List of massacres in Great Britain

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

This list does not include massacres in Northern Ireland, or in Ireland during historical periods when Ireland and Great Britain were one country. Such incidents are listed in List of massacres in Ireland.

Date	Name	Location	Deaths	Injuries	Notes
61 CE	Menai Massacre	Anglesey, North Wales	unknown		Roman suppression of Druid religion
60 or 61 CE	Boudica's attacks on the Romans	Camulodunum (modern-day Colchester), Londinium and Verulamium (modern-day St Albans)	70,000–80,000 Romans and Britons		Forces led by Boudica, Queen of the British 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]
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 in the Kingdom of England on orders of King Æthelred the Unready.[2]
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 succumb to starvation 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, including women and children, 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 belonging to the university
21 October 1490	Massacre of Monzievaird	Monzievaird, Scotland	possibly 120		Clan warfare.
28 May 1644	Bolton Massacre	Bolton, England	1,600		An occurrence during the English Civil War in which Royalist Forces under Prince Rupert of the Rhine slaughtered a large population of the strongly Roundhead town of Bolton.
1646	Dunoon Massacre	Dunoon, Scotland	71		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 from 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 military during a riot.
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, England	15	400–700	Committed by the military during a large outdoor protest.
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 industrialized 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, highland troops sent to re-take 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 been reportedly 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 military then fired, shooting at least eight men.
12 August 1966	Shepherd's Bush murders	Hammersmith and Fulham, London, England	3		Three Metropolitan Police officers shot while investigating a car outside Wormwood Scrubs prison.
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 IRA
5 October 1974	Guildford pub bombings	Guildford, England	5	65	two bombs detonated in two separate Guildford pubs by the Provisional IRA 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 Provisional IRA.
16 August 1980	Denmark Place fire	Camden, London, England	37		An arson attack against a night club on Denmark Street by John Thompson, who was angry at being barred from the club for arguing with a bartender. Described as the deadliest mass murder in modern British history.
20 July 1982	Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings	Westminster, London, England	11	50	two bombs detonated at Hyde park and Regents park by Provisional IRA member Danny McNamee
17 December 1983	Harrods bombings	Westminster, London, England	6	90	a bomb detonated at the Harrods department store by the Provisional IRA
12 October 1984	Brighton hotel bombing	Brighton, England	5	31	A bombing at the Grand Brighton Hotel by Provisional IRA member Patrick Magee who was attempting to assassinate prime minister Margaret Thatcher and other Conservative party members who were staying at the hotel for the annual party conference.
19 August 1987	Hungerford massacre	Hungerford, England	16	15	A spree shooting/murder–suicide by Michael Robert Ryan.
22 September 1989	Deal barracks bombing	Deal, England	11	21	a bomb detonated at a Marine barracks by the Provisional IRA
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 wreckage of the destroyed plane fell onto the town of Lockerbie. All passengers and crew members on the flight died, and eleven people on the ground.
13 March 1996	Dunblane school massacre	Dunblane, Scotland	18	15	A school shooting/murder–suicide by Thomas Hamilton.
7 July 2005	7 July 2005 London bombings	London, England	52	700+	A series of coordinated terrorist suicide attacks occurred throughout London between 08:50-09:47 in the morning. 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 by Derrick Bird.

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. Clifford's Tower: Massacre at York (1190)
6. "The 1190 Massacre: History of York". Retrieved 2013-04-19.
7. Margolis, Max. L. and Marx, Alexander. A History of the Jewish People. (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1927.) 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