1931 in the United Kingdom

1931 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933

Sport

1931 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

Events from the year 1931 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - King George V
• Prime Minister - Ramsay MacDonald, Labour and national coalition

Events

• 6 January - Sadler's Wells Theatre opens in London.^[1]
• 26 January - Winston Churchill resigns from Stanley Baldwin shadow cabinetafter 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.^[2]
• 14 April - The Highway Code issued.^[1]
• 15 May - Shoppers in London escape with their lives when a chemical factory in Bayswater explodes.
• 23 May - Whipsnade Zoo opens in Bedfordshire.^[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 authored by John Maynard Keynes.^[3][4][5]
• 7 June - The Dogger Bank earthquake is felt across Britain.^[6]
• 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 successfully surface using the Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus.
• 12 June - Charlie Parker equals J.T. Hearne's record for the earliest date to reach 100 wickets.
• 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.^[7]
• 5 September - John Thomson, goalkeeper of Glasgow Celtic F.C., dies in hospital after fracturing his skull in a collision with Rangers forward Sam English in the 'Old Firm' League derby at Ibrox Park.^[8]
• 6 September - Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden announces salary cuts for all government employees, and reductions to unemployment benefit.^[9]
• 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).^[10]
• 15 September - The Invergordon Mutiny: Strikes in Royal Navy due to decreased salaries.
• 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.^[11]
• 27 October - General election results in victory for the National Government. Ramsay Macdonald remains Prime Minister.^[9] This election is held on a Tuesday: all subsequent ones will be on Thursdays.^[12]
• 12 November - The Abbey Road Studios in London are opened by Sir Edward Elgar.^[1]
• 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, the Dominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa.

Undated

• The Vic-Wells Ballet, later to become the Royal Ballet, debuts in London.^[13]
• National Trust for Scotland established.
• Ulster Canal abandoned.^[14]

Publications

• Arthur Bryant's biography King Charles the Second.
• Herbert Butterfield's study The Whig Interpretation of History.
• Agatha Christie's novel The Sittaford Mystery.
• A. J. Cronin's first novel Hatter's Castle.
• Frances Iles’ novel Malice Aforethought.^[15]
• Anthony Powell's novel Afternoon Men.
• Vita Sackville-West's novel All Passion Spent.
• Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves.
• Second edition of the hymnal Songs of Praise, including Eleanor Farjeon's Morning Has Broken.

Births

• 10 January - Peter Barnes, playwright and screenwriter (d. 2004)
• 2 February - Les Dawson, comedian (d. 1993)
• 24 February - Brian Close, cricket player
• 26 February - Ally McLeod, football manager (died 2004)
• 6 March - Jimmy Stewart, racing driver (d. 2008)
• 13 March - Michael Podro, art historian (d. 2008)
• 14 March - Frank Sando, long-distance runner
• 19 March - Alan Newton, track cyclist
• 7 April - Jeff Elliott, decathlete and pole vaulter
• 9 April - Ken Wilmshurst, triple jumper (d. 1992)
• 29 April - Lonnie Donegan, musician (d. 2002)
• 7 June
  • Virginia McKenna, actress
  • Malcolm Morley, painter
• 28 August - John Shirley-Quirk, bass-baritone
• 8 September - Jack Rosenthal, playwright (d. 2004)
• 22 September - Fay Weldon, author
• 22 September - George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, politician (d. 2003)
• 4 October - Terence Conran, designer and businessman
• 19 October - John le Carré, novelist
• 23 October - Diana Dors, actress (d. 1984)
• 9 November - Eric Sandstrom, track and field sprinter

Deaths

• 22 January - Alfred Maudslay, colonial diplomat, explorer and archaeologist (born 1850)
• 11 February - 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 Labour Party politician, MP for Glasgow St. Rollox 1922–1931 (born 1863)
• 27 March - Arnold Bennett, novelist (born 1867)
• 30 April - Sammy Woods, cricketer (born 1867)
• 13 June - Jesse Boot, 1st Baron Trent, businessman (born 1850)
• 5 September - John Thomson, footballer (born 1909)
• 2 October - Thomas Lipton, merchant and yachtsman (born 1850)

Unknown dates

• Lancelot Speed, illustrator (born 1860)
• Joseph Tabrar, songwriter (born 1857)

References

See also