1908 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1908 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Events

1 January
* Nimrod Expedition: Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the Nimrod for Antarctica.
* Harry Bensley leaves for his would-be trip around the world pushing a pram and wearing an iron mask, beginning from Trafalgar Square in London.
22 January – Arthur Henderson becomes the second leader of the Labour Party following the resignation of Keir Hardie.
24 January – start of publication of Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys in London. The book will over time sell over 100 million copies and effectively begin the worldwide Boy Scout movement.
15 February – weekly boys' story paper The Magnet is first published in London, containing "The Making of Harry Wharton", the first serial story of the fictional Greyfriars School written by Charles Hamilton as Frank Richards and introducing the character of Billy Bunter.
March – first edition of Arthur Mee's The Children's Encyclopædia in fortnightly parts begins publication in London.
1 April – the Territorial Force of the British Army is established by merger of the civilian-organised Volunteer Force with the Yeomanry; and remaining units of the militia are transferred into the regular Special Reserve.
7 April – Campbell-Bannerman resigns as Prime Minister on the grounds of health; replaced by Asquith.
8 April – David Lloyd George becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer, while Winston Churchill enters the Cabinet for the first time, as President of the Board of Trade.
18 April – Manchester United secure the Football League First Division title, the first major trophy of their history.
22 April – The sick Henry Campbell-Bannerman dies in the Prime Minister's official residence, 10 Downing Street.
1 May–31 October – Scottish National Exhibition is held in Edinburgh
1 May – Bournemouth Tramway accident kills 7.
11 May – foundation stone of the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool is laid.
24 May – formation of the 1st Arundel Scout Group.
26 May–October – Franco-British Exhibition held at what becomes known as White City, London.
29 June – the Apostolic constitution Sapienti consilio, issued by Pope Pius X, brings the Roman Catholic Church in Britain under regular canon law rather than being missionary territory.
21 June – first large suffragette rally, in London.
July – Allied Artists' Association holds its first exhibition, at the Royal Albert Hall.
11–12 July – steamship Amalthea, housing 80 British dock strikebreakers in Malmö harbour, Sweden, is bombed by Anton Nilson; 1 is killed, 20 injured.
13–25 July – 1908 Summer Olympics held at the White City Stadium as part of the Franco-British Exhibition and of a festival of sport beginning on 14 May. The marathon is run on 24 July and figure skating events are held in Knightsbridge on 28–29 October. The Great Britain and Ireland team win 56 gold, 51 silver and 39 bronze medals.
31 July – Irish Universities Act 1908 receives royal assent in Parliament. This provides for establishment of the federal National University of Ireland based in Dublin and the Queen's University of Belfast.
1 August – Old Age Pensions Act 1908 receives royal assent in Parliament, providing for a non-contributory pension to be paid to people aged over seventy of limited means but 'good character' from 1 January 1909.
14 August – the first beauty pageant with international contestants is held at the Folkestone Pier Hippodrome. The winner is 18-year-old Nellie Jarman from East Molesey.
18 August – Maypole Colliery disaster: an underground explosion at Abram in the Lancashire Coalfield, kills 76 miners.
31 August–2 September – the Great Storm of 1908 pounds the Bristol Channel.
10 September – the first Minas Geraes-class Dreadnought battleship for Brazil, Minas Geraes, is launched at Armstrong Whitworth's yard on the River Tyne.
October
* Edith Morley is made Professor of English at University College, Reading, the first woman appointed to a chair at an English university-level institution.
* First Ideal Home Exhibition held, at Olympia (London) sponsored by the Daily Mail newspaper.
1 October – Penny Post is established between the U.K. and United States.
16 October – American-born Samuel F. Cody makes the first powered fixed-wing aircraft flight in Britain, taking off at the School of Ballooning, Farnborough, Hampshire, in British Army Aeroplane No 1.
November
* Horace, Eustace and Oswald Short found Short Brothers, the first aircraft manufacturing company in England, in Battersea, London.
* The North and South Wales Bank is absorbed into the London City and Midland Bank, bringing an end to banknote issue in Wales.
14 November – Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson is the first woman in England to be elected as a mayor.
3 December – the first performance of Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 1 is given by the Hallé in Manchester's Free Trade Hall.
10 December – the National Farmers' Union is founded.
21 December – royal assent given to the following Acts of Parliament:
* Children Act – comes into force 1909, q.v.
* Prevention of Crime Act – regularises national provision of Borstals.
* Punishment of Incest Act – makes incest a civil crime for the first time.

Undated

Walter Sickert paints the series of problem pictures The Camden Town Murder.
John Hassall paints the first version of the Jolly Fisherman poster.
Bisto gravy powder is first marketed.
Vimto is invented by John Noel Nichols in Manchester. Originally sold under the name Vimtonic, Nichols shortens it to Vimto in 1912.

