Manor House. Edwardian Life


		"I teach history to children. I'll go back and say you may not believe this but I have actually experienced what you are reading in books." Mr Raj Singh, tutor

Edward VII - the last British Monarch to give his name to an era

The Liberal Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman



		Upstairs Sir John loves his afternoons fishing on the lake more...




		Downstairs The scullery maid spends her afternoons washing the pots and pans after lunch more...





		"I miss my mum, and my sister. My skin's coming up in blotches, and I don't get on with the chef. I don't know if I can hack it. I need a bath, my hair feels all icky..." Lucy, scullery maid

Edwardian Life:
Timeline 1905-1914

1901
22nd January	Death of Queen Victoria, aged 81, after a reign of 63 years. Edward VII succeeds to the throne.
September	Taff Vale Judgement, a landmark in the development of the Labour Party. Workers on the Taff Vale Railway took action to gain the right to join a trade union. After the strike was settled, the railway company sought damages from the union for losses incurred during the strike. The House of Lords granted Ł42,000 plus costs against the union, thereby severely limiting the right to strike.
October	Britain's first submarine launched.
December	First Nobel Prizes awarded.
1902
January	Smallpox outbreak in London
March	Cecil Rhodes 'the architect of Empire' dies.
May	Boer War ends.
July	Arthur Balfour succeeds Salisbury as Conservative Prime Minister.
9th August	Coronation of Edward VII, delayed from July because of the King's appendicitis.
	Charles Booth's survey of poverty, Life and Labour of the People of London, published. Windsor Castle opened to the public. Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit published. Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories published.
1903
1st January	Edward VII proclaimed Emperor of India.
October	Formation of the suffragette Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst.
December	Marie Curie becomes the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. Wright Brothers make the first successful flight in a petrol-powered aeroplane.
1904
February	War breaks out between Russia and Japan when the Russian fleet attacks at Port Arthur.
April	Entente Cordiale signed with France. Licence plates for cars compulsory.
May	Rolls-Royce car manufacturing company formed.
November	Figures released reveal that poverty is rising dramatically - 122,000 people in London and 800,000 in England and Wales are in receipt of poor relief, with 250,000 in workhouses.
December	J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up opens in London.
1905
January	By popular demand, Arthur Conan Doyle brings his famous detective back from the 'dead' in a new book, The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
April	More than 10,000 people perish in an earthquake in Lahore, India.
May	Women's Suffrage Bill 'talked out' in Commons.
June	Automobile Association founded.
July	Einstein's Theory of Relativity proposed.
August	Lord Curzon resigns as Viceroy of India.
October	Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney arrested: start of the militant phase of the Suffrage movement. Aspirin on sale in Britain.
December	Balfour resigns; Henry Campbell-Bannerman invited to form a government. First motorized ambulances for traffic accident victims introduced by London County Council (previously ambulances were used only for people suffering from infectious diseases).
1906
February	Liberal landslide at General Election; Labour wins 29 seats. HMS Dreadnought launched. Formation of the Labour Party. Trade Disputes Act overturns Taff Vale Judgement. Free school meals introduced for children in need.
April	Vesuvius erupts, killing hundreds. San Francisco earthquake: 800 die. SOS becomes the international distress signal.
1907
April	Women can stand for election in county and borough elections and can take the office of mayor.
1908
April	Ill-health forces Campbell-Bannerman's resignation: Herbert Asquith succeeds him as Prime Minister. Old Age Pensions introduced for a minority of old people. Coal Mines Regulation Act legislates for a maximum working day of 8 hours underground. Territorial Army founded. By 1914 it had over 250,000 members. England plays the first ever international football match, against Austria - and wins 6-1.
June	Edward VII visits Russia. Olympic Games staged in London. National Farmer's Union founded.
December	Professor Ernest Rutherford awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on radiation and the nature of the atom. E.M. Forster's Room with a View published.
1909
	Labour Exchanges established. Trade Boards Act establishes minimum wage in some of the lowest-paid trades.
July	Blériot makes the first cross-Channel flight, taking 43 minutes.
November	The House of Lords throws out Lloyd George's 'people's budget' - the 'most radical budget in the nation's history'.
1910
	Liberals under Asquith win general election in February and December.
21st May	Death of Edward VII; succeeded by George V.
July	Dr. Crippen arrested at sea for the murder of his wife, the first criminal suspect to be caught by radio. He was travelling with his mistress Ethel Le Neve, disguised as a boy.
20th August	Florence Nightingale dies. Osborne Judgement bans trade unions from funding political activities. Girl Guide movement founded by Baden-Powell and his sister, Agnes.
1911
March	Shops Act legislates for 60-hour week and all employees entitled to half-day holiday each week. Payment of MPs (Members of Parliament) introduced.
23rd June	George V crowned in Westminster Abbey.
July	Agadir crisis, when Germany sent a gunboat to Morocco, fuelled Britain's concern about Germany's expansionist aims.
November	Balfour resigns as leader of the Conservative Party; succeeded by Andrew Bonar Law.
December	George V crowned King Emperor at Delhi Durbar.
	Period of industrial unrest 1911 to 1914.
1912
January	Captain Scott's expedition reaches the South pole - Amundsen has beaten them. All perish on the return journey.
April	The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg, with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.
May	Irish Home Rule Bill introduced.
September	Edward Carson organises the Ulster Volunteers to resist Home Rule for Ireland. British Board of Film Censors established. Royal Flying Corps (precursor of the Royal Air Force) established.
1913
March	Cat and Mouse Act introduced in an attempt to deal with the problem of suffragettes' hunger strikes in prison.
June	The suffragette Emily Davison throws herself under the King's horse at the Derby and dies from her injuries. The zip fastener patented by a Swedish engineer. Trade Union Act reverses Osborne Judgement.
September	Ulster Volunteer Force established. D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers published.
1914
	Immigration, already restricted since 1905 Act, further restricted. By 1914 there were over 50,000 women involved in peaceful campaigning to get women the vote.
March	Velazquez's Rokeby Venus slashed in the National Gallery by a suffragette with a meat cleaver.
April	George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion opens in London. James Joyce's Dubliners published.
28th June	Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo.
1st August	Germany declares war on Russia and, on the 3rd, France.
4th August	Britain declares war on Germany when it violates Belgian neutrality. In the first 18 months of war 2.4 million men signed up voluntarily. A quarter of men of fighting age volunteered in England and Wales. Fighting continues on the Western Front until 11.00am on 11th November 1918. By this time, 772,000 British have been killed, and 1,676, 037 wounded.

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