• Monarch – Victoria
• Prime Minister – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Coalition)

January edit

• 3 January – royal yacht Victoria and Albert capsizes while being floated out of dry dock at Pembroke Dock on completion of her construction.^[1]
• 9 January – influenza outbreak in London.
• 24 January – Second Boer War: Boers repel British troops under General Sir Redvers Buller at the Battle of Spion Kop.^[2]
• 31 January – the Gramophone Company copyrights the His Master's Voice illustration.^[3]

February edit

• 5 February – the UK and the United States sign a treaty for the building of a Central American shipping canal through Nicaragua.
• 6 February – the House of Commons vote of censure over the government's handling of the Second Boer War is defeated by a majority of 213.
• 8 February – Second Boer War: British troops are defeated by Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa.
• 12 February – meeting held at Mile End to protest against the Boer War ends in an uproar.
• 14 February – Second Boer War: in South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.

• 27 February
  • Second Boer War: in South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé.
  • Creation of the Labour Party; Ramsay MacDonald is appointed its first secretary.^[4]
• 28 February – Second Boer War: the 118-day Siege of Ladysmith is lifted.^[4]

March to September edit

• March–September – War of the Golden Stool fought against the Ashanti Empire.
• 1 April – Irish Guards formed by Queen Victoria.
• 4 April
  • An anarchist shoots at the Prince of Wales during his visit to Belgium for the birthday celebrations of the King of Belgium.
  • Queen Victoria arrives in Dublin on her fourth and last visit to Ireland.
• 23 April–12 May – the Automobile Club of Great Britain stages a Thousand Mile Trial, a reliability motor rally over a circular route from London to Edinburgh and return.^[5]
• 24 April – the Daily Express newspaper published for the first time.^[4]
• 14 May–28 October – Great Britain and Ireland compete at the Olympics in Paris and win 15 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze medals.
• 17 May – Second Boer War – Siege of Mafeking ends.^[4]
• 18 May – the UK proclaims a protectorate over Tonga.
• 5 June – Second Boer War: British soldiers take Pretoria, South Africa.
• 19–21 July – Bernard Bosanquet first bowls a googly in first-class cricket, playing for Middlesex against Leicestershire at Lord's.^[6]
• 27 July – Louise, Princess Royal, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, marries Alexander Duff, Earl of Fife, in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace, London; 2 days later he is created Duke of Fife, the last Dukedom created in Britain for a person who is not a son, grandson or consort of the Sovereign.
• 30 July
  • The Duke of Albany becomes Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as Carl Eduard following the death of his uncle, Duke Alfred, a son of Queen Victoria who is the third of the reigning monarch's children to die.
  • Mines (Prohibition of Child Labour Underground) Act prohibits children under the age of thirteen from working in mines.^[7]
• 8 August – Great Britain loses to the United States in the first Davis Cup tennis competition.^[4]
• 14 August – an international contingent of troops, under British command, invades Peking and frees the Europeans taken hostage.
• 27 August – British defeat Boer commandos at Bergendal.
• 3 September – West Bromwich Albion F.C. move into The Hawthorns, a new stadium on the border of West Bromwich and Handsworth.^[8]

October edit

• 3 October – Edward Elgar's choral work The Dream of Gerontius receives its first performance, in Birmingham Town Hall.
• 25 October – Second Boer War: United Kingdom annexes Transvaal.^[4]

November edit

• 22–14 November 1903 – strike of Welsh slate workers at Penrhyn Quarry.^[9]

December edit

• 3 December – the Conservative Party under Lord Salisbury wins the 'Khaki' general election. Winston Churchill becomes a Member of Parliament for the first time, elected for Oldham; and two Labour candidates are successful: Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby.^[10]
• 15 December – the three lighthouse keepers on Flannan Isle disappear without a trace
• 28 December – the Liverpool barque Primrose Hill is wrecked on South Stack off Holyhead, with the loss of 33 lives.^[11]
• 31 December – a storm causes a stone and a lintel to fall at Stonehenge; they are restored in 1958.^[4]

Undated edit

• Beer Scare: beer drinkers in North West England suffer poisoning from arsenic in brewing sugars: 6,000 people affected and 70 killed.^[12]
• William Harbutt of Bathampton begins commercial production of Plasticine modelling clay.
• Completion of the Arnold Cross estate, Shoreditch, London; Britain's first council estate to be commenced (10 years previously).^[13]
• Diamond Jubilee wins the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the Epsom Derby, 2,000 Guineas and St Leger, ridden by Herbert Jones.

