13}}
• 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.{{cite book|last=Bedwell|first=C. E. A.|title=The Legislation of the Empire|volume=1|year=1909|publisher=Butterworth & Co.|location=London|page=63|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MT59ZrQdDEYC&q=%22Mines+%28Prohibition+of+Child+Labour+Underground%29+Act%22+1900&pg=PT98|author2=The Earl of Roseberry|author3=MacDonell, Sir John|access-date=24 January 2012}}

• 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 Europeans taken hostage during the Boxer Rebellion.
• 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.{{cite web|title=Grounds for debate|url=http://www.wba.co.uk/page/Hawthorns|publisher=West Bromwich Albion|date=12 January 2012|access-date=2012-06-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503101408/http://www.wba.co.uk/page/Hawthorns|archive-date=3 May 2012|url-status=dead}}
• 12 September – The Prince of Wales's horse Diamond Jubilee completes the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and St Leger, ridden by Herbert Jones.

• 3 October – Edward Elgar's choral work 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.{{cite book|first=Jean|last=Lindsay|title=The Great Strike: a History of the Penrhyn Quarry Dispute of 1900–1903|location=Newton Abbot|publisher=David & Charles|year=1987|isbn=0-7153-8635-2}}

• 3 December – the Conservative Party under Lord Salisbury wins the 'Khaki' general election. Winston Churchill becomes a Member of Parliament for the first time, elected for Oldham; and two Labour candidates are successful: Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby.{{cite book|last=Thorpe|first=Andrew|year=2001|title=A History of the British Labour Party|publisher=Palgrave|isbn=0-333-92908-X}}
• 15 December – the three lighthouse keepers on Flannan Isle disappear without a trace
• 28 December – the Liverpool barque Primrose Hill is wrecked on South Stack off Holyhead with the loss of 33 lives.{{cite web|title=The Shipwreck of the Primrose Hill in 1900 off South Stack, Alex made a home Holyhead|url=http://www.anglesey.info/primrosehill.htm|work=Anglesey Môn Information Website|access-date=2011-02-22|archive-date=20 October 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101020023449/http://anglesey.info/primrosehill.htm|url-status=dead}}
• 31 December – a storm causes a stone and a lintel to fall at Stonehenge; they are restored in 1958.

• Beer Scare: beer drinkers in North West England suffer poisoning from arsenic in brewing sugars: 6,000 people affected and 70 killed.{{cite book|last1=Blocker|first1=Jack S.|last2=Fahey|first2=David M.|last3=Tyrrel|first3=Ian R.|title=Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: a Global Encyclopedia|page=56}}
• Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers formed by the amalgamation of 24 cement companies.{{cite book|first=A. J.|last=Francis|title=The Cement Industry 1796–1914: a history|location=Newton Abbot|publisher=David & Charles|year=1977|isbn=0-7153-7386-2}}
• William Harbutt of Bathampton begins commercial production of Plasticine modelling clay.

• 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.{{cite book|first=Q.D.|last=Leavis|author-link=Q. D. Leavis|title=Fiction and the Reading Public|edition=rev.|location=London|publisher=Chatto & Windus|year=1965}}
• 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.

File:Lord Mountbatten Naval in colour Allan Warren.jpg]]

File:Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother portrait.jpg]]

