UK-related events during the year of 1904
Events from the year 1904 in the United Kingdom .
1 January – Number plates are introduced as cars are licensed for the first time. A speed limit of 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) is introduced.[ 1]
25 January – Halford Mackinder 's influential paper The Geographical Pivot of History is delivered to the Royal Geographical Society in London.[ 2]
26 January
12 March – Britain's first surface electric trains begin running from Liverpool to Southport on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway .[ 6]
26 March – 80,000 demonstrators gather in Hyde Park, London , to protest against the importation of Chinese labourers to South African gold mines.[ 7]
8 April – Entente Cordiale signed between the United Kingdom and France.[ 6]
25 April – Herbert Beerbohm Tree establishes an Academy of Dramatic Art, which will become RADA , at His Majesty's Theatre in the Haymarket (London) .[ 8]
May – Royal Horticultural Society completes the move of its demonstration garden to RHS Garden, Wisley , Surrey from Chiswick .[ 9]
4 May – Charles Rolls and Henry Royce meet for the first time, at the new Midland Hotel, Manchester , to agree production of Rolls-Royce motor cars; the first produced under their joint names in Manchester are launched in December.[ 10]
24 May – Celebration of Empire Day introduced to the UK by Lord Meath .
9 June – The London Symphony Orchestra performs its first concert.[ 6] [ 11]
28 June – The Danish liner SS Norge is wrecked on Helen's Reef off Rockall with the loss of 635 lives.[ 12]
1 July–23 November – Great Britain and Ireland compete at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri and win one gold and one silver medal.
21 July – Official opening of Birmingham Corporation Water Department 's scheme bringing water to the city from the Elan Valley Reservoirs in Wales via the Elan aqueduct .[ 13] [ 14]
3 August – A British expedition under Colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa in Tibet .
September – Start of 1904–1905 Welsh Christian revival .
1 September – Griffin Park football ground, home of Brentford F.C. , opens in west London.
c. October – Mrs H. Millicent McKenzie is appointed Associated Professor of Education at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire in Cardiff , the first woman in Britain to hold a professorial title.[ 15]
11 October – Loftus Road football stadium, home of Shepherd's Bush F.C. , opens in west London.
20 October – Admiral "Jackie" Fisher takes office as First Sea Lord , initiating a period of modernisation of the Royal Navy.[ 16]
21 October – Dogger Bank incident : the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy , heading for the Russo-Japanese War , mistakes British fishing trawlers in the North Sea for Japanese torpedo boats and opens fire, sinking one, and causing serious diplomatic conflict between Russia and Britain.[ 1]
Late October – The first members of what will become the Bloomsbury Group move to the Bloomsbury district of London.[ 17]
c. November – Finchley fire brigade becomes the first to take delivery of a petrol-engined self-propelled motor fire pump.
9 November – Bahamian Dr. Allan Glaisyer Minns becomes Mayor of Thetford , the first Black person to hold such an office in Britain.[ 18] [ 19] [ 20] [ 21]
16 November – John Ambrose Fleming patents the first thermionic vacuum tube , the two-electrode diode ("oscillation valve" or Fleming valve ).[ 22]
7 December – Royal Navy torpedo boat destroyer HMS Spiteful (1899) begins sea trials as the first capital warship to be powered solely using fuel oil .