• Ernest Bramah's oriental fantasy stories The Wallet of Kai Lung.
• Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim.
• Maurice Hewlett's historical novel The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay.^[14]
• Gertrude Jekyll's book Home and Garden: notes and thoughts, practical and critical, of a worker in both.
• Arthur Quiller-Couch's anthology The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1900.
• H. G. Wells' novel Love and Mr Lewisham.

• 1 January
  • Roger Maxwell, film actor (died 1971)
  • Lillian Rich, silent film actress (died 1954)
• 2 January – Una Ledingham, physician, specialist in diabetes mellitus and pregnancy (died 1965)^[15]
• 4 January – William Young, World War I veteran (died 2007)
• 20 January – Dorothy Annan, painter, potter and muralist (died 1983)
• 23 January – William Ifor Jones, composer (died 1988)
• 6 February – Guy Warrack, Scottish-born conductor (died 1986)
• 12 February
  • Robert Boothby, politician (died 1986)
  • Fred Emney, comic performer (died 1980)
• 20 February – Bernard Knowles, cinematographer and screenwriter (died 1975)
• 3 March
  • Edna Best, stage, film and early television actress (died 1974 in Switzerland)^[16]
  • Basil Bunting, modernist poet (died 1985)
• 29 March – Margaret Sinclair, Scottish-born nun (died 1925)
• 31 March – Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (died 1974)
• 3 April – Albert Ingham, mathematician (died 1967)
• 9 April – Mary Potter, painter (died 1981)
• 19 April – Richard Hughes, novelist (died 1976)
• 22 April – Nellie Beer, Conservative politician, Lord Mayor of Manchester (died 1988)^[17]
• 24 April – Elizabeth Goudge, novelist (died 1984)^[18][19]
• 25 April – Gladwyn Jebb, acting Secretary-General of the UN (died 1996)
• 30 April – Cecily Lefort, World War II heroine, spy for SOE (executed 1945 in Germany)
• 2 May – A. W. Lawrence, Classical archaeologist (died 1991)
• 5 May – Harold Tamblyn-Watts, comic strip artist (died 1999)
• 10 May – Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer and astrophysicist (died 1979 in the United States)^[20]
• 27 May – Ethel Lang, née Lancaster, supercentenarian (died 2015)
• 29 May – David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, Scottish-born politician, lawyer and judge, Lord Chancellor (died 1967)
• 30 May – Gerald Gardiner, Lord Chancellor (died 1990)
• 6 June
  • Arthur Askey, comedian (died 1982)
  • Lester Matthews, actor (died 1975)
• 17 June – Evelyn Irons, Scottish-born journalist, war correspondent (died 2000)^[21]
• 25 June
  • Philip D'Arcy Hart, medical researcher, pioneer in tuberculosis treatment (died 2006)
  • Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Admiral of the Fleet and last Viceroy of India (assassinated 1979 in Ireland)
• 26 June – John Benham, 400m runner (died 1990)
• 30 June – James Stagg, Scottish-born meteorologist (died 1975)
• 2 July
  • Tyrone Guthrie, theatre director (died 1971 in Ireland)
  • Sophie Harris, theatre and opera costume and scenic designer (died 1966)
• 10 July – Evelyn Laye, actress (died [1996)
• 4 August – Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, queen consort of George VI and later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (died 2002)
• 17 August – Vivienne de Watteville, adventurer (died 1957)^[22]
• 19 August – Gilbert Ryle, philosopher (died 1976)
• 23 August – Bella Reay, footballer (died 1979)
• 27 August – Frank Moody, Welsh boxer (died 1963)
• 25 August – Isobel Hogg Kerr Beattie, Scottish architect (died 1970)^[23]
• 4 September – Maxwell Knight, spymaster and naturalist (died 1968)
• 8 September – Tilly Devine, organised crime boss (died 1970 in Australia)^[24]
• 9 September – James Hilton, novelist and screenwriter (died 1954 in the United States)
• 11 September – Jimmy Brain, footballer (died 1971)
• 12 September – Eric Thiman, composer (died 1975)^[25]
• 1 October – Tom Goddard, cricketer (died 1966)
• 2 October – Isabella Forshall, paediatric surgeon (died 1989)
• 6 October – Stan Nichols, cricketer (died 1961)
• 8 October – Geoffrey Jellicoe, landscape architect (died 1996)
• 9 October – Alastair Sim, character actor (died 1976)
• 14 October – Roland Penrose, Surrealist painter and art collector (died 1984)
• 16 October – Edward Ardizzone, painter, printmaker and author (born in Vietnam; died 1979)
• 5 November – Ethelwynn Trewavas, ichthyologist (died 1993)^[26]
• 18 November – Mercedes Gleitze, distance swimmer (died 1981)
• 20 November – Helen Bradley, painter (died 1979)^[27]
• 22 November – Tom Macdonald, Welsh journalist and novelist (died 1980)
• 4 December – John Axon, railwayman hero (killed in accident 1957)
• 16 December – V. S. Pritchett, short story writer (died 1997)
• 17 December – Mary Cartwright, mathematician (died 1998)^[28]
• 22 December – Alan Bush, pianist, composer and conductor (died 1995)
• 26 December – Evelyn Bark, humanitarian, leading member of the Red Cross, first female recipient of the CMG (died 1993)^[29]
• Robina Addis, pioneering professional psychiatric social worker (died 1986)^[30]
• Saira Elizabeth Luiza Shah, born Elizabeth Louise MacKenzie, Scottish writer as Morag Murray Abdullah (died 1960)