Publications

Robert Baden-Powell's book Scouting for Boys.
G. K. Chesterton's novel The Man Who Was Thursday and his book Orthodoxy.
W. H. Davies' autobiography The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp.
E. M. Forster's novel A Room with a View.
Kenneth Grahame's children's novel The Wind in the Willows.
E. Nesbit's children's novel The House of Arden.
H. De Vere Stacpoole's novel The Blue Lagoon.

Births

1 January – Grace Hamblin, secretary to the Churchills
7 January – Frederick Gibberd, architect
8 January – William Hartnell, actor
14 January – Barbara Brooke, politician
24 January – Duncan Sandys, politician
28 January – Jimmy Shand, Scottish accordionist and bandleader
30 January – Richard Hearne, comic performer
31 January – Will Atkinson, folk musician
4 February – George Rochester, physicist
5 February – Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twin actresses
11 February – Vivian Fuchs, geologist and explorer
22 February – John Mills, actor
29 February – A. L. Lloyd, folk song collector
2 March - Olivia Manning, novelist, poet, writer and reviewer
5 March – Rex Harrison, actor
12 March
* Ida Pollock, romance novelist
* Max Wall, born Maxwell Lorimer, comic performer
18 March – Ivor Moreton, singer and pianist
19 March – George Rodger, photojournalist
20 March – Michael Redgrave, actor
25 March
* David Lean, film director
* Bridget D'Oyly Carte, head of D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
27 March – Semprini, musician
29 March – Joan Hocquard, supercentenarian, ambulance driver
2 April – Beti Rhys, Welsh author and bookseller
6 April – Fram Farrington, scientific officer in Antarctica
11 April – Dan Maskell, tennis coach and commentator
27 April – Mary Docherty, communist activist
30 April – George Grenfell-Baines, architect and town planner
3 May – William Glock, music critic
14 May – Amy Jagger, gymnast
22 May – W. G. Hoskins, landscape historian
26 May – Robert Morley, actor
27 May – C. Arnold Beevers, crystallographer
28 May – Ian Fleming, novelist
30 May – Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk, peer and Earl Marshal
1 June – Percy Edwards, animal impersonator
5 June – Bill Fraser, Scottish actor
14 June – Kathleen Raine, poet and critic
23 June – Gwyn Davies, Welsh rugby footballer
28 June – Norman Lewis, British journalist and author
29 June
* Margaret Hope MacPherson, Scottish crofter
* Oliver Tomkins, Anglican Bishop of Bristol
30 June – Winston Graham, novelist
6 July – John Price, English cricketer
9 July
* George Edwards, aircraft designer
* Ian Mikardo, politician
13 July – Alec Rose, sailor
25 July – Bill Bowes, cricketer
27 July – Hugh Jenkins, politician
4 August – Osbert Lancaster, cartoonist
5 August – Miriam Rothschild, natural scientist
12 August – David Renton, politician
21 August – M. M. Kaye, novelist, born in British India
23 August – Hannah Frank, artist and sculptor
31 August – Kenneth Gandar-Dower, sportsman, aviator, explorer and author
6 September
* Louis Essen, physicist
* Anthony Wagner, herald at the College of Arms
12 September – Reginald C. Fuller, Roman Catholic priest and writer
19 October
* Alan Keith, actor and radio presenter
* Sydney MacEwan, singer
25 October – Carmen Dillon, film art director and production designer
2 November – Fred Bakewell, cricketer
11 November – Ralph Kekwick, biochemist
20 November – Alistair Cooke, journalist
26 November – Charles Forte, Italian-born caterer
7 December – Phyllis Barry, English actress
14 December – Claude Davey, Welsh rugby union player
18 December – Celia Johnson, actress
25 December – Quentin Crisp, writer and raconteur

Deaths

25 January – Ouida, novelist
28 January – Sidney Paget, illustrator
6 February – Harriet Samuel, English businesswoman and founder the jewellery retailer H. Samuel
22 March – John William Crombie, Scottish woollen manufacturer and politician
20 April – Henry Chadwick, baseball writer and historian
22 April – Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Prime Minister
31 May – Sir John Evans, archaeologist
2 June
* Sir Redvers Buller, general, Victoria Cross recipient
* William Napier, soldier, Victoria Cross recipient
22 July – Sir Randal Cremer, politician and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
25 August – Eyre Massey Shaw, first Chief Officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (London)
31 August – Leslie Green, architect
21 September – Sir Arnold Burrowes Kemball, general and diplomat
16 October – Joseph Leycester Lyne, Anglican Benedictine abbot
8 November – William Edward Ayrton, physicist and electrical engineer
17 November – Lydia Thompson, dancer, actress
1 December – Howell Jones, Welsh rugby union player