10 December
24 December – The Coliseum Theatre in London opens.[ 6]
27 December – The stage play Peter Pan , or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up premières in London .[ 6] 14 January – Cecil Beaton , photographer (died 1980)[ 27]
18 January – Cary Grant , actor (died 1986)[ 28]
28 February – Anthony Havelock-Allan , film producer (died 2003)[ 29]
1 March – Margaret Steuart Pollard , née Gladstone, oriental scholar, bard of the Cornish Gorsedd , philanthropist and eccentric (died 1996)[ 30]
8 March – C. R. Boxer , historian (died 2000)
30 March – Wilfred White , equestrian (died 1995)[ 31]
8 April – John Hicks , economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989)[ 32]
14 April
23 April – Ivor Montagu , aristocrat, documentary film maker, table tennis player and Communist activist (died 1984)[ 35]
26 April – Jimmy McGrory , footballer (died 1982)[ 36]
27 April – Cecil Day-Lewis , poet (died 1972)[ 37] [ 38]
6 May – Max Mallowan , archaeologist (died 1978)[ 39]
8 May – John Snagge , radio personality (died 1996)[ 40]
20 May – Margery Allingham , writer (died 1966)[ 41]
26 May – George Formby , entertainer (died 1961)[ 42]
28 May – Margaret Harris , costume designer (died 2000)
4 June – Jack Lauterwasser , racing cyclist (died 2003)[ 43]
6 June – Lesley Blanch , writer and fashion editor (died 2007)[ 44]
8 June – Angus McBean , photographer (died 1990)[ 45]
12 July – Edward Max Nicholson , environmentalist (died 2003)[ 46]
24 July – Anton Dolin , dancer and choreographer (died 1983)[ 47] [ 48]
16 August – Mollie Maureen , actress (died 1987)
24 August – Ida Cook , campaigner for Jewish Holocaust refugees and (as Mary Burchell) romance novelist (died 1986)
26 August – Christopher Isherwood , novelist (died 1986)
19 September – Enid Hattersley , politician (died 2001)
29 September – Greer Garson , actress (died 1996)
2 October – Graham Greene , author (died 1991)
20 October – Anna Neagle , actress (died 1986)
31 October – Elisabeth Collins , painter and sculptor (died 2000)
2 November – Hugh Patrick Lygon , aristocrat (died 1936)
11 November – J. H. C. Whitehead , mathematician (died 1960)
14 November
16 November – Norman Feather , nuclear physicist (died 1978)
12 December – Edward Pilgrim , victim of bureaucracy (died 1954) 17 January – Sir Henry Keppel , admiral (born 1809)[ 49] [ 50]
26 January – Whitaker Wright , fraudulent financier (born 1846) (suicide)[ 3] [ 4] [ 5]
8 February – Alfred Ainger , biographer (born 1837)[ 51]
22 February – Sir Leslie Stephen , writer and critic (born 1832)[ 52]
5 March – John Lowther du Plat Taylor , founder of the Army Post Office Corps (born 1829)[ 53]
17 March – Prince George, Duke of Cambridge , grandson of King George III (born 1819)[ 54] [ 55]
5 April – Tom Allen , boxing champion (born 1840)
16 April – Samuel Smiles , author and reformer (born 1812)[ 56] [ 57]
8 May
10 May – Sir Henry Morton Stanley , Welsh explorer and journalist (born 1841)[ 60] [ 61] [ 62]
1 July – George Frederic Watts , symbolist painter and sculptor (born 1817)[ 63] [ 64] [ 65]
22 July – Wilson Barrett , playwright and actor (born 1846)[ 66] [ 67]
12 August – William Renshaw , tennis player (born 1861)
4 October – Violet Nicolson ("Laurence Hope"), poet (born 1865)
7 October – Isabella Bird , explorer, writer, photographer and naturalist (born 1831)
12 November – George Lennox Watson , naval architect (born 1851)
24 November – Christopher Dresser , designer influential in the Anglo-Japanese style (born 1834)
^ a b Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 335–336. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2 .
^ Mackinder, H. J. (April 1904). "The Geographical Pivot of History" . The Geographical Journal . XXIII (4): 421–444. doi :10.2307/1775498 . hdl :2027/uc1.b000726582 . JSTOR 1775498 . , cited in Mackinder, H J (December 2004). "The geographical pivot of history (1904)" (PDF) . The Geographical Journal . 170 (4): 298–321. doi :10.1111/j.0016-7398.2004.00132.x . hdl :2027/uc1.b000726582 . Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2021 .
^ a b "WHITAKER WRIGHT COMMITS SUICIDE IN COURT AFTER HEARING SENTENCE CONDEMNING HIM TO PENAL SERVITUDE Great Promoter's Career Ends in Tragedy" . San Francisco Call . Vol. 95, no. 58. 27 January 1904. Page 1, columns 1-3. Retrieved 22 December 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection .
^ a b "WRIGHT'S DEATH DUE TO POISON Cyanide of Potassium the Drug Taken in Courtroom by the Convicted Promoter ELUDES WATCHFUL EYES Swallows Fatal Dose While Facing the Justice After Hearing Sentence Pronounced" . San Francisco Call . Vol. 95, no. 59. 28 January 1904. Page 11, column 5. Retrieved 22 December 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^ a b McKie, David (2 February 2004). "The fall of a Midas" . Portrait. The Guardian . Retrieved 16 December 2021 .
^ a b c d e Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0 .
^ "Big Mass-Meeting is Held in London: Trades Unions Show Their Opposition to the Introduction of Chinese Labor in South Africa" . San Francisco Call . Vol. 95, no. 118. 27 March 1904. Page 21, column 6. Retrieved 8 February 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^ "The Academy of Dramatic Art". St James's Gazette . London. 26 April 1904. p. 16.
