South Africa. 19–21 July – Bernard Bosanquet first bowls a googly in first-class cricket, playing for Middlesex against Leicestershire at Lord's. 27 July – Louise, Princess Royal, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, marries Alexander Duff, Earl of Fife, in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace, London; 2 days later he is created Duke of Fife, the last Dukedom created in Britain for a person who is not a son, grandson or consort of the Sovereign. 30 July The Duke of Albany becomes Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as Carl Eduard following the death of his uncle, Duke Alfred, a son of Queen Victoria who is the third of the reigning monarch's children to die. Mines (Prohibition of Child Labour Underground) Act prohibits children under the age of thirteen from working in mines. 8 August – Great Britain loses to the United States in the first Davis Cup tennis competition. 14 August – an international contingent of troops, under British command, invades Peking and frees the Europeans taken hostage. 27 August – British defeat Boer commandos at Bergendal. 3 September – West Bromwich Albion F.C. move into The Hawthorns, a new stadium on the border of West Bromwich and Handsworth. October 3 October – Edward Elgar's choral work The Dream of Gerontius receives its first performance, in Birmingham Town Hall. 25 October – Second Boer War: United Kingdom annexes Transvaal. November 22–14 November 1903 – strike of Welsh slate workers at Penrhyn Quarry. December 3 December – the Conservative Party under Lord Salisbury wins the 'Khaki' general election. Winston Churchill is elected Member of Parliament for Oldham; and two Labour candidates are successful: Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby. 15 December – the three lighthouse keepers on Flannan Isle disappear without a trace 28 December – the Liverpool barque Primrose Hill is wrecked on South Stack off Holyhead, with the loss of 33 lives. 31 December – a storm causes a stone and a lintel to fall at Stonehenge; they are restored in 1958. Undated Beer Scare: beer drinkers in North West England suffer poisoning from arsenic in brewing sugars: 6,000 people affected and 70 killed. William Harbutt of Bathampton begins commercial production of Plasticine modelling clay. Completion of the Arnold Cross estate, Shoreditch, London; Britain's first council estate to be commenced (10 years previously). Diamond Jubilee wins the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the