1921 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – George V
• Prime Minister – David Lloyd George
• Parliament – 31st

  Events

January to June

• 1 January – car tax discs introduced.
• 8 January – Chequers becomes an official residence of the Prime Minister.
• 14 January – unemployment stands at 927,000.
• 20 January – the Royal Navy K-class submarine HMS K5 sinks in the English Channel with the loss of all 56 crew on board.
• 26 January – Abermule train collision: seventeen people are killed when two passenger trains collide head-on in Montgomeryshire.
• January – Lord Rothermere's Sunday Pictorial announces formation of the Anti-Waste League as a political party opposing excessive government expenditure.
• 12 February – Winston Churchill is appointed as Colonial Secretary.
• 16 February – unemployment now stands at over 1,000,000. The Government announces an increase in unemployment benefit.
• 5 March – Irish War of Independence: Clonbanin Ambush – Irish Republican Army kills Brigadier General Cumming.
• 11 March – Queen Mary becomes the first woman to be awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University.
• 16 March – The United Kingdom signs a trade agreement with the Russian SFSR.
• 17 March
• * Bonar Law, the Conservative Party leader, resigns due to ill health.
• * Dr Marie Stopes opens the United Kingdom's first birth control clinic in Holloway, London.
• 19 March – Irish War of Independence: Crossbarry Ambush – British troops fail to encircle an outnumbered column of Irish Republican Army volunteers in County Cork, with at least ten British and three IRA deaths.
• 21 March
• * Austen Chamberlain replaces Bonar Law as Conservative leader.
• * Irish War of Independence: Headford Ambush: The IRA kills at least nine British troops.
• 26 March – Shaun Spadah wins the Grand National.
• 31 March – A state of emergency is declared after another coal miners' strike is called.
• 1 April – Airship R36, the first to carry a British civilian registration, makes her maiden flight from William Beardmore and Company's works at Inchinnan, Scotland.
• 3 April – Coal rationing begins.
• 13 April – Lloyds Bank takes over Fox, Fowler and Company of Wellington, Somerset, the last provincial English bank to issue its own banknotes.
• 15 April – "Black Friday": Transport union members of the 'Triple Alliance' refuse to support national strike action by coal miners.
• 23 April – Tottenham Hotspur beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1–0 in the FA Cup Final.
• 26 April – Police patrol London on motorcycles for the first time.
• 3 May – The province of Northern Ireland is created within the United Kingdom under terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920.
• 4 May – The IRA kill a former Royal Irish Constabulary inspector in Glasgow.
• 5 May – Only thirteen paying spectators attend the football match between Leicester City and Stockport County played at Old Trafford, the lowest attendance in The Football League's history.
• 7 May – Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan arrives on an official visit.
• 15 May – The British Legion is founded as a voice for ex-servicemen by merger of the Comrades of the Great War, the National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers, the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers and the Officers' Association, under the Presidency of Earl Haig.
• 22 May – The United States beats the United Kingdom 9 rounds to 3 in the first golf international between the two countries.
• 24 May – Irish elections, under terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920: In the Northern Ireland general election for the new Parliament of Northern Ireland, Ulster Unionists win 40 out of 52 seats. The dominant-party system in Northern Ireland will last for fifty years.
• 25 May – Irish War of Independence: the Irish Republican Army occupies and burns The Custom House in Dublin, the centre of local government in Ireland. Five IRA men are killed, and over eighty are captured by the British Army which surrounds the building.
• 1 June – Humorist wins The Derby. For the first time the result is broadcast live by wireless.
• 6 June – King George V opens Southwark Bridge in London.
• 7 June
• * The new Parliament of Northern Ireland assembles in Belfast City Hall; James Craig is elected as first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
• * J. M. M. Erskine, standing as an "Independent Anti-Waste" candidate, wins the Westminster St George's parliamentary seat in a by-election.
• 10 June – unemployment reaches 2,200,000.
• 12 June – Sunday postal collection and delivery is suspended.
• 14 June – First performance of the orchestral version of Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending conducted by Adrian Boult with Marie Hall as violin soloist.
• 15 June – 2,000,000 workers are currently involved in pay disputes.
• 19 June – census in the United Kingdom.
• 22 June – New Parliament of Northern Ireland, assembled at Belfast City Hall, is formally opened by King George V, making a speech calling for reconciliation in Ireland.
• 24 June – The world's largest airship, the R.38, makes its maiden flight at Bedford.
• 25 June – Rainfall ends a drought, which has lasted for one hundred days.
• 28 June – The coal strike ends.

