1902 in the United Kingdom
Events from the year 1902 in the United [Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom].
Incumbents
- Monarch – Edward VII
- Prime Minister - Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury , Arthur Balfour
Events
- January – the General Post Office becomes the world's first postal administration to accept divided-back postcards, initiating a craze for sending and collecting them.
- 5 January – first performance, privately, of George Bernard Shaw's controversial 1893 play Mrs. Warren's Profession in London.
- 17 January – The Times Literary Supplement first published.
- 30 January – the Anglo-Japanese Alliance is signed in London ending Japan's policy of "splendid isolation".
- 13 February – the 1902 World Figure Skating Championships held in London.
- 7 March – Second Boer War: South African Boers win their last battle over British forces, with the capture of a British general and 200 of his men.
- 2 April – first performance of William Butler Yeats's play Cathleen Ní Houlihan in Dublin.
- 5 April – the first Ibrox disaster: a stand at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow collapses during an England versus Scotland football match. 25 people die and 517 are injured.
- 26 April – Hibernian F.C. win the Scottish F.A. Cup, a feat they will not repeat until 2016.
- 28 April – Manchester United Football Club is formed by John Henry Davies in a name change from Newton Heath, the Football League Second Division club that he recently saved from going out of business.
- April – Vladimir Lenin begins a year's stay in London where he edits the newspaper Iskra, studies in the British Museum Reading Room and in October first meets Leon Trotsky.
- 22 May – the White Star Liner SS Ionic is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.
- 29 May – the London School of Economics is opened.
- 31 May – Treaty of Vereeniging signed by the United Kingdom, the South African Republic and the Republic of the Orange Free State bringing the Second Boer War to an end.
- 2 June – Land of Hope and Glory receives its London premiere, sung by Clara Butt.
- 17 June – Norwich City F.C. formed as an amateur club, playing its first match on 6 September.
- 26 June
- * Scheduled date for the Coronation of [Edward VII and Alexandra], postponed due to the King's appendicitis.
- * Edward VII institutes The Order of Merit, an order bestowed personally by the British monarch on up to 24 distinguished Empire recipients.
- 30 June–11 August – a conference held in London supports the principle of Imperial Preference, a system of reciprocally-levelled tariffs or Free trade agreements between different Dominions and colonies within the British Empire.
- 11 July – retirement of Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister due to ill health. He is succeeded by his nephew Arthur Balfour and will be the last person to have sat in the House of Lords as Prime Minister.
- 22 July – Cremation Act allows burial authorities to establish crematoria with effect from 1 April 1903.
- 9 August – coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra at Westminster Abbey by Archbishop Frederick Temple.
- 13 September – Harry Jackson becomes the first British person to be convicted on the basis of fingerprint evidence.
- 1 October – in the Royal Navy:
- * launch of its first submarine,, at Barrow-in-Furness.
- * establishment of the Home Fleet.
- 16 October – the first Borstal youth detention centre is opened at Borstal, Kent.
- 4 November – first performance of J. M. Barrie's play The Admirable Crichton in London.
- 8 December – Committee of Imperial Defence first meets.
- 9 December – British and German forces seize the navy of Venezuela in a dispute over compensation claims.
- 10 December – Ronald Ross wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for successful research on this disease and methods of combating it".
- 18 December – the Balfour Education Act replaces School Boards by a system of Local Education Authorities in England and Wales and permits them to build and maintain secondary schools and deliver teacher training; also provides for rate aid for teacher salaries in voluntary schools.
- 30 December – Discovery Expedition: Scott, Shackleton and Wilson reach the furthest southern point reached thus far by man, south of 82°S.
Undated
- Oliver Heaviside proposes existence of the Kennelly–Heaviside layer.
- William Bayliss and Ernest Starling make the first discovery of a hormone, secretin.
- The British Army adopts a dark khaki serge Service Dress, replacing the traditional red coat for regular wear; the style will remain standard issue until 1939.
- Marmite first produced, in Burton upon Trent.
- Will Barker founds Ealing Studios.
- Edible dormouse begins invasion of an area of the Chilterns having escaped from Walter Rothschild's private collection.
Publications
- Edward Harold Begbie's political satire Clara in Blunderland.
- Arnold Bennett's novels Anna of the Five Towns and The Grand Babylon Hotel.
- Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness.
