From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UK-related events during the year of 1931
Events from the year
1931 in the
United Kingdom .
Incumbents
Events
6 January –
Sadler's Wells Theatre opens in
London .
[1]
9 January –
Ulster Canal abandoned.
[2]
[3]
26 January –
Winston Churchill resigns from
Stanley Baldwin 's
shadow cabinet after disagreeing with the policy of conciliation with Indian nationalism.
29 January – for the fourth time in nine years, there is a fatal underground explosion at
Haig Pit ,
Whitehaven , in the
Cumberland Coalfield , killing 27 people.
[4]
4 February – RAF
Blackburn Iris III seaplane S 238 crashes in
Plymouth Sound after a senior officer takes control from the pilot and fails to make a safe landing, resulting in multiple fatalities.
[5] One of the first to the rescue is
T. E. Lawrence , stationed locally at this time.
[6]
1 March –
Oswald Mosley forms the
New Party , having resigned from the
Labour Party a day earlier.
19 March –
Westminster St George's by-election results in the victory of the
Conservative candidate
Duff Cooper . The by-election has been treated virtually as a referendum on the leadership of the Conservative leader
Stanley Baldwin , and Duff Cooper's victory ends the campaign by the press barons
Lord Beaverbrook and
Viscount Rothermere to oust Baldwin.
14 April – the
Highway Code first issued.
[1]
26 April – census in England, Wales and Scotland.
[7]
1 May –
National Trust for Scotland established and acquires its first property,
Crookston Castle .
5 May – the Vic-Wells Ballet, later to become
The Royal Ballet , debuts in London.
[8]
15 May – shoppers in
London escape with their lives when a chemical factory in Bayswater explodes.
23 May –
Whipsnade Zoo is opened in
Bedfordshire by the Zoological Society of London.
[1]
June – publication of Report of the Committee on Finance and Industry (the '
Macmillan Committee ') on the relationship between the banking and financial system and British trade and industry, largely written by
John Maynard Keynes .
[9]
[10]
[11]
7 June – the
Dogger Bank earthquake is felt across Britain.
[12]
9 June – submarine
HMS Poseidon sinks after collision with a Chinese freighter off
Weihai , China. Twenty lives are lost but a few submariners become the first to surface using the
Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus .
12 June
July – new
Royal Corinthian Yacht Club clubhouse at
Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex, a pioneering British example of
International Style designed by
Joseph Emberton , is opened.
[13]
31 July – the
May Report of the Committee on National Expenditure recommends extensive cuts in government spending. This produces a political crisis as many members of the
Labour Party government object to the proposals.
11 August – A run on the pound leads to a political and economic crisis in Britain. (See
European banking crisis of 1931 )
24 August –
Labour Government of
Ramsay MacDonald resigns and is replaced by a
National Government of people drawn from all parties also under MacDonald, as suggested by
King George V earlier in the year.
[14]
5 September –
John Thomson , goalkeeper of
Celtic , dies in hospital after fracturing his skull in a collision with
Rangers forward
Sam English in the '
Old Firm '
League
derby at
Ibrox Park .
[15]
6 September – Chancellor of the Exchequer
Philip Snowden announces salary cuts for all government employees and reductions to
unemployment benefit .
[16]
7 September –
second Round Table Conference on the constitutional future of India opens in
London .
Mahatma Gandhi represents the
Indian National Congress and on the weekend of 26 September visits the Lancashire cotton town of
Darwen .
13 September –
Schneider Trophy
seaplane
race flown at
Calshot Spit . For the third successive time the British team (sponsored by
Lady Houston ) wins with
Flt. Lt.
John Boothman flying the course in
Supermarine S.6B
serial S1595 designed by
R. J. Mitchell with
Rolls-Royce R engines at a world record speed of 340.09 mph (547.31 km/h). On 29 September Flt Lt.
George Stainforth in S.6B serial S1596 breaks the 400 mph
air speed record barrier at 407.5 mph (655.67 km/h).
[17]
15 September –
Invergordon Mutiny :
Strikes in the
Royal Navy as a result of pay cuts.
20 September –
pound sterling comes off the
gold standard .
[1]
Autumn –
means test introduced for those in receipt of
unemployment insurance for more than six months.
[18]
15 October –
MI5 ceases to be a section of the
War Office , being officially renamed the Security Service, and takes over the counter-subversion section (SSI) from
Scotland Yard 's
Special Branch .
