page_title: 1919 in the United Kingdom
section_title: Events
hierarchical_section_title: 1919 in the United Kingdom / Events
caption_attribution_description: English: The Admiralty yacht HMS Iolaire under the name Amalthaea. It sank on the morning of 1 January 1919 on the Beasts of Holm, rocks outside Stornoway harbour.
context_page_description: Events from the year 1919 in the United Kingdom.
context_section_description: 1 January – HMY Iolaire is wrecked on rocks off Stornoway on the Scottish Isle of Lewis: 205 die, mostly servicemen returning home.
  3 January – soldiers blockade Folkestone harbour in a successful protest against being returned to France. This month, other mutinies take place in France and across England.
  18 January
  The Paris Peace Conferenceopens in France, with delegates from 27 nations present for meetings at the Palace of Versailles; Lloyd George attends as one of the "Big Four".
  Bentley Motors Ltd. is incorporated in England.
  21 January – Dáil Éireann meets for the first time in the Mansion House, Dublin. It comprises Sinn Féin members elected in the 1918 general election who, in accordance with their manifesto, have not taken their seats in the Parliament of the United Kingdom but chosen to declare an independent Irish Republic. In the first shots of the Anglo-Irish War, two Royal Irish Constabulary men are killed in an ambush at Soloheadbeg in County Tipperary.
  23 January – "Harbour Riot" in Glasgow: confrontation between white and black merchant seamen.
  27 January – general strike call over working hours led by engineering workers in Glasgow and Belfast; in Belfast the strike collapses after a month.
  31 January – Battle of George Square: the army is called in (with tanks) to deal with riots and protests to gain a 40-hour working week in Glasgow.
  3 February – Éamon de Valera, the leader of Sinn Féin, and two other prisoners escape from Lincoln Prison in England in a break personally arranged by Michael Collins and Harry Boland.
  27 February – marriage of Princess Patricia of Connaught to Commander The Hon. Alexander Ramsay, the first royal wedding at Westminster Abbey since the 14th century.
  4–5 March – Kinmel Park riots by troops of the Canadian Expeditionary Force awaiting repatriation at Kinmel Camp, Bodelwyddan, in North Wales. Five men are killed, 28 injured, and 25 convicted of mutiny.
  3 April – Government agrees to begin release of imprisoned conscientious objectors.
  7 April – the Original Dixieland Jazz Band brings Dixieland jazz to England, opening a 15-month tour at the Hippodrome, London.
  13 April – Amritsar Massacre: British and Gurkha troops kill 379 Sikhs and injure more than 1200 at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab Province (British India).
  May – Third Anglo-Afghan War begins.
  15 May – Greek landing at Smyrna (as part of the Greco-Turkish War): The Hellenic Army lands at Smyrna assisted by ships of the British Royal Navy.
  12 May – the Pip, Squeak and Wilfred comic strip debuts in the Daily Mirror.
  29 May – observations made by Arthur Eddington during a solar eclipse test part of Einstein's general theory of relativity (confirmed 6 November).
  June – riots break out in west midlands towns.
  14–15 June – a Vickers Vimy piloted by John Alcock DSC with navigator Arthur Whitten Brown makes the first nonstop transatlantic flight, from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Connemara, Ireland.
  17 June – Epsom Riot by Canadian troops: English police sergeant Thomas Green is killed.
  21 June – Scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow: Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the interned German fleet in Scapa Flow, Scotland. Nine German sailors are killed.
  23 June – Women's Engineering Society founded.
  28 June – Treaty of Versailles signed, formally ending World War I.
  2–6 July – the British airship R34 makes the first transatlantic flight by dirigible, and the first westbound flight, from RAF East Fortune, Scotland, to Mineola, New York.
  15 July – naval sloops HMS Gentian and HMS Myrtle sunk by mines in the Gulf of Finland while assisting Estonia against the Bolsheviks, with nine crew lost.
  18 July – the Cenotaph in London, as designed by Edwin Lutyens, is unveiled to commemorate the dead of World War I.
  19 July – Peace Day: victory parades across Britain celebrate the end of World War I. Rioting ex-servicemen burn down Luton Town Hall.
  31 July
  Police strike in London and Liverpool for recognition of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers. Rioting breaks out in Liverpool on 1 August. Over 2,000 strike
caption: 1 January: Iolaire sinks.
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