  July to December

• 2 July – Bill Tilden and Suzanne Lenglen retain their Wimbledon titles.
• 7 July – General Jan Smuts meets King George V to discuss the Irish situation.
• 9 July – The Irish War of Independence comes officially to an end when a truce, coming into effect at noon on 11 July, is agreed between British and Irish forces.
• 10 July – Bloody Sunday: clashes between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast result in sixteen deaths and the destruction of over two hundred homes.
• 12 July – Sinn Féin representatives arrive in London for talks.
• 18 July – Ulster Unionist negotiators walk out of the truce talks in London.
• 3 August – "Geddes Axe": announcement that the Prime Minister is appointing an advisory Committee on National Expenditure, made up of businessmen chaired by Sir Eric Geddes, to recommend reductions in government spending.
• 19 August – unemployment falls to 1,640,600.
• 24 August – R38 class airship ZR-2 explodes on her fourth test flight near Kingston upon Hull, killing 44 of the 49 Anglo-American crew on board.
• 27 August – The first games in the new Football League Third Division North are played, a year after the southern section was formed. Among the new division's members are Stockport County, Walsall, Rochdale, Chesterfield and Tranmere Rovers.
• 30 August – England defeat Australia, for the first time this year, in the final Test Match.
• 1 September – Poplar Rates Rebellion: led by George Lansbury, the Borough council in Poplar, London withholds collection of part of its rates, leading to six weeks' imprisonment for thirty councillors and hasty passage of The London Authorities Act through Parliament to equalise tax burdens between rich and poor boroughs.
• 7 September – David Lloyd George summons a meeting of the Cabinet at Inverness to discuss an independent Ireland's relationship with the British Empire.
• 9 September – Charlie Chaplin visits London and is met by thousands.
• 17 September – Shackleton-Rowett Expedition: Ernest Shackleton sets sail on his last expedition to Antarctica.
• 23 September – The second female MP enters Parliament.
• October – The first women are admitted to study for full academic degrees at the University of Cambridge, but have no associated privileges.
• 8 October – The steamer SS Rowan sinks off the coast of Scotland. Twenty-two people lose their lives.
• 11 October – The Irish Treaty Conference opens in London.
• 11 November – The British Legion holds the first official Poppy Day.
• 21 November – Troops are sent to restore order after rioting breaks out in East Belfast.
• 22 November – At least ten people are killed in widespread shootings in Belfast.
• 30 November – Sir Basil Thomson retires after forty years as the head of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch.
• 6 December – British and Irish negotiators sign the Anglo-Irish Treaty in London giving independence to the Irish Free State.
• 10 December – Frederick Soddy wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contributions to our knowledge of the chemistry of radioactive substances, and his investigations into the origin and nature of isotopes".
• 16 December – Parliament ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

  Undated

• National Unemployed Workers' Committee Movement set up by members of the Communist Party.
• Dentists Act requires the registration of anyone practicing dentistry, making it a fully regulated profession.
• The Scottish county of Haddingtonshire is renamed East Lothian.
• Wicksteed Park in Kettering opens as the first inland amusement park in England.
• An exceptionally dry year over England and Wales with only making it the driest year on record since 1788, and not approached subsequently – the nearest being 1854 with, 1864 with, 1887 with and 1933 with, 1964 with and 1973 with. In South East England the average is only with some stations recording less than. It reached 34C in Southern and Eastern England on 10 and 11 July.

  Publications

• Dorita Fairlie Bruce's children's novel The Senior Prefect, first of The Dimsie books.
• Agatha Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introducing Hercule Poirot.
• Walter de la Mare's novel Memoirs of a Midget.
• Eleanor Farjeon's children's stories Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard.
• John Galsworthy's novel To Let, last of The Forsyte Saga.
• A. S. M. Hutchinson's novel If Winter Comes.
• Aldous Huxley's novel Crome Yellow.
• Sheila Kaye-Smith's novel Joanna Godden.
• D. H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love.

