1917 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1917 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

*Monarch - George V of the United Kingdom
*Prime Minister - David Lloyd George, coalition

Events

* 19 January - Silvertown explosion: a blast at a munitions factory in London kills 73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over £2,000,000 worth of damage. [cite book |title=The London Encyclopaedia|author=Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert|publisher= Macmillan|year= 1995|isbn =0-333-57688-8|pages=288]
* 26 January - The sea defences at the village of Hallsands, Devon are breached, leading to all but one of the houses becoming uninhabitable.
* 2 February - bread rationing introduced.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* 11 March - World War I: British forces led by Sir Stanley Maude captured Baghdad, the southern capital of the Ottoman Empire.
* 26 March - World War I: First Battle of Gaza - British cavalry troops retreat after 17,000 Turks block their advance.
* 28 March - The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps founded.
* 17 July - King George V of the United Kingdom issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal Family will bear the surname Windsor.
* 2 August - Squadron Commander E.H. Dunning became the first pilot to land his aircraft on a ship [ [http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.3919 HMS Furious 1917] ] when he landed his Sopwith Pup on HMS Furious in Scapa Flow, Orkney. He was killed five days later during another landing on the ship.
* 17 August - One of English literature's most important and most famous meetings takes place when Wilfred Owen introduces himself to Siegfried Sassoon at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh.
* 5 October - Sir Arthur Lee donates the country house Chequers to the nation.
* 2 November - The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for Jewish settlement in Palestine.
* 7 November - World War I: Third Battle of Gaza ends — British forces capture Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.
* 16 November - British troops occupy Tel Aviv and Jaffa in Palestine.
* 20 November - World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins — British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are soon beaten back.
* 11 December - British troops take Jerusalem from the troops of the Ottoman Empire.

Undated

* J.R.R. Tolkien begins writing the original "Book of Lost Tales" (the first version of "The Silmarillion"); thus Middle-earth is first written in about this year.
* Charles Glover Barkla wins the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements." [ [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1917/barkla-bio.html Charles Glover Barkla The Nobel Prize in Physics 1917] ]
* Creation of the Cottingley Fairies photographs apparently depicting fairies; a hoax not admitted by the creators until 1981.

Publications

* P. G. Wodehouse's short story collection "The Man with Two Left Feet".
* William Butler Yeats' poetry collection "The Wild Swans at Coole".

Births

* 19 January - Graham Higman, mathematician
* 25 February - Anthony Burgess, author (died 1993)
* 2 March - John Gardner, composer
* 12 March - Googie Withers, actress
* 20 March - Vera Lynn, actress and singer
* 22 March - Paul Rogers, actor
* 24 March - John Kendrew, molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (died 1997)
* 10 June - Ruari McLean, typographer (died 2006)
* 1 July - Humphry Osmond, psychiatrist (died 2004)
* 10 July - Reg Smythe, cartoonist (died 1998)
* 30 August - Denis Healey, author and politician
* 3 September - Anthony Robert Klitz, artist (died 2000)
* 2 October - Christian de Duve, English-born biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
* 8 October - Rodney Robert Porter, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 1985)
* 22 October - Joan Fontaine, British-born actress
* 22 November - Andrew Huxley, scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
* 16 December - Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction author and inventor (died 2008)
* Mary Berry, canoness, choral conductor and musicologist

Deaths

* 2 January - Edward Burnett Tylor, anthropologist (born 1832)
* 9 April - Edward Thomas, poet (killed in action) (born 1878)
* 15 August - Thomas Crisp, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1876)
* 30 August - Alan Leo, astrologer (born 1860)
* 8 November - Colin Blythe, cricketer (born 1879)
* 8 December - Arthur Matthew Weld Downing, astronomer (born 1850)

References

ee also