^ "History of Wisley garden" . RHS. Retrieved 21 July 2019 .
^ "How Rolls Met Royce" . Rolls-Royce Motor Cars . Retrieved 16 March 2022 .
^ "1900s" . Chronology. London Symphony Orchestra . Retrieved 30 July 2022 .
^ Sebak, Per Kristian (2004). Titanic's Predecessor: the S/S Norge Disaster of 1904 . Laksevaag: Seaward. ISBN 82-996779-0-4 .
^ City of Birmingham Water Department (1926). A Short History of the Development of the Undertaking, with a Description of the Existing Sources of Supply .
^ Judge, Colin (1987). The Elan Valley Railway: the Railway of the Birmingham Corporation Waterworks . Oxford : Oakwood Press . ISBN 0-85361-353-2 .
^ Cunningham, Vanessa; Goodwin, John (2001). Cardiff University: a celebration . Cardiff University . pp. 30–31. ISBN 0-9540884-0-9 .
^ Mackay, Ruddock F. (1973). Fisher of Kilverstone . Oxford University Press . p. 315. ISBN 9780198224099 .
^ Nicolson, Nigel , ed. (1975). The Flight of the Mind: The Letters of Virginia Woolf . Vol. I: 1888–1912 (Virginia Stephen). London: Hogarth Press . ISBN 0701204036 .
^ "Thetford". Eastern Daily Press . Norwich. 10 November 1904. p. 9.
^ Pike, W. T. (1911). Norfolk & Suffolk in East Anglia: Contemporary Biographies .
^ Negro Year Book . 1914.
^ "Dr. Allan Glaisyer Minns (1858–1930), Britain's First Black Mayor" . Norfolk Black History Month . 2011. Archived from the original on 12 October 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2012 .
^ The Hutchinson Factfinder . Helicon. 1999. ISBN 978-1-85986-343-5 .
^ Lord Rayleigh The Nobel Prize in Physics 1904
^ The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1904
^ Grewe, Armin (2001–2006). "C. R. Mackintosh: Hill House in Helensburgh" . The Armin Grewe Homepage . Aldermaston . Archived from the original on 23 June 2010. Retrieved 7 July 2010 .
^ "Steel plant still on course to create jobs". The Argus . Brighton. 26 November 2008.
^ "Cecil Beaton - Broadway Cast & Staff" . Internet Broadway Database . The Broadway League . Retrieved 15 December 2021 .
^ "Cary Grant - Broadway Cast & Staff" . Internet Broadway Database . The Broadway League. Retrieved 15 December 2021 .
^ Whitaker, Sheila (13 January 2003). "Anthony Havelock-Allan" . News. The Guardian . Retrieved 5 January 2022 .
^ Bagnall, Polly; Beck, Sally (2015). Ferguson's Gang: The Remarkable Story of the National Trust Gangsters . London: Pavilion Books. ISBN 9781909881716 .
^ "Wilf White" . Olympedia . OlyMADMen. Retrieved 19 January 2022 .
^ "John R. Hicks – Facts" . NobelPrize.org . Nobel Prize Outreach AB. 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2022 .
^ "John Gielgud – Broadway Cast & Staff" . Internet Broadway Database . The Broadway League. Retrieved 14 February 2022 .
^ Carey, Helen (15 January 2003). "Elizabeth Brunner" . Obituaries. The Independent . Retrieved 18 February 2022 .
^ Notice de personne "Montagu, Ivor (1904-1984)" [Person notice "Montagu, Ivor (1904-1984)" ] (in French). Bibliothèque nationale de France . 24 July 2002. Retrieved 18 February 2022 .
^ McManus, John. "Jimmy McGrory". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press. , cited in The Newsroom (28 October 2006). "Jimmy McGrory" . People. The Scotsman . Retrieved 16 February 2022 .
^ Stanford, Peter (2007). C Day-Lewis — A Life . Continuum . p. 6. ISBN 9780826486035 . Retrieved 16 February 2022 – via Google Books .
^ "History" . Our Story. Ballintubbert Gardens & House . Retrieved 16 February 2022 .
^ Notice de personne "Mallowan, Max (1904-1978)" [Person notice "Mallowan, Max (1904-1978)" ] (in French). Bibliothèque nationale de France. 19 April 2007. Retrieved 24 March 2022 .