- Walter de la Mare's first poetry collection Songs of Childhood.
- Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.
- John A. Hobson's book Imperialism.
- W. W. Jacobs' short story collection The Lady of the Barge, including "The Monkey's Paw".
- Henry James's novel The Wings of the Dove.
- Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories and short story "Below the Mill Dam".
- John Masefield's Salt-Water Ballads, including "Sea-Fever".
- A. E. W. Mason's historical adventure novel The Four Feathers.
- E. Nesbit's children's novel Five Children and It.
- Beatrix Potter's children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit with her own colour illustrations.
- W. Heath Robinson's children's book The Adventures of Uncle Lubin with his own illustrations.
- Saki's work The Westminster Alice.
- The Times Literary Supplement.
Births
- 5 January – Stella Gibbons, novelist, journalist, poet and short-story writer
- 11 January – Evelyn Dove, singer
- 16 January – Eric Liddell, runner and missionary, in China
- 21 January – Webster Booth, tenor
- January – Billy Pigg, Northumbrian piper
- 3 February – Joseph Bentwich, British-born Israeli educator
- 4 February – Hartley Shawcross, prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials
- 8 February – Anne Parsons, English socialite
- 21 February – Arthur Nock, English classicist, theologian, and Harvard University professor
- 28 March – Dame Flora Robson, English actress
- 29 March – William Walton, English composer
- 30 March – Ted Heath, bandleader
- 8 April
- * Andrew Irvine, mountaineer
- * Arthur Wellard, cricketer
- 9 April – Lord David Cecil, literary critic and biographer
- 20 April – Donald Wolfit, actor-manager
- 22 April – Megan Lloyd George, Welsh politician
- 1 May – Sonnie Hale, actor, singer and director
- 2 May – Brian Aherne, actor
- 10 May – Ian Richmond, Roman archaeologist
- 27 May – Peter Marshall, Scottish-born preacher, 57th Chaplain of [the United States Senate]
- 31 May – Billy Mayerl, pianist and light music composer
- 4 June – Harry Beck, graphic designer, creator of the London Underground map
- 17 June – F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, secret agent
- 18 June – Morgan Phillips, Welsh politician
- 29 June – Ellen Pollock, character actress
- 24 July
- * Renée Houston, née Katherina Houston Gribbin, Scottish comedy actress
- * Nora Swinburne, actress
- 28 July – Roger Fleetwood-Hesketh, soldier and politician
- 8 August – Paul Dirac, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 12 August – Jack de Leon, Panamanian-born theatre manager, impresario and playwright
- 16 August
- * Evelyn Colyer, tennis player
- * Georgette Heyer, novelist
- 19 August – Fyfe Robertson, Scottish television presenter
- 4 September – Lorna Johnstone, equestrian
- 20 September – Stevie Smith, poet and novelist
- 21 September – Allen Lane, publisher
- 17 October – Melford Stevenson, judge
- 26 October – Beryl Markham, aviator and author
- 28 October – Elsa Lanchester, actress
- 9 November – Anthony Asquith, film director
- 27 November – George Camsell, footballer
- 8 December – Jack Solomons, boxing promoter
- 15 December – Mary Skeaping, choreographer
- 19 December – Ralph Richardson, actor
- 20 December – Prince George, Duke of Kent
Deaths
- 11 January
- * Johnny Briggs, cricketer
- * James James, harpist and composer of the Welsh national anthem
- 17 February – Charles Alexander, cricketer
- 18 February – Sigismund Koelle, missionary
- 26 February – Edward Henry Cooper, army officer and politician
- 15 March – Sir Richard Temple, 1st Baronet, colonial administrator
- 26 March – Cecil Rhodes, imperialist
- 29 March – Sir Andrew Clarke, army officer and colonial governor
- 8 April – John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley, politician
- 18 June – Samuel Butler, novelist
- 6 September – Sir Frederick Abel, chemist
- 29 September – William McGonagall, Scottish doggerel 'poet and tragedian'
- 4 October – Lionel Johnson, poet, essayist and critic
- 5 October – Henry Lascelles Carr, newspaper proprietor
- 12 November – William Henry Barlow, railway civil engineer
- 16 November – G. A. Henty, historical novelist
- 17 November – Hugh Price Hughes, Welsh-born Methodist social reformer
- 23 December – Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury