List of massacres in Great Britain

This is a list of incidents that happened in Great Britain and commonly called massacres.

This list does not include massacres on the island of Ireland during times when there was United Kingdom jurisdiction on that island. For those, see List of massacres in Ireland.

List

Date	Name	Location	Deaths	Injuries	Notes
61 AD	Roman conquest of Anglesey	Anglesey	unknown		Roman suppression of Druid religion
60 or 61 AD	Boudica's attacks on Roman cities	Camulodunum (modern-day Colchester), Londinium (modern-day London), Verulamium (modern-day St Albans)	70,000–80,000 (Mostly Britons)		Forces led by Boudica, Queen of the Iceni tribe, massacred both Romans and Britons in Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium. Her forces were later defeated by the Romans at the Battle of Watling Street.[1]
686	Caedwalla's attack on Wihtwara	Isle of Wight	All but one		According to Bede, King Caedwalla of Wessex "endeavoured to destroy all the inhabitants" of the island for reverting to paganism.
13 November 1002	St. Brice's Day massacre	Throughout the Kingdom of England	Unknown		The St. Brice's Day massacre was the mass killing of Danes across England on orders of King Æthelred the Unready.[2]
1066	Harald Hardrada's attack on Scarborough	Scarborough	No survivors		Attack by Vikings led by Harald Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson. A prelude to the Battle of Stamford Bridge & ultimately the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Scarborough was subsequently absent from the Domesday Book.
1069–1070	Harrying of the North	The North of England between the Humber and the Tees	100,000		William the Conqueror's men burnt whole villages and slaughtered the inhabitants. Foodstores and livestock were destroyed so that anyone surviving the initial massacre would starve over the winter.[3][4]
16 March 1190	Massacre of the Jews at York[5]	York, England	150		"A wave of anti-Semitic riots culminated in the massacre of an estimated 150 Jews – the entire Jewish community of York – who had taken refuge in the royal castle where Clifford's Tower now stands. The chronicler William of Newburgh described the rioters in York as acting 'without any scruple of Christian conscientiousness' in wiping out the Jewish community."[6][7]
30 March 1296	Massacre of Berwick	Berwick-upon-Tweed, Scotland (at the time)	7,500–16,000	unknown	English troops massacred the civilian and military population after besieging the Scottish town.[8]
10–12 February 1355	St Scholastica Day riot	Oxford, England	93	Unknown	A riot culminating from tensions between the city of Oxford and the academic community of the University.
21 October 1490	Massacre of Monzievaird	Monzievaird, Scotland	possibly 120		Clan warfare
1521	Amersham Martyrdoms	Amersham, Buckinghamshire	6		Massacre of Lollards for the heresy of reading the Bible in English [9]
1577	Eigg massacre	Isle of Eigg, Scotland	395		Clan warfare According to the Clanranald legend, all but one of the Isle of Eigg's MacDonald clan were asphyxiated by their rival MacLeod clan in the massacre cave on the south coast of the island.[10][11]
28 May 1644	Bolton massacre	Bolton, England	1,600		During the English Civil War, Royalist forces under Prince Rupert of the Rhine slaughtered a large population of the strongly Parliamentarian town of Bolton.
1646	Dunoon massacre	Dunoon, Scotland	200		Clan warfare
May 1647	Battle of Dunaverty	Kintyre, Scotland	300		More than 300 MacDougalls and MacDonald's followers, men, women and children, were slaughtered at Dunaverty after being promised quarter (mercy) by the Covenanters.
13 February 1692	Massacre of Glencoe	Glen Coe, Scotland	78		Committed by the Clan Campbell under Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, ostensibly due to irregularities concerning the swearing of an oath of allegiance to William II of Scotland.
10 May 1768	Massacre of St George's Fields	London, England	6–7		Committed by the Horse Grenadier Guards and the Third Regiment of Foot Guards during a riot against the imprisonment of John Wilkes in St. George's Fields.
29 October 1797	Massacre of Tranent	Tranent, East Lothian, Scotland	12		Townsfolk, including women and children, were killed by members of the Cinque Ports Dragoons, a fencible cavalry regiment, during a protest against the Act of Parliament to raise a Scots militia by a form of conscription.
16 August 1819	Peterloo Massacre	Manchester, Lancashire, England	15	400–700	Committed by the 15th Hussars and the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry during a large outdoor political demonstration for male universal suffrage in St. Peter's Field. Led to the repeal of the Six Acts.
May - 7 June 1831	Merthyr Rising	Merthyr Tydfil, Wales	24-26	70+	Described by historian John Davies as "the most ferocious and bloody event in the history of industrialised Britain", the rebellion in Merthyr Tydfil and surrounding areas broke out following protests against falling wages, the price of bread, and forced redundancy. During the bloodiest incident, Argyll and Sutherland Highlander troops sent to retake Merthyr fired on protesters during a fight against a large crowd.
4 November 1839	Newport Rising	Newport, Wales	22	50+	Led by John Frost, between 1,000 and 5,000 Chartist sympathisers armed with home-made weapons marched on Newport, intent on liberating fellow Chartists who had reportedly been taken prisoner. About 22 demonstrators were killed when troops opened fire on them. The leaders of the rebellion were convicted of high treason, and sentenced to transportation for life.
12/13 August 1842	Preston Strike of 1842	Preston, Lancashire, England	4	3+	The Mayor Samuel Horrocks read the Riot Act. This gave local authorities the right to use force if necessary to disperse unlawful assemblies and stop riots. When violence escalated and the crowd did not disperse, the 72nd Highlanders fired into the crowd, shooting at least eight men.
22 February 1972	Aldershot bombing	Aldershot, England	7	18	A car bomb outside the headquarters of the British Army's 16th Parachute Regiment by Official IRA member Noel Jenkinson.
4 February 1974	M62 coach bombing	West Yorkshire, England	12	38	A bombing on a coach carrying servicemen and their families by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
5 October 1974	Guildford pub bombings	Guildford, England	5	65	Two bombs detonated in two separate Guildford pubs by the PIRA who targeted them because they were popular with British servicemen.
21 November 1974	Birmingham pub bombings	Birmingham, England	21	182	Two bombs detonated in two separate Birmingham pubs by the PIRA.
16 August 1980	Denmark Place fire	London, England	37		An arson attack against a nightclub on Denmark Street by patron who was angry at being barred from the club for arguing with a bartender. Described - prior to the Lockerbie bombing - as the deadliest mass murder in modern British history.
19 August 1987	Hungerford massacre	Hungerford, England	16	15	A spree shooting/murder–suicide. Led to the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988.
21 December 1988	Lockerbie bombing	Lockerbie, Scotland	270		A bombing on the Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie by Libyan terrorist Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the damaged plane fell onto the town of Lockerbie. All passengers and crew members on the flight were killed, and eleven people on the ground.
13 March 1996	Dunblane massacre	Dunblane, Scotland	17	15	A school shooting/murder–suicide. Deadliest mass shooting in UK history.
7 July 2005	7 July 2005 London bombings	London, England	52	700+	Al-Qaeda attack. Four coordinated terrorist Suicide bombings in central London between 08:50 and 09:47. It was the United Kingdom's worst terrorist incident since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, as well as the country's first ever suicide attack.
2 June 2010	Cumbria shootings	Cumbria, England	12	11	A killing spree/murder–suicide.
22 March 2017	2017 Westminster attack	London, England	6	49	A vehicle and knife Islamist terrorist attack outside the Palace of Westminster.
22 May 2017	Manchester Arena bombing	Manchester, England	23	400+	Islamist terrorist suicide attack at Manchester Arena after an Ariana Grande concert.[12]
3 June 2017	2017 London Bridge attack	London, England	8	48	Islamic State of Iraq and Syria attack/vehicle and knife attack.[13]
29 November 2019	2019 London Bridge attack	London, England	3	3	Islamic State of Iraq and Syria knife attack. ISIS took responsibility for the attack. Usman Khan was named the attacker.

