Events from the year 1919 in the United Kingdom. Incumbents Monarch – George V Prime Minister – David Lloyd George (Coalition) Parliament – 31st (starting 4 February) Events 1 January – HMY Iolaire is wrecked on rocks off Stornoway on the Scottish Isle of Lewis: 205 die, mostly servicemen returning home. 3 January – soldiers blockade Folkestone harbour in a successful protest against being returned to France. This month, other mutinies take place in France and across England. 18 January The Paris Peace Conference opens in France, with delegates from 27 nations present for meetings at the Palace of Versailles; Lloyd George attends as one of the "Big Four". Bentley Motors Ltd. is incorporated in England. 21 January – Dáil Éireann meets for the first time in the Mansion House, Dublin. It comprises Sinn Féin members elected in the 1918 general election who, in accordance with their manifesto, have not taken their seats in the Parliament of the United Kingdom but chosen to declare an independent Irish Republic. In the first shots of the Anglo-Irish War, two Royal Irish Constabulary men are killed in an ambush at Soloheadbeg in County Tipperary. 23 January – "Harbour Riot" in Glasgow: confrontation between white and black merchant seamen. 27 January – general strike call over working hours led by engineering workers in Glasgow and Belfast; in Belfast the strike collapses after a month. 31 January – Battle of George Square: the army is called in (with tanks ) to deal with riots associated with a strike to gain a 40-hour working week in Glasgow. 3 February – Éamon de Valera, the leader of Sinn Féin, and two other prisoners escape from Lincoln Prison in England in a break personally arranged by Michael Collins and Harry Boland. 27 February – marriage of Princess Patricia of Connaught to Commander The Hon. Alexander Ramsay, the first royal wedding at Westminster Abbey since the 14th century. 4–5 March – Kinmel Park riots by troops of the Canadian Expeditionary Force awaiting repatriation at Kinmel Camp, Bodelwyddan, in North Wales. Five men are killed, 28 injured, and 25 convicted of mutiny. 3 April – Government agrees to begin release of imprisoned conscientious objectors. 7 April – the Original Dixieland Jazz Band brings Dixieland jazz to England, opening a 15-month tour at the Hippodrome, London. 13 April – Amritsar Massacre: British and Gurkha troops kill 379 Sikhs and injure more