Events from the year 1914 in the United Kingdom. This year saw the start of the First World War, ending the Edwardian era. Incumbents Monarch – George V Prime Minister – H. H. Asquith (Liberal) Parliament – 30th Events January–February – Leeds rent strike. 20 February – the Fethard-on-Sea life-boat capsizes on service off the County Wexford coast: nine crew are lost. 9 March – the prime minister proposes to allow the Ulster counties to hold a vote on whether or not to join a home rule parliament in Dublin. 10 March – suffragette Mary Richardson damages the Velázquez painting the Rokeby Venus in the National Gallery, London, with a meat cleaver. 15 March – cover price of The Times halved to one penny. 20 March – Curragh incident: British Army officers stationed at the Curragh Camp in Ireland resign their commissions rather than be ordered to resist action by Unionist Ulster Volunteers if the Irish Home Rule Bill is passed. The government backs down and they are reinstated. 29 March – Katherine Routledge and her husband arrive in Easter Island to make the first true study of it (departing August 1915). 9 April – showing of the first colour feature film in Britain: The World, the Flesh and the Devil. 11 April – first British performance of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion at His Majesty's Theatre in London. 17 April – suffragette arson attack on Britannia Pier, Great Yarmouth. 24–25 April – Larne gun-running: 35,000 rifles and over 3 million rounds of ammunition from Germany are landed at Larne, Bangor and Donaghadee for the Ulster Volunteers. 28 April – suffragette arson attack on the Bath Hotel, Felixstowe. 4 May – suffragette Mary Wood attacks John Singer Sargent's portrait of Henry James at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London with a meat cleaver. At the same exhibition on 12 May, Gertrude Mary Ansell attacks the recently deceased Hubert von Herkomer's portrait of the Duke of Wellington, and on 26 May 'Mary Spencer' (Maude Kate Smith) attacks George Clausen's painting Primavera. 9 May – J. T. (Jack) Hearne becomes the first bowler to take 3000 first-class wickets. 21 May – a women's suffrage march on Buckingham Palace with a petition is thwarted by police. 25 May – the House of Commons of the United Kingdom passes the Irish Home Rule Bill. 30 May makes her maiden voyage. An explosion at