1915 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1915 in the United Kingdom. The year was dominated by the First World War, which broke out in the August of the previous year.

Incumbents Monarch – George V Prime Minister – H. H. Asquith (Liberal until 25 May, Coalition starting 25 May)

Events

1 January – World War I: sinking of the battleship HMS Formidable, off Lyme Regis, Dorset, by an Imperial German Navy U-boat. 35 officers and 512 men are lost out of a total complement of 780. 19 January – World War I: German Zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn for the first time, killing more than twenty. 24 January – World War I: Battle of Dogger Bank: British Grand Fleet defeats the German High Seas Fleet, sinking the armoured cruiser . January – enters service as the Royal Navy's first oil-fired battleship. 1 February – photographs required in British passports for the first time. 18 February – World War I: Germany regards waters around the British Isles to be a war zone from this date, as part of its U-boat campaign. March – World War I: Option to enlist in the Territorial Force for home service only is abolished and the first complete territorial division to be deployed to the Western Front arrives in France. 7 March – World War I: British collier is torpedoed and sunk in the Bristol Channel 5 nautical miles (9.3 km) north east of Ilfracombe, Devon, by SM U-20, with all 33 crew rescued. 11 March – World War I: Sinking of armed merchantman off Galloway by German U-boat SM U-27. Around 200 crew are lost, a number of bodies being washed up on the Isle of Man, with only 26 saved. 14 March – World War I: Battle of Más a Tierra: Off the coast of Chile, the Royal Navy forces the German light cruiser SMS Dresden to scuttle. Britain, France and the Russian Empire agree to give Constantinople and the Bosporus to Russia in case of victory (the treaty is later nullified by the Bolshevik Revolution). 18 March – World War I: Gallipoli campaign; British naval attack on the Dardanelles fails. Royal Navy battleship sinks German submarine U-29 with all hands in the Pentland Firth by ramming her, the only time this tactic is known to have been successfully used by a battleship. 24 April – the FA Cup is won by Sheffield United F.C., who defeat Chelsea 3–0 in the final at Old Trafford, Manchester. The competition will now be abandoned until the war is over. 25 April – World War I: Gallipoli Campaign: Landing at Cape Helles by British and French forces, heavily opposed by Ottoman troops. The Lancashire Fusiliers win 'six VCs before breakfast'. 3 May – the oldest continually operational Royal Air Force station, RAF Northolt (on the edge of London), opens as the home to the Royal Flying Corps' No. 4 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron. 7 May – World War I: Sinking of the RMS Lusitania: British ocean liner is sunk by Imperial German Navy U-boat U-20 off the south-west coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 civilians en route from New York to Liverpool. 17 May – the last purely Liberal government ends when Prime Minister H. H. Asquith decides to form an all-party coalition, precipitated by reports in the Northcliffe press of deficiencies in the supply of shells for the army following the 9 May British defeat at the Battle of Aubers Ridge. 22 May – Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green in Scotland: collision and fire kill 226, mostly troops, the largest number of fatalities in a rail accident in the U.K. 25 May – the Prime Minister forms the Asquith coalition ministry, a national wartime coalition government of twelve Liberals, eight Unionists and one Labour member (Arthur Henderson). David Lloyd George is appointed first Minister of Munitions. 27 May – explodes and sinks while loading mines off Sheerness with the loss of 352 lives.

31 May – World War I: Zeppelins effectively raid London for the first time, killing seven. 10 June – Vorticist exhibition opens at the Doré Gallery, London. 16 June – Women's Institutes organisation set up in Britain. 4 July – German aviator Gunther Plüschow escapes from an officers' prisoner-of-war camp at Donington Hall in Leicestershire and successfully makes his way home to Germany, the only enemy combatant in either World War to do so. 8 July – National Registration Act: All citizens (men and women) aged 15–65 to be registered on 15 August. 14 July – beginning of McMahon–Hussein Correspondence in which, in exchange for assistance against the Ottoman Empire, the British offer Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, their recognition of an independent Arab kingdom, although clear terms are never agreed. 17 July – the "Women's Great Procession" (also known as the "War Service Procession" or "Right to Serve March") is organised in London by the Women's Social and Political Union led by Emmeline Pankhurst to demonstrate that women should work in munitions and other areas where they could replace men. August Munitions of War Act places munitions factories and their labour relations under control of the Minister of Munitions. Edith Smith in Grantham becomes the country's first woman police officer granted full power of arrest. 16 August – World War I: a German U-boat shells the north-west coast of England in an attack on the chemical plant at Lowca. 6 September – Little Willie, the prototype military tank developed by William Foster & Co. of Lincoln, is first tested by the British Army. 15 September – Pommern completes the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and (substitute) St Leger. 16 September – first Women's Institute meeting held in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Wales. The first meeting in England is that of the Singleton Institute at Charlton, West Sussex on 9 November. 21 September – Cecil Chubb acquires Stonehenge at an auction for £6600. 25 September–14 October – World War I: Battle of Loos: British forces take the French town of Loos but with substantial casualties and are unable to press their advantage. This is the first time the British use poison gas in World War I and also the first large-scale use of 'New' or Kitchener's Army units. Three Members of Parliament are killed during the battle.Thomas Agar-Robartes, Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart and Charles Mills. October–November – World War I: Derby Scheme, a voluntary military recruitment scheme. 12 October – World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium. 20 October – women are officially permitted to act as bus and tram conductors for the duration of the War; but have been employed in Glasgow and other places in the U.K. since April. 12 November – William Henry Bragg and his son William Lawrence Bragg win the Nobel Prize in Physics "For their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays." 24 November – Bruce Bairnsfather's "Fragments from France" cartoon featuring "Old Bill" saying "Well, if you knows of a better 'ole, go to it" is published in the Bystander. 27 November – Government introduces legislation to restrict housing rents to their pre-war level following Glasgow rent strikes led by Mary Barbour. 10 December – World War I: Douglas Haig is appointed to succeed John French in command of the British Expeditionary Force. 30 December – armoured cruiser capsizes at anchor in the Cromarty Firth as the result of an internal explosion in her ammunition stores; 390 sailors and some civilians are killed.