[19]
17 October –
Leeds Bradford International Airport is opened as Leeds and Bradford Municipal Aerodrome.
27 October –
general election results in victory for the
National Government in the country's greatest ever electoral landslide. Ramsay MacDonald remains Prime Minister.
[16] This election is held on a Tuesday: all subsequent ones will be held on Thursdays.
[20]
12 November –
Abbey Road Studios in London are opened by Sir
Edward Elgar .
[1]
20 November – an underground
firedamp explosion at
Bentley Colliery in the
South Yorkshire Coalfield kills 45.
[21]
21 November – The infamous Red-and-White Party, given by Arthur Jeffress in
Maud Allan 's
Regent's Park town house in London, marks the end of the "
Bright young things " subculture in Britain.[
citation needed ]
11 December –
Parliament enacts the
Statute of Westminster , which establishes a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the
Commonwealth of Australia ,
Canada , the
Irish Free State ,
Newfoundland , the
Dominion of New Zealand and the
Union of South Africa .
12 December –
Great Depression : work on construction of "Hull Number 534", the future
ocean liner
RMS Queen Mary , at
John Brown & Company 's shipyard on
Clydebank is suspended for more than two years.
27 December – the
statue of Eros returns to London's
Piccadilly Circus after a nine-year absence.
[22]
[23]
Publications
Births
1 January –
Mona Hammond , Jamaican-born British actress (died 2022)
2 January –
Robin Marlar , cricket player and journalist (died 2022)
[25]
6 January –
P. J. Kavanagh , writer and broadcaster (died 2015)
10 January –
Peter Barnes , playwright and screenwriter (died 2004)
[26]
13 January
19 January –
Patsy Rowlands , actress (died 2005)
20 January –
Harry Ewing, Baron Ewing of Kirkford , politician (died 2007)
26 January –
Alfred Lynch , actor (died 2003)
27 January –
Nigel Vinson, Baron Vinson , businessman
29 January –
Leslie Bricusse , English-born film and stage composer and lyricist (died 2021)
2 February –
Les Dawson , comedian (died 1993)
14 February –
Jonathan Adams , actor (died 2005)
17 February –
Fay Godwin , photographer (died 2005)
18 February –
Ned Sherrin , broadcaster and entertainer (died 2007)
23 February –
Robin Wood , film critic (died 2009)
24 February –
Brian Close , cricketer (died 2015)
26 February –
Ally MacLeod , football manager (died 2004)
28 February –
Peter Alliss , golfer and commentator (died 2020)
6 March –
Jimmy Stewart , racing driver (died 2008)
11 March –
Allan Ganley , jazz musician (died 2008)
13 March –
Michael Podro , art historian (died 2008)
14 March –
Frank Sando , long-distance runner (died 2012)
19 March –
Alan Newton , track cyclist
22 March –
Leslie Thomas , Welsh novelist (died 2014)
25 March
29 March
6 April –
Brian Jackson , actor (died 2022)
7 April –
Geoff Elliott , decathlete and pole vaulter (died 2014)
8 April –
Beryl Vertue , television producer (died 2022)
[28]
9 April –
Ken Wilmshurst , triple jumper (died 1992)
11 April –
Lewis Jones , rugby player (died 2024)
14 April –
Vic Wilson , racing driver (died 2001)
20 April
25 April –
David Shepherd , artist and conservationist (died 2017)
29 April –
Lonnie Donegan , musician (died 2002)
4 May –
Thomas Stuttaford , British doctor, politician (died 2018)
[29]
10 May –
Michael Mustill, Baron Mustill , English lawyer and judge (died 2015)
11 May –
Angus McBride , illustrator (died 2007)
16 May –
Peter Levi , poet, Jesuit priest and scholar (died 2000)
18 May –
Bruce Halford , racing driver (died 2001)
21 May –
Desmond Wilcox , journalist and television producer (died 2000)
25 May –
John Littlewood , chess player (died 2009)
7 June
11 June –
Ray Wood , footballer (died 2002)
14 June –
Kenneth Cope , actor
20 June –
Richard Southwood , biologist (died 2005)
24 June
26 June
29 June –
Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton , Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and British Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (died 2020)
30 June –
Allan Jay , foil and épée fencer (died 2023)
2 July
3 July
4 July –
Peter Richardson , cricketer (died 2017)