• 1 January
• Roger Maxwell, film actor (died 1971)
• Lillian Rich, silent film actress (died 1954)
• 2 January – Una Ledingham, physician, specialist in diabetes mellitus and pregnancy (died 1965){{cite book|title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science|author=Marilyn Ogilvie|author2=Joy Harvey|author-link=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie |author-link2=Joy Harvey|year=2000|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415920407|volume=2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldict02ogil}}
• 4 January – William Young, World War I veteran (died 2007)
• 9 January – Eve Garnett, writer and illustrator (died 1991)
• 20 January – Dorothy Annan, painter, potter and muralist (died 1983)
• 23 January – William Ifor Jones, composer (died 1988)
• 6 February – Guy Warrack, Scottish-born conductor (died 1986)
• 12 February
• Robert Boothby, politician (died 1986)
• Fred Emney, comic performer (died 1980)
• 20 February – Bernard Knowles, cinematographer and screenwriter (died 1975)
• 3 March
• Edna Best, stage, film and early television actress (died 1974 in Switzerland){{cite web|url=http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/edna-best/|title=Edna Best - Hollywood Star Walk|work=Los Angeles Times|language=en|access-date=2017-10-23}}
• Basil Bunting, modernist poet (died 1985)
• 15 March – Frances Partridge, writer (died 2004)
• 29 March – Margaret Sinclair, Scottish-born nun (died 1925)
• 31 March – Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (died 1974)
• 3 April – Albert Ingham, mathematician (died 1967)
• 9 April – Mary Potter, painter (died 1981)
• 19 April – Richard Hughes, novelist (died 1976)
• 22 April – Nellie Beer, Conservative politician, Lord Mayor of Manchester (died 1988){{cite web|url=http://abitofhistory.net/html/rhw/b_body.htm|title=Women of History - B|website=abitofhistory.net|access-date=2017-10-19}}
• 24 April – Elizabeth Goudge, novelist (died 1984){{cite web|url=https://www.msmc.edu/library/find_information/archives_and_special_collections/elizabeth_goudge_special_collection/biography_of_elizabeth_goudge|title=Biography of Elizabeth Goudge|publisher=Mount Saint Mary College, Kaplan Family Library and Study Center, Goudge Special Collection|location=Newburgh, New York|access-date=2019-03-17|archive-date=21 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171021111555/https://www.msmc.edu/library/find_information/archives_and_special_collections/elizabeth_goudge_special_collection/biography_of_elizabeth_goudge|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/27/obituaries/elizabeth-goudge.html|title=Elizabeth Goudge|date=1984-04-27|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-10-20}}
• 25 April – Gladwyn Jebb, acting Secretary-General of the UN (died 1996)
• 30 April – Cecily Lefort, World War II heroine, spy for SOE (executed 1945 in Germany)
• 2 May – A. W. Lawrence, Classical archaeologist (died 1991)
• 5 May – Harold Tamblyn-Watts, comic strip artist (died 1999)
• 10 May – Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer and astrophysicist (died 1979 in the United States){{cite book|title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers|date=2007|publisher=Springer|isbn=9780387304007|location=New York}}
• 27 May – Ethel Lang, supercentenarian (died 2015)
• 29 May – David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, Scottish-born politician, lawyer and judge, Lord Chancellor (died 1967)
• 30 May – Gerald Gardiner, Lord Chancellor (died 1990)
• 6 June
• Arthur Askey, comedian (died 1982)
• Lester Matthews, actor (died 1975)
• 17 June – Evelyn Irons, Scottish-born journalist, war correspondent (died 2000){{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/30/nyregion/evelyn-irons-war-reporter-is-dead-at-99.html|title=Evelyn Irons, War Reporter, Is Dead at 99|last=Lewis|first=Paul|date=2000-04-30|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-10-18}}
• 25 June
• Philip D'Arcy Hart, medical researcher, pioneer in tuberculosis treatment (died 2006)
• Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Admiral of the Fleet and last Viceroy of India (assassinated 1979 in Ireland)
• 26 June – John Benham, 400m runner (died 1990)
• 30 June – James Stagg, Scottish-born meteorologist (died 1975)
• 2 July
• Tyrone Guthrie, theatre director (died 1971 in Ireland)
• Sophie Harris, theatre and opera costume and scenic designer (died 1966)
• 10 July – Evelyn Laye, actress (died [1996)
• 4 August – Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, queen consort of George VI and later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (died 2002)
• 17 August – Vivienne de Watteville, adventurer (died 1957){{cite web|url=http://www.lukashartmann.ch/pdf/1.7.a.Erw.Tochter%20Materialien.pdf|title=Materialien zum Lukas Hartmanns Roman "Die Tochter des Jägers"|website=Lukas Hartmann}}
• 19 August – Gilbert Ryle, philosopher (died 1976)
• 23 August – Bella Reay, footballer (died 1979)
• 27 August – Frank Moody, Welsh boxer (died 1963)
• 25 August – Isobel Hogg Kerr Beattie, Scottish architect (died 1970){{cite web|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=100348|title=Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA Architect Biography Report|date=2017-10-18|last=Goold|first=David|website=www.scottisharchitects.org.uk|access-date=2017-10-18}}
• 4 September – Maxwell Knight, spymaster and naturalist (died 1968)
• 8 September – Tilly Devine, organised crime boss (died 1970 in Australia){{cite web|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/devine-matilda-mary-tilly-5970|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623031546/http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/devine-matilda-mary-tilly-5970|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-06-23|title=Biography - Matilda Mary (Tilly) Devine|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|date=2015-06-23|access-date=2017-10-22}}
• 9 September – James Hilton, novelist and screenwriter (died 1954 in the United States)
• 11 September – Jimmy Brain, footballer (died 1971)
• 12 September – Eric Thiman, composer (died 1975){{Cite web|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/amateurs/Thiman.html|title=English Composers for Amateurs: No 2 - Eric Thiman by Philip L Scowcroft|website=Musicweb-international.com|accessdate=24 July 2020}}
• 1 October – Tom Goddard, cricketer (died 1966)
• 2 October – Isabella Forshall, paediatric surgeon (died 1989)
• 6 October – Stan Nichols, cricketer (died 1961)
• 8 October – Geoffrey Jellicoe, landscape architect (died 1996)
• 9 October – Alastair Sim, character actor (died 1976)
• 14 October – Roland Penrose, Surrealist painter and art collector (died 1984)
• 16 October – Edward Ardizzone, painter, printmaker and author (born in Vietnam; died 1979)
• 5 November – Ethelwynn Trewavas, ichthyologist (died 1993){{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-ethelwynn-trewavas-1462529.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-ethelwynn-trewavas-1462529.html |archive-date=1 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Obituary: Ethelwynn Trewavas|date=1993-08-21|work=The Independent|location=London|access-date=2017-10-22}}{{cbignore}}
• 18 November – Mercedes Gleitze, distance swimmer (died 1981)
• 20 November – Helen Bradley, painter (died 1979){{cite web|url=http://odnb2.pubfactory.com/view/article/64232?docPos=&backToResults=/search/results/contributors.jsp?contributorId=38684|title=Helen Bradley|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (archived by the Wayback Machine)|date=2015-12-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151227122448/http://odnb2.pubfactory.com/view/article/64232?docPos=&backToResults=%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2Fcontributors.jsp%3FcontributorId%3D38684|archive-date=27 December 2015|url-status=dead|access-date=2017-10-22}}
• 22 November – Tom Macdonald, Welsh journalist and novelist (died 1980)
• 4 December – John Axon, railwayman hero (killed in accident 1957)
• 16 December – V. S. Pritchett, short story writer (died 1997)
• 17 December – Mary Cartwright, mathematician (died 1998){{cite web|url=http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Obits/Cartwright.html|title=Mary Cartwright Times obituary|website=www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk|access-date=2017-10-20}}
• 22 December – Alan Bush, pianist, composer and conductor (died 1995)
• 26 December – Evelyn Bark, humanitarian, leading member of the Red Cross, first female recipient of the CMG (died 1993){{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-evelyn-bark-1493450.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-evelyn-bark-1493450.html |archive-date=1 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Obituary: Evelyn Bark|date=1993-06-24|work=The Independent|access-date=2017-10-20|location=London}}{{cbignore}}
• Robina Addis, psychiatric social worker (died 1986){{cite web|url=http://wellcomelibrary.org/collections/digital-collections/mental-healthcare/robina-addis/|title=Robina Addis|publisher=Wellcome Library|location=London|access-date=2017-10-21}}
• Saira Elizabeth Luiza Shah, born Elizabeth Louise MacKenzie, Scottish writer as Morag Murray Abdullah (died 1960)

