1903 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – Edward VII
• Prime Minister – Arthur Balfour
• Parliament – 27th

  Events

• 1 January – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India.
• 19 January – first transatlantic radio broadcast between United States and Britain.
• 27 January – fire at Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum kills 51.
• 12 February – Randall Davidson enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he will hold for 25 years.
• 13 February – Venezuelan crisis. After agreeing to arbitration in Washington, Britain, Germany and Italy reach a settlement with Venezuela, resulting in the Washington Protocols. The naval blockade that began in December 1902 will be lifted, and Venezuela commits 30% of its customs duties to settling claims.
• 3 March – The Admiralty announces plans to build a naval base at Rosyth on the Firth of Forth.
• 24 March & 3 May – Derby earthquakes.
• 1 April – Midwives Act 1902 comes into effect, regulating the profession of midwifery in England and Wales.
• 14 April – Aberdeen Football Club is established.
• 18 April – Bury F.C. beat Derby County by an all-time record 6 goals to nil to win the 1903 FA Cup Final.
• 23 April – Budget removes Corn Duty.
• 29 May – Bradford City Football Club is established.
• 19 June – Caernarfon earthquake.
• 7 July – British take over the Fulani empire.
• August – 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party moves from Brussels to London.
• September – First Garden City Ltd formed to develop Letchworth.
• 16 September – Joseph Chamberlain resigns as Colonial Secretary.
• 10 October – foundation of the militant Women's Social and Political Union by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst in Manchester.
• 31 October – opening of Hampden Park football ground in Glasgow in Scotland.
• October:
• * Opening of Willow Tearooms, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for Catherine Cranston.
• * The wettest month in the EWP series with, beating November 1852 with
• 2 November – Daily Mirror launched as a newspaper for women, run by women.

  Undated

• First Poor Prisoners' Defence Act provides for limited legal aid.
• University of Liverpool becomes independent of Victoria University.
• "Typhoo Tipps" tea first marketed.
• William Randal Cremer wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Percy Furnivall carries out the first known case of cardiac surgery in Britain.
• The remains of "Cheddar Man" are found within Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Britain's oldest complete human skeleton, dating to approximately 7150 BCE.
• Osea Island off Maldon, Essex, is bought by Frederick Nicholas Charrington to provide an addiction treatment centre.
• Rock Sand wins the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the Epsom Derby, 2,000 Guineas and St Leger.

  Publications

• Edward Harold Begbie's novel Lost in Blunderland.
• Samuel Butler's semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh.
• George Gissing's semi-autobiographical novel The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft.
• John Morley's biography The Life of Gladstone, which sells more than 25,000 copies in its first year.

  Births

• 7 January – Alan Napier, actor
• 18 January
• * Gladys Hooper, née Nash, pianist and supercentenarian
• * Kathleen Shaw, figure skater
• 22 February – Frank P. Ramsey, mathematician
• 4 March – Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress
• 24 March – Malcolm Muggeridge, journalist, author and media personality
• 31 March – H. J. Blackham, humanist and author
• 15 April – John Williams, actor
• 20 May – Barbara Hepworth, sculptor
• 29 May – Bob Hope, British-born comedian
• 19 June – Wally Hammond, cricketer
• 25 June – George Orwell, author
• 29 June – Alan Blumlein, electronics engineer
• 1 July – Amy Johnson, aviator
• 2 July – Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister
• 10 July – John Wyndham, author
• 11 July – Rudolf Abel, English-born spy for the Soviet Union
• 13 July – Kenneth Clark, art historian
• 26 July – Amy Gentry, rower
• 7 August – Louis Leakey, paleoanthropologist, born in British East Africa
• 24 August – Graham Sutherland, artist
• 2 September – Fred Pratt Green, Methodist minister and hymn writer
• 7 September – Jock Wilson, soldier
• 9 September – Edward Upward, author
• 28 October – Evelyn Waugh, writer
• 29 October – Vivian Ellis, composer and lyricist
• 31 October – Joan Robinson, economist
• 1 November – Max Adrian, Irish-born actor
• 5 November – Joan Barry, actress
• 4 December – A. L. Rowse, historian
• 5 December – Cecil Frank Powell, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 10 December – Mary Norton, children's author
• unknown date – John Illingworth, yachtsman, yacht designer and naval officer

  Deaths

• 17 January – Quintin Hogg, philanthropist
• 1 February – Sir George Gabriel Stokes, mathematician and physicist
• 7 February – James Glaisher, meteorologist and aeronaut
• 4 March – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, novelist
• 13 March – George Granville Bradley, vicar and scholar
• 10 April – Enderby Jackson, pioneer of the British brass band
• 19 June – Herbert Vaughan, Catholic cardinal and archbishop
• 11 July – W. E. Henley, poet, critic, and editor
• 5 August – Phil May, artist
• 22 August – Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 18 September – Alexander Bain, philosopher
• 8 December – Herbert Spencer, philosopher
• 28 December – George Gissing, novelist