The following list of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland is a list of major disasters (excluding acts of war) which relate to the United Kingdom, Ireland or the Isle of Man, or to the states that preceded them, or that involved their citizens, in a definable incident or accident such as a shipwreck, where the loss of life was forty or more.
| data-sort-type="number" | Deaths in Italics indicate an ! | Event | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,500,000 | 1347–1350 | See discussion of death toll estimates at the death toll section | ||
| 1,000,000[1] to 1,500,000 | 1845–1849 | See discussion of death toll estimates at the death toll section | ||
| 300,000 to 480,000[2] | 1740–1741 | Some estimates indicate a death toll as high as 500,000 from starvation and disease.[3] [4] | ||
| 250,000 | 1918 (Sep–Nov) | An estimated 200,000 people died in England and Wales.[5] Although the official number of deaths in Scotland due to the pandemic is 17,575, a modern estimate of total pandemic mortality in Scotland is between 27,641 and 33,771.[6] About 20,000 died in Ireland.[7] | ||
| (estimate for UK only) | COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom and COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland | 2020–2023 | The COVID-19 pandemic caused a worldwide death toll of 6.9 million people. | |
| 200,000+[8] | 1557–1561 | From 1557 to 1559 the population contracted by 2%. | ||
| 150,000+ | 1695–99 | The last major famine to occur in Scotland. Marked by large-scale migration, especially to Ireland | ||
| 125,000[9] | 1889–1893 | Influenza pandemic originating from St Petersburg, Russia. | ||
| 100,000+ | 1485 ff. | Mysterious disease which killed tens of thousands of people in each of its five outbreaks before disappearing.[10] | ||
| 80,000[11] [12] | Hong Kong flu pandemic | 1968–1970 | Influenza pandemic. Figure for UK deaths only. | |
| 78,319+ | 1848–1854 | First cases in Edinburgh in October 1848. Major outbreaks across Britain, including the famous 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak, where John Snow was able to identify contaminated water as being the source of the disease.[13] Estimate is for deaths in Great Britain only. | ||
| 75,000+[14] | 1665–1666 | The last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. | ||
| 65,000 | 1816 | Famine and typhoid fever in Ireland[15] and food riots in England and France, caused by the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora affecting the weather. | ||
| 60,000[16] | 1847–48 influenza pandemic | 1847–1848 | Worldwide influenza outbreak. | |
| 52,627[17] | 1870–1875 Europe smallpox epidemic | 1870–1875 | Mortality figure for England and Scotland only. The epidemic started during the Franco-Prussian War, and spread throughout Europe. | |