File:John Ruskin 1863.jpg]]

File:Oscar Wilde MET DP136272.jpg]]

• 20 January
• R. D. Blackmore, novelist (born 1825){{cite book|author=Max Keith Sutton|title=R. D. Blackmore|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SldaAAAAMAAJ|year=1979|publisher=Twayne Publishers|isbn=978-0-8057-6756-8|page=12}}
• John Ruskin, writer and social critic (born 1819)
• 21 January – Francis, Duke of Teck, a cousin-in-law of Queen Victoria (born 1837)
• 22 January – David Edward Hughes, musician and professor of music (born 1831)
• 31 January – John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, nobleman and boxer (born 1844)
• 6 February – Sir William Wilson Hunter, colonial administrator, statistician and historian (born 1840 in Scotland)
• 23 February
• William Butterfield, architect (born 1814)
• Ernest Dowson, poet (born 1867)
• 6 March – Ada Williams, baby farmer and murderer, hanged (born c.1875)
• 10 March – George James Symons, meteorologist (born 1838)
• 16 March – Sir Frederic William Burton, painter and curator (born 1816 in Ireland)
• 24 April – George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, politician (born 1823)
• 4 May – Augustus Pitt Rivers, ethnologist and archaeologist (born 1827)
• 12 May – Frederika Perceval, last surviving child of assassinated Prime Minister Spencer Perceval (born 1805){{cite book |last=Williams |first=Guy R. |title=London in the Country |publisher=Hamish Hamilton |date=1975 |sbn=241-89193-0 |page=179}}
• 28 May – Sir George Grove, writer on music and the Bible and civil engineer (born 1820)
• 3 June – Mary Kingsley, explorer, in Cape Colony (born 1862)
• 14 June – Catherine Gladstone, widow of Prime Minister W. E. Gladstone and philanthropist (born 1812){{cite book|author=Anne Isba|title=Gladstone and Women|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gaxDs8_oz_QC&pg=PA211|date=24 August 2006|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-85285-471-3|pages=211}}
• 30 July – Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Duke of Edinburgh), second eldest son of Queen Victoria, in Germany (born 1844){{cite book |last1=Panton |first1=James |title=Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy |date=24 February 2011 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7497-8 |page=40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BiyyueBTpaMC&pg=PA40 |language=en}}
• 28 August – Henry Sidgwick, philosopher (born 1838)
• 31 August – Sir John Bennet Lawes, agricultural scientist (born 1814)
• 19 September – Anne Beale, novelist (born 1816)
• 9 October – John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, landed aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist and architectural patron (born 1847){{cite book|author=John Davies|title=Cardiff and the Marquesses of Bute|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mPYgAAAAMAAJ|year=1981|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=978-0-7083-0761-8|page=77}}
• 16 October – Sir Henry Acland, physician (born 1815)
• 22 November – Sir Arthur Sullivan, composer (born 1842)
• 29 December – John Henry Leech, entomologist (born 1862)
• 30 November – Oscar Wilde, playwright, writer and poet, in France (born 1854 in Ireland)

• List of British films before 1920

{{reflist}}

{{UK year nav}}

{{Year in Europe|1900}}

Category:Years of the 19th century in the United Kingdom

Category:1900 by country

Category:1900s in the United Kingdom

Category:1900 in Europe