• 20 January
  • R. D. Blackmore, novelist (born 1825)^[31]
  • John Ruskin, writer and social critic (born 1819)
• 21 January – Francis, Duke of Teck, a cousin-in-law of Queen Victoria (born 1837)
• 22 January – David Edward Hughes, musician and professor of music (born 1831)
• 31 January – John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, nobleman and boxer (born 1844)
• 6 February – Sir William Wilson Hunter, colonial administrator, statistician and historian (born 1840 in Scotland)
• 23 February
  • William Butterfield, architect (born 1814)
  • Ernest Dowson, poet (born 1867)
• 6 March – Ada Williams, baby farmer and murderer, hanged (born c.1875)
• 10 March – George James Symons, meteorologist (born 1838)
• 16 March – Sir Frederic William Burton, painter and curator (born 1816 in Ireland)
• 24 April – George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, politician (born 1823)
• 4 May – Augustus Pitt Rivers, ethnologist and archaeologist (born 1827)
• 28 May – Sir George Grove, writer on music and the Bible and civil engineer (born 1820)
• 3 June – Mary Kingsley, explorer, in Cape Colony (born 1862)
• 14 June – Catherine Gladstone, widow of Prime Minister W. E. Gladstone and philanthropist (born 1812)^[32]
• 30 July – Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Duke of Edinburgh), second eldest son of Queen Victoria, in Germany (born 1844)^[33]
• 28 August – Henry Sidgwick, philosopher (born 1838)
• 31 August – Sir John Bennet Lawes, agricultural scientist (born 1814)
• 19 September – Anne Beale, novelist (born 1816)
• 9 October – John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, landed aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist and architectural patron (born 1847)^[34]
• 16 October – Sir Henry Acland, physician (born 1815)
• 22 November – Sir Arthur Sullivan, composer (born 1842)
• 29 December – John Henry Leech, entomologist (born 1862)
• 30 November – Oscar Wilde, playwright, writer and poet, in France (born 1854 in Ireland)

• List of British films before 1920