Publications Rupert Brooke's collection 1914 & Other Poems (including the sonnet "The Soldier") (posthumous). John Buchan's novel The Thirty-nine Steps. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear. Ford Madox Ford's novel The Good Soldier. D. H. Lawrence's novel The Rainbow (suppressed after prosecution for obscenity). W. Somerset Maugham's novel Of Human Bondage. Dorothy Richardson's stream of consciousness novel Pointed Roofs. P. G. Wodehouse's first Blandings Castle novel, Something Fresh.

Births 4 January – Meg Mundy, actress (died 2016) 6 January – Alan Watts, Zen Buddhist philosopher (died 1973) 12 January – Norman Cohn, historian (died 2007) 18 January – Sir Ralph Verney, 5th Baronet, soldier and conservationist (died 2001) 23 January – Arthur Lewis, economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1991) 27 January – Jack Brymer, clarinettist (died 2003) 30 January – John Profumo, cabinet minister (died 2006) 1 February – Stanley Matthews, footballer (died 2000) 4 February – Norman Wisdom, comedian, singer and actor (died 2010) 5 February – John Bridge, World War II sailor (died 2006) 8 February – Peter Hill-Norton, admiral (died 2004) 11 February Patrick Leigh Fermor, travel writer and soldier (died 2011) Harry Walker, rugby union player (died 2018) 16 February – Michael Relph, film producer and director (died 2004) 18 February – Phyllis Calvert, actress (died 2002) 19 February – John Freeman, politician and television presenter (died 2014) 9 March – Johnnie Johnson, fighter pilot (died 2001) 19 March – Nancy Evans, opera singer (died 2000) 23 March – Arthur Owen, racing driver (died 2002) 28 March – Jeremy Hutchinson, Baron Hutchinson of Lullington, defence lawyer (died 2017) 29 March – George Chisholm, jazz musician (died 1997) 31 March – Albert Hourani, historian (died 1993) 6 April – Geoffrey Sherman, Royal Marines officer (died 2009) 17 April – Bertram James, fighter pilot (died 2008) 23 April – Arnold Alexander Hall, aeronautical engineer and scientist (died 2000) 24 April – Michael Carver, Army general (died 2001) 25 April – John James Cowperthwaite, civil servant (died 2006) 27 April – Eric Kemp, theologian and Bishop of Chichester (died 2009) 2 May – Peggy Mount, actress (died 2001) 5 May – Ben Wright, actor (died 1989) 6 May – Sydney Carter, poet and songwriter (died 2004) 8 May John George Macleod, doctor (died 2006) Brian Pearce, Marxist historian and translator (died 2008) 10 May John Egerton, 6th Duke of Sutherland, Scottish peer (died 2000) Denis Thatcher, England businessman and married to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (died 2003) 13 May – John Habakkuk, economic historian (died 2002) 14 May – John Challens, scientist (died 2002) 15 May – Hilda Bernstein, English-born author, artist and activist (died 2006) 20 May – Peter Copley, actor (died 2008) 5 June – Lancelot Ware, barrister and biochemist (died 2000) 7 June – Dominic Bruce, RAF officer (died 2000) 8 June Julian Ridsdale, politician (died 2004) O. W. Wolters, academic, historian and author (died 2000) 17 June – Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz, food writer (died 2003) 22 June – Duncan Clark, hammer thrower (died 2003) 23 June – Robin Montgomerie-Charrington, racing driver (died 2007) 24 June – Fred Hoyle, astronomer (died 2001) 26 June – David Caminer, computer programmer (died 2008) 1 July Bert Axell, naturalist (died 2001) Philip Lever, 3rd Viscount Leverhulme, peer (died 2000) 2 July Peggy Hubicki, composer and teacher (d. 2006) Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington (d. 2014) 11 July – Leonard Goodwin, pharmacologist (d. 2008) 15 July David Tree, actor (died 2009) Charlie Wipfler, professional footballer (died 1983) 18 July – Louis Le Bailly, vice-admiral (died 2010) 21 July – Miles Fitzalan-Howard, 17th Duke of Norfolk, army general (died 2002) 28 July – Peter Young, military historian (died 1988) 9 August – Michael Young, sociologist (died 2002) 10 August – Ralph Thomas, film director (died 2001) 14 August Victor Mishcon, lawyer and politician (died 2006) Derek Prince, Biblical scholar (died 2003) 22 August – Hugh Paddick, actor (died 2000) 28 August – Max Robertson, sports commentator (died 2009) 29 August Jack Agazarian, English World War II spy (died 1945) Denys Hay, historian (died 1994) 30 August Lillian May Davies, later Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland, Welsh fashion model and Swedish princess (died 2013) Jack Simmons, historian (died 2000)