6 July –
Gordon Barker , cricketer and footballer (died 2006)
7 July –
Alex South , footballer
9 July –
Laurence O'Keeffe , diplomat (died 2003)
13 July
14 July –
Robert Stephens , actor (died 1995)
16 July –
Fergus Gordon Kerr , Scottish Roman Catholic priest of the English Dominican Province
17 July –
Ted Cullinan , architect (died 2019)
20 July –
Tony Marsh , racing driver (died 2009)
22 July –
Charles Huxtable , Army officer (died 2018)
5 August –
Billy Bingham , Northern Irish footballer and manager (died 2022)
8 August –
Roger Penrose , mathematical physicist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physics
10 August –
L. J. K. Setright , motoring journalist (died 2005)
21 August –
Barry Foster , actor (died 2002)
23 August –
Richard Vincent, Baron Vincent of Coleshill , British military officer, life peer (died 2018)
26 August –
Geoffrey Dickens , Conservative politician (died 1995)
[30]
28 August –
John Shirley-Quirk , bass-baritone (died 2014)
29 August –
Evelyn de Rothschild , English banker and businessman (died 2022)
30 August –
Ifor James , horn player (died 2004)
31 August –
Bernard Bennett , snooker player (died 2002)
1 September –
Cecil Parkinson , Conservative politician (died 2016)
8 September
12 September –
Ian Holm , actor (died 2020)
13 September -
Brian Dobson , archaeologist (died 2012)
22 September
24 September –
Elizabeth Blackadder , painter (died 2021)
25 September –
Peter Woodthorpe , actor (died 2004)
27 September –
Malcolm Caldwell , academic and writer (died 1978)
4 October –
Terence Conran , designer and businessman (died 2020)
8 October –
Bill Brown , football goalkeeper (died 2004)
9 October –
Tony Booth , actor (died 2017)
19 October –
John le Carré , novelist (died 2020)
22 October –
Jim Parks , cricketer (died 2022)
[31]
23 October –
Diana Dors , actress (died 1984)
25 October –
Jimmy McIlroy , footballer (died 2018)
27 October –
David Bryant , bowls player (died 2020)
4 November –
Clinton Ford , singer (died 2009)
5 November –
Diane Pearson , book editor and novelist (died 2017)
9 November –
Roy Sandstrom , track and field sprinter (died 2019)
10 November –
Don Henderson , actor (died 1997)
14 November –
Jennifer Jayne , actress (died 2006)
21 November –
Stanley Kalms, Baron Kalms , businessman and life peer
27 November –
Geoffrey Jones , film director (died 2005)
7 December –
Maurice Agis , sculptor (died 2009)
18 December –
Alison Plowden , historian (born in India; died 2007)
21 December –
Margaret M. McGowan , historian (died 2022)
[32]
27 December –
John Charles , footballer (died 2004)
30 December –
John Houghton , climate scientist (died 2020)
Deaths
4 January –
Louise, Princess Royal (born 1867)
22 January –
Alfred Maudslay , colonial diplomat, explorer and archaeologist (born 1850)
11 February –
Sir Charles Algernon Parsons , inventor (born 1854)
5 March –
Arthur Tooth ,
Anglican
clergyman prosecuted for
Ritualist practices in the 1870s (born 1839)
17 March –
James Stewart , Scottish politician (born 1863)
27 March
16 April –
St. George Littledale , traveller and big game hunter (born 1851)
30 April –
Sammy Woods , cricketer (born 1867)
26 May –
Kate Marsden , medical missionary (born 1859)
27 May –
Agnata Butler , classical scholar (born 1867)
13 June –
Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent , businessman (born 1850)
18 August
John Sherwood-Kelly , soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross (born 1880 in South Africa)
22 August –
Joseph Tabrar , songwriter (born 1857)
5 September –
John Thomson , footballer (born 1909)
2 October –
Sir Thomas Lipton , retailer and yachtsman (born 1850)
14 November – Sir
William Peyton , army general (born 1866)
20 November –
Julius Drewe , businessman, retailer and entrepreneur (born 1856)
[33]
31 December –
Lancelot Speed , illustrator and silent film director (born 1860)
See also
References
^
a
b
c
d
e Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006.
ISBN
0-14-102715-0 .
^ Delany, Ruth (1986). A celebration of 250 years of Ireland's Inland Waterways . Belfast: Appletree Press.
