18 February – World War I: Germany regards waters around the British Isles to be a war zone from this date, as part of its U-boat campaign.
March – World War I: Option to enlist in the Territorial Force for home service only is abolished and the first complete territorial division to be deployed to the Western Front arrives in France.[3]
3 May – the oldest continually operational Royal Air Force station, RAF Northolt (on the edge of London), opens as the home to the Royal Flying Corps' No. 4 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron.
17 May – the last purely Liberal government ends when Prime Minister H. H. Asquith decides to form an all-party coalition, precipitated by reports in the Northcliffe press of deficiencies in the supply of shells for the army following the 9 May British defeat at the Battle of Aubers Ridge.[6]
4 July – German aviator Gunther Plüschow escapes from an officers' prisoner-of-war camp at Donington Hall in Leicestershire and successfully makes his way home to Germany, the only enemy combatant in either World War to do so.[10]
8 July – National Registration Act: All citizens (men and women) aged 15–65 to be registered on 15 August.
17 July – the "Women's Great Procession" (also known as the "War Service Procession" or "Right to Serve March") is organised in London by the Women's Social and Political Union led by Emmeline Pankhurst to demonstrate that women should work in munitions and other areas where they could replace men.[12][13]
25 September–14 October – World War I: Battle of Loos: British forces take the French town of Loos but with substantial casualties and are unable to press their advantage. This is the first time the British use poison gas in World War I and also the first large-scale use of 'New' or Kitchener's Army units.
October–November – World War I: Derby Scheme, a voluntary military recruitment scheme.
12 October – World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.[2]
20 October – women officially permitted to act as bus and tram conductors for the duration of the War;[8][16] but have been employed in Glasgow and other places in the U.K. since April.[17]
24 November – Bruce Bairnsfather's "Fragments from France" cartoon featuring "Old Bill" saying "Well, if you knows of a better 'ole, go to it" is published in the Bystander.
27 November – Government introduces legislation to restrict housing rents to their pre-war level following Glasgow rent strikes led by Mary Barbour.
30 December – armoured cruiserHMS Natal (1905) capsizes at anchor in the Cromarty Firth as the result of an internal explosion in her ammunition stores; 390 sailors and some civilians are killed.[19]
^"The Women's Movement During The First World War". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
^Dixon, Bryony. "Topical Budget 204-1: Women's March Through London (1915)". screenonline. BFI. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
^Kelly, Kay (27 November 2012). "First police women in UK". Grantham People. Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
^"The day the 'fightfulness' of war arrived in Cumbria". The Whitehaven News. 10 July 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
^"Women Tram And Motor-Bus Conductors". The Evening Post. Vol. XC, no. 97. Wellington, New Zealand. 22 October 1915. p. 7. Archived from the original on 22 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
^"Women tram conductors". Winning Equal Pay. London Metropolitan University. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
^"The Nobel Prize in Physics 1915". Retrieved 28 January 2008.
^Hampshire, A. Cecil (1961). They Called It Accident. London: William Kimber. OCLC 7973925.
^Schirf, Diane L. "D. H. Lawrence, Sex, and Censorship". The Dusty Shelf literary e-zine. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
^Alan Watts; John Snelling (1987). The Early Writings of Alan Watts: The British Years, 1931-1938 : Writings in Buddhism in England. Celestial Arts. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-89087-480-6.
^Fred Hoyle (1986). The Small World of Fred Hoyle: An Autobiography. M. Joseph. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-7181-2740-4.
^Mary Ellen Snodgrass (29 December 2004). Encyclopedia of Kitchen History. Routledge. p. 728. ISBN 978-1-135-45572-9.
^"Forgotten Women: Edith Cavell, the war hero nurse who became a spy". The Independent. 4 December 2018. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2018.