becomes the last British soldier to be killed in the War, near Mons in Belgium. 14 November – Labour Party leaves the wartime coalition government. 15 November – first released British prisoners of war reach Calais. 20 November – U-boats start to rendezvous off Harwich to begin the surrender of the High Seas Fleet to the Royal Navy; in the following week the German warships are escorted to internment in Scapa Flow. 21 November – the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 receives Royal Assent, giving women over 21 the right to stand as a Member of Parliament. 23 November – British military government of Palestine begins. 5 December – light cruiser HMS Cassandra sunk by mine in the Gulf of Finland while assisting Estonia against the Bolsheviks, with eleven crew lost. 14 December – general election polling held. It is the first national election in the United Kingdom at which women are entitled to vote or stand, and the male franchise is extended. This is known as the "Coupon election" from the letter of endorsement given to candidates of the official (and victorious) Coalition by Bonar Law and Lloyd George. 24 December – first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge, held. 28 December – Countess Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway Prison, becomes the first woman MP elected to (but not to take her seat in) the British House of Commons. Sinn Féin has won 73 out of 105 Irish seats in the British Parliament. In accordance with their manifesto, Sinn Féin members refuse to take their seats in the Palace of Westminster and instead form the First Dáil in Ireland in 1919. 29 December – the Sunday Express newspaper published for the first time. Undated United Newspapers Ltd. founded in London. The Scottish county of Elginshire is officially renamed as the County of Moray (Morayshire). Publications Ethel M. Dell's Greatheart Gerard Manley Hopkins' Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins (posthumous). Daniel Jones's textbook An Outline of English Phonetics (containing the first comprehensive description of British Received Pronunciation). Wyndham Lewis's novel Tarr (in book form). André Maurois' novel Les Silences du Colonel Bramble. Siegfried Sassoon's Counter-Attack and Other Poems. Dr Marie Stopes' books Married Love and Wise Parenthood. Lytton Strachey's historical biography Eminent Victorians. Rebecca West's novel The Return of the Soldier. Births 1 January Patrick Anthony Porteous, Scottish soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross (born