4 February – RAF Blackburn Iris III seaplane S 238 crashes in Plymouth Sound after a senior officer takes control from the pilot and fails to make a safe landing, resulting in multiple fatalities.[5] One of the first to the rescue is T. E. Lawrence, stationed locally at this time.[6]
June – publication of Report of the Committee on Finance and Industry (the 'Macmillan Committee') on the relationship between the banking and financial system and British trade and industry, largely written by John Maynard Keynes.[9][10][11]
9 June – submarine HMS Poseidon sinks after collision with a Chinese freighter off Weihai, China. Twenty lives are lost but a few submariners become the first to surface using the Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus.
31 July – the May Report of the Committee on National Expenditure recommends extensive cuts in government spending. This produces a political crisis as many members of the Labour Party government object to the proposals.
15 October – MI5 ceases to be a section of the War Office, being officially renamed the Security Service, and takes over the counter-subversion section (SSI) from Scotland Yard's Special Branch.[19]
27 October – general election results in victory for the National Government in the country's greatest ever electoral landslide. Ramsay MacDonald remains Prime Minister.[16] This election is held on a Tuesday: all subsequent ones will be held on Thursdays.[20]
21 November – The infamous Red-and-White Party, given by Arthur Jeffress in Maud Allan's Regent's Park town house in London, marks the end of the "Bright young things" subculture in Britain.[citation needed]
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^"Joseph Emberton, Architect". 2004. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
^"George V (1865–1936)". History. BBC. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
^Divers, Paul. "John Thompson (1909–1931) – The Prince of Goalkeepers". Irish Light and Colour. Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
^ abPalmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 373–374. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
^Price, Alfred (1977). Spitfire: a Documentary History. London: Macdonald and Jane's. p. 12. ISBN 0-354-01077-8.
^The History Today Companion to British History. London: Collins & Brown. 1995. p. 509. ISBN 1-85585-178-4.
^Hobhouse, Hermione (1975). A History of Regent Street. Macdonald and Jane's. p. 142. ISBN 0362-00234-7.
^Marshall, Prince (1972). Wheels of London. The Sunday Times Magazine. ISBN 0-7230-0068-9.
^Keating, H. R. F. (1982). Whodunit? – a guide to crime, suspense and spy fiction. London: Windward. ISBN 0-7112-0249-4.
^Robin Marlar, former Sussex captain and Sunday Times correspondent, dies aged 91
^Strachan, Alan (5 July 2004). "Peter Barnes: Surprising and adventurous dramatist". The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
^British Film and Television Year Book. Cinema TV Today. 1974. p. 187.
^"Beryl Vertue obituary". The Guardian. 13 February 2022. Archived from the original on 20 September 2022.
^"Stuttaford, Dr (Irving) Thomas, (4 May 1931 – 8 June 2018), medical correspondent, the Oldie, since 1992 | Who's WHO & WHO WAS WHO".
^"OBITUARIES Geoffrey Dickens". The Independent. 18 May 1995. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022.
^"Jim Parks obituary". The Guardian. 2 June 2022. Archived from the original on 26 May 2023.
Bogdanor, Vernon. "1931 Revisited: The Constitutional Aspects," Twentieth Century British History 1991 2(1): 1-25, argues that George V played a crucial role in the political crisis of August-October 1931.
Somervell, D.C. The Reign of King George V, (1936) 550pp;political, social and economic coverage, online free
Williamson, Philip. "1931 Revisited: the Political Realities." Twentieth Century British History 1991 2(3): 328–338. Disputes Bogdanor, saying the idea of a national government had been in the minds of party leaders for some time and it was they, not the king, who determined when the time had come to establish one.