1916 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918

Sport and Music

1916 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

Events from the year 1916 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - George V of the United Kingdom
• Prime Minister - H. H. Asquith, coalition (until 5 December), David Lloyd George, coalition

Events

• 1 January - The Royal Army Medical Corps first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled.
• 9 January - World War I: The last British troops evacuated from Gallipoli, as the Ottoman Empire prevailed over of a joint British and French operation to capture Istanbul at the Battle of Gallipoli.
• 24 January - Conscription introduced by the Military Service Act.^[1]
• 22 March - Marriage of Edith Bratt and J. R. R. Tolkien. They would serve as the inspiration for the fictional characters Lúthien and Beren.
• 24–30 April - Easter Rising in Ireland.^[1]
• 27 April - Battle of Hulluch in World War I, 47th Brigade, 16th (Irish) Division decimated in one of the most heavily-concentrated gas attacks of the war.
• 21 May - daylight saving time introduced.^[1]
• 31 May–1 June - Battle of Jutland between the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet.^[2]
• 5 June - HMS Hampshire sinks off the Orkney Islands, Scotland, with Lord Kitchener aboard.^[1]
• 1 July–18 November - More than 1 million soldiers die during the Battle of the Somme including 60,000 casualties for the British Commonwealth on the first day.
• 2 September - William Leefe-Robinson becomes the first pilot to shoot down a German airship over Britain.
• 18 November - World War I: First Battle of the Somme ends. In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on 1 July.
• 7 December - Asquith resigns; Lloyd-George becomes Prime Minister.^[3]
• 11 December - Lloyd-George establishes a War Cabinet.^[3]

Undated

• Gustav Holst composes The Planets, Opus 32.

Publications

• John Buchan's novel Greenmantle.

Births

• 9 January - Peter Twinn, mathematician and World War II code-breaker (died 2004)
• 2 February - Olaf Pooley, actor
• 14 February - Sally Gray, actress (died 2006)
• 15 February - Ernest Millington, politician
• 11 March - Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1995)
• 17 March - Ray Ellington, singer (died 1985)
• 20 May - Owen Chadwick, author and historian
• 31 May - Bernard Lewis, historian
• 8 June - Francis Crick, molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2004)
• 23 June - Len Hutton, cricketer (died 1990)
• 1 July - Olivia de Havilland, actress
• 9 July - Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (doed 2005)
• 11 July - Reg Varney, actor
• 13 September - Roald Dahl, author (died 1990)
• 3 October - James Herriot, veterinarian and author (died 1995)
• 11 November - Robert Carr, politician
• 17 December - Penelope Fitzgerald, poet, essayist and biographer (died 2000)
• 19 December
  • Roy Ward Baker, film director
  • Jack Agazarian, World War II spy (died 1945)

Deaths

• 28 February - Henry James, author (born 1843, United States)
• 5 June - Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, Field Marshal, diplomat and statesman (born 1850)
• 23 July - William Ramsay, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852)
• 13 November - Lanoe Hawker, fighter pilot (born 1890)
• 14 November - Saki, writer (born 1870)
• 5 December - Augusta of Cambridge, member of the Royal Family (born 1822)

References

See also