ISBN
0-86281-200-3 .
^ "Abandonment of Ulster Canal". Northern Whig . Belfast. 14 January 1931. p. 1.
^
"1931, 29th January, Haig Pit, Whitehaven, Cumberland No.4" . HealeyHero . Retrieved 18 October 2010 .
^
"Crash of a Blackburn Iris III off RAF Mount Batten" . Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives . Archived from
the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2021 .
^
The Journal of the T. E. Lawrence Society . The Society. 2000. p. 69.
^ Returns for England and Wales are destroyed by fire in 1942.
^ The Hutchinson Factfinder . Helicon. 1999.
ISBN
1-85986-000-1 .
^ Moggridge, D. E. (1992).
Maynard Keynes: an Economist's Biography . London: Routledge. p.
510 .
ISBN
0-415-05141-X .
^
Mowat, Charles Loch (1955). Britain Between the Wars: 1918–1940 . London: Methuen. pp. 260–261.
^
Hayek, F. A. (1944).
The Road to Serfdom . London: Routledge. pp. 66–67.
^
"Earth Science resources – earthquake records" . Archived from
the original on 24 February 2008. Retrieved 23 May 2008 .
^
"Joseph Emberton, Architect" . 2004. Retrieved 4 April 2015 .
^
"George V (1865–1936)" . History .
BBC . Retrieved 30 November 2011 .
^ Divers, Paul.
"John Thompson (1909–1931) – The Prince of Goalkeepers" . Irish Light and Colour . Archived from
the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2011 .
^
a
b Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 373–374.
ISBN
0-7126-5616-2 .
^ Price, Alfred (1977). Spitfire: a Documentary History . London: Macdonald and Jane's. p. 12.
ISBN
0-354-01077-8 .
^
The History Today Companion to British History . London: Collins & Brown. 1995. p.
509 .
ISBN
1-85585-178-4 .
^
Andrew, Christopher (2010) [2009].
The Defence of the Realm . London: Penguin. pp. 129–30.
ISBN
978-0-141-02330-4 .
^ Slee, Christopher (1994). The Guinness Book of Lasts . Enfield: Guinness Publishing.
ISBN
0-85112-783-5 .
^
"Bentley Colliery. 1931. 45 Killed" . Pitwork . Durham Mining Museum. Retrieved 22 May 2021 .
^ Hobhouse, Hermione (1975). A History of Regent Street . Macdonald and Jane's. p. 142.
ISBN
0362-00234-7 .
^ Marshall, Prince (1972). Wheels of London . The Sunday Times Magazine.
ISBN
0-7230-0068-9 .
^
Keating, H. R. F. (1982). Whodunit? – a guide to crime, suspense and spy fiction . London: Windward.
ISBN
0-7112-0249-4 .
^
Robin Marlar, former Sussex captain and Sunday Times correspondent, dies aged 91
^ Strachan, Alan (5 July 2004).
"Peter Barnes: Surprising and adventurous dramatist" .
The Independent .
Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2014 .
^ British Film and Television Year Book . Cinema TV Today. 1974. p. 187.
^
"Beryl Vertue obituary" .
The Guardian . 13 February 2022.
Archived from the original on 20 September 2022.
^
"Stuttaford, Dr (Irving) Thomas, (4 May 1931 – 8 June 2018), medical correspondent, the Oldie, since 1992 | Who's WHO & WHO WAS WHO" .
^
"OBITUARIES Geoffrey Dickens" . The Independent . 18 May 1995.
Archived from the original on 1 May 2022.
^
"Jim Parks obituary" .
The Guardian . 2 June 2022.
Archived from the original on 26 May 2023.
^
Professor Margaret McGowan CBE Obituary
^ (Kent and Sussex Courier, 13 November 1931,10 )
Further reading
Bogdanor, Vernon. "1931 Revisited: The Constitutional Aspects," Twentieth Century British History 1991 2(1): 1-25, argues that George V played a crucial role in the political crisis of August-October 1931.
Somervell, D.C. The Reign of King George V, (1936) 550pp;political, social and economic coverage,
online free
Williamson, Philip. "1931 Revisited: the Political Realities." Twentieth Century British History 1991 2(3): 328–338. Disputes Bogdanor, saying the idea of a national government had been in the minds of party leaders for some time and it was they, not the king, who determined when the time had come to establish one.