References

1. Davies, Norman (1999). The Isles: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 93. ISBN 0-19-820171-0.
2. Williams, Ann (2003). Aethelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King. Hambledon: Hambledon Continuum. pp. 52–53. ISBN 1-85285-382-4.
3. Rex, Peter (2004). The English Resistance: The Underground War Against the Normans. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus. p. 28. ISBN 0-7524-2827-6. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
4. Vitalis, Ordericus (1854). Thomas Forester Tr. (ed.). The Ecclesiastical history of England and Normandy. Volume ii. London: Henry G. Bohn. p. 28. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
5. David Dickerson (2 July 1997). "Clifford's Tower: Massacre at York (1190)". Archived from the original on 19 September 2008.
6. "The 1190 Massacre: History of York". Retrieved 19 April 2013.
7. Margolis, Max L.; Marx, Alexander (1927). A History of the Jewish People. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America. pp. 387–388.
8. John Parker Lawson (1849), "Siege of Berwick, 1296", Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland, and of the Border Raids, Forays, and Conflicts, pp. 113–116
9. "Amersham Martyrs Memorial". Amersham Martyrs Memorial.
10. Wiseman, Andrew (21 May 2014). "The Calum Maclean Project: The Eigg Massacre of 1577".
11. "Isle of Eigg – Small Isles". 27 February 2015.
12. "The 22 lost lives of Manchester attack as all victims named by police". Daily Record. 25 May 2017.
13. Evans, Sophie (4 June 2017). "First victim of London Bridge massacre identified as 'beautiful' bride-to-be".