^ Miall, Leonard (28 March 1996). "Obituary: John Snagge" . People. The Independent . Retrieved 10 March 2022 .
^ Langford, David; Clute, John (14 October 2021). "Allingham, Margery" . In Clute, John; Langford, David; Nicholls, Peter; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Web ed.). London: Gollancz. Retrieved 10 March 2022 .
^ "George Formby" . Films, TV and people. British Film Institute . Archived from the original on 24 March 2018. Retrieved 8 March 2022 .
^ "Jack Lauterwasser" . Olympedia . OlyMADMen. Retrieved 30 July 2022 .
^ Salmon, Alice Wooledge (9 May 2007). "Lesley Blanch" . The Guardian . Retrieved 30 July 2022 .
^ "Angus McBean Manuscripts" . Archives Wales . Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru . 2013. Archived from the original on 16 July 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2022 .
^ Boote, Bob (28 April 2003). "Obituary: Max Nicholson" . Higher education. The Guardian . Retrieved 24 January 2023 .
^ Grey, Beryl. "Dolin, Sir Anton [real name Sydney Francis Patrick Chippindall Healey Kay]". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi :10.1093/ref:odnb/31040 . (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Notice de personne "Dolin, Anton (1904-1983)" [Person notice "Dolin, Anton (1904-1983)" ] (in French). Bibliothèque nationale de France. 3 June 2014. Retrieved 30 December 2022 .
^ "FAMOUS ADMIRAL OF BRITISH FLEET PASSES TO REST Death Closes the Remarkable Career of Sir Henry Keppel" . San Francisco Call . Vol. 95, no. 49. 18 January 1904. Page 1, columns 1-2. Retrieved 21 December 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^ Notice de personne "Keppel, Henry (1809-1904)" [Person notice "Keppel, Henry (1809-1904)" ] (in French). Bibliothèque nationale de France. 11 February 2019. Retrieved 15 December 2021 .
^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh , ed. (1911). "Ainger, Alfred ". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 440.
^ Maitland, Frederic William (1906). The life and letters of Leslie Stephen . London: Duckworth & Co. pp. 9, 490-491 . Retrieved 26 December 2021 – via Internet Archive .
^ "REA Photo Gallery 2" . Simon Fenwick and PCS Branch REA. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2022 .
^ "DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE DEAD. Cousin of the Late Queen Victoria Passes Away in London" . San Francisco Call . Vol. 95, no. 109. 18 March 1904. Page 2, column 4. Retrieved 3 February 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^ Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia (22 March 2021). "George William Frederick Charles, 2nd duke of Cambridge" . Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved 16 January 2022 .
^ "DEATHS OF THE DAY Samuel Smiles" . Los Angeles Herald . Vol. XXXI, no. 201. 17 April 1904. Page 4, column 3. Retrieved 21 February 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^ Simkin, John (June 2013). "Samuel Smiles : Biography" . Chartism. Spartacus Educational. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2022 .
^ "CHRONOLOGY 1893-1904" . The Compleat Eadward Muybridge . Retrieved 10 March 2022 .
^ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh , ed. (1911). "Powell, Frederick York ". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 223.
^ "EXPLORER STANLEY'S LIFE ENDS Famous Man's Career Is Closed in London" . San Francisco Call . Vol. XCV, no. 162. 10 May 1904. Page 1, column 2. Retrieved 19 March 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^ "1904 Arlington Journal" (PDF) . Arlington, Texas. pp. 70–71. Retrieved 16 March 2022 .
^ Middleton, Dorothy (24 January 2022). "Henry Morton Stanley" . Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved 10 March 2022 .
^ "Celebrated English Painter Dead" . The Press Democrat . Vol. XXX, no. 155. Santa Rosa, California . 2 July 1904. Page 1, column 4. Retrieved 26 November 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^ "DEATH DEPRIVES WORLD OF ART OF GREAT MASTER At Age of Eighty-Seven George Frederick Watts, English Painter, Lays Aside Brush That for More Than Sixty Years Has Won Him Honors" . San Francisco Call . Vol. XCVI, no. 32. 2 July 1904. Page 3, columns 1-2. Retrieved 17 December 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh , ed. (1911). "Watts, George Frederick ". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 420.
^ "DEATH OF WILSON BARRETT. Actor Succumbs to the Effects of an Operation for Cancer" . San Francisco Call . Vol. XCVI, no. 53. 23 July 1904. Page 14, column 5. Retrieved 23 December 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh , ed. (1911). "Barrett, Wilson ". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 434.