  Births

• 1 January
• *John Strawson, English general and military writer
• *Helen Yate, swimmer
• 2 January – Kenneth Griffith, actor
• 9 January – Roy Farran, soldier and author
• 14 January – Kenneth Bulmer, author
• 15 January – Frank Thornton, actor
• 16 January – George Thomson, journalist and politician
• 19 January – Denys Roberts, British colonial official, judge
• 21 January – Charles Eric Maine, writer
• 22 January – Kevin Stoney, actor
• 1 February
• * Peter Sallis, actor
• * Patricia Robins, writer and WAAF officer
• 5 February
• *Marion Eames, novelist
• *John Pritchard, conductor
• *Sir Ken Adam, German-born British production designer
• 6 February – Margaret Moncrieff, cellist
• 24 February – Pat Kirkwood, actress
• 28 February – J. F. C. Harrison, historian
• 2 March
• *Christopher Lloyd, gardener and gardening writer
• *Robert Simpson, composer
• 4 March
• * Joan Greenwood, actress
• * John Ryan, cartoonist
• 13 March – Cyril Poole, cricketer
• 19 March – Tommy Cooper, Welsh-born comedian and magician
• 25 March – Mary Douglas, social anthropologist
• 27 March – Richard Marner, actor
• 28 March – Dirk Bogarde, actor and author
• 29 March
• *Hugh Neill, businessman
• *Johnny Lawrenson, English rugby league winger
• 30 March – Tony Honoré, lawyer and jurist
• 1 April – Steve Race, pianist, composer and radio presenter
• 5 April – Les Jackson, English cricketer
• 10 April – Robert Wade, New Zealand-born chess player
• 16 April – Peter Ustinov, actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur
• 20 April – Peter Baker, English soldier, author, publisher and politician
• 27 April – John Stott, British Anglican cleric, Christian author
• 4 May – John Goodwin, theatre publicist and writer
• 7 May – Asa Briggs, historian
• 15 May – Alan Huggins, judge
• 18 May
• *Joan Eardley, painter
• *Sir Michael A. Epstein, medical researcher
• 21 May – Peggy Cripps Appiah, children's author and socialite
• 22 May – John Francis Marchment Middleton, anthropologist
• 23 May – Humphrey Lyttelton, jazz musician and broadcaster
• 27 May – Cyril Tamplin, cricketer
• 8 June
• * Gordon Campbell, Baron Campbell of Croy, politician
• * Alwyn Williams, geologist
• 12 June – Christopher Derrick, writer
• 22 June – Roland Gibbs, head of the British Army, from 1976 to 1979
• June – Dennis Wilson, poet
• 4 July – Frederick Sydney Waller, shipbuilder
• 7 July – Joe Wade, English footballer and manager
• 14 July – Leon Garfield, children's historical novelist
• 15 July – Jean Heywood, actress
• 19 July – Diana Elles, Baroness Elles, British barrister, United Nations representative from the United Kingdom
• 31 July – Peter Benenson, lawyer and human rights campaigner
• 8 August
• * Alan Muir Wood, civil engineer
• * David Pears, philosopher
• 10 August – Jack Archer, athlete
• 11 August – Tom Kilburn, co-inventor of the Williams-Kilburn tube, used for memory in early computer systems
• 17 August – Elinor Lyon, children's writer
• 1 September – Daphne Park, diplomat and spy
• 3 September – Thurston Dart, harpsichordist, conductor
• 6 September – John Bickersteth, British Anglican prelate
• 8 September – Harry Secombe, entertainer
• 15 September
• *Richard Gordon, author
• * Clive Rose, diplomat
• 20 September – Leon Comber, author
• 21 September – Jimmy Young, singer and radio broadcaster
• 29 September
• *James Cross, Irish-English diplomat
• *Francis Rose, botanist
• 30 September – Deborah Kerr, actress
• 2 October
• * Edmund Crispin, writer and composer
• * Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 8 October – Michael Fox, judge
• 11 October – Paddy Ridsdale, Lady Ridsdale, politician and World War II agent
• 12 October
• *Kenneth Griffith, actor
• *Logie Bruce Lockhart, Scottish rugby player and journalist
• 23 October – Archie Lamb, diplomat, writer and businessman
• 2 November
• * Pearl Carr, singer
• * Sally Gilmour, ballerina
• 4 November – Hugh Cunningham, army officer
• 11 November – Ron Greenwood, footballer and manager
• 25 November – Johnny Johnson, Royal Air Force officer
• 8 December – Terence Morgan, actor
• 11 December – Liz Smith, character actress
• 12 December – John Papworth, clergyman, writer and activist
• 14 December – Simon Towneley, politician
• 22 December – John Aiken, air marshal

  Deaths

• 1 January – Mary Macarthur, trade unionist
• 12 January – Gervase Elwes, tenor
• 18 January – Elizabeth Anne Finn, writer
• 8 February – George Formby Sr, entertainer
• 27 February – Schofield Haigh, cricketer
• 22 March – E. W. Hornung, author
• 27 March – Sir Harry Barron, army officer and Governor of Tasmania and Western Australia
• 1 April – Sir Edmund Poë, admiral
• 2 April – Charles Blackader, general
• 27 April – Arthur Mold, cricketer
• 12 May – Sir Melville Macnaghten, police officer
• 19 May – Michael Llewelyn Davies, inspiration for Peter Pan, drowned
• 25 May – Sir Arthur Wilson, admiral of the fleet
• 26 June – Alfred Percy Sinnett, theosophist
• 29 June – Lady Randolph Churchill, socialite mother of Winston Churchill
• 13 July – Emily Davies, pioneer of women's rights and education
• 2 September – Henry Austin Dobson, poet
• 7 September – Alfred William Rich, watercolourist
• 23 October – John Boyd Dunlop, inventor
• 10 December – George Ashlin, architect
• 11 December – Hardinge Giffard, 1st Earl of Halsbury, lawyer, Lord Chancellor
• 25 December – Sir George Atkinson-Willes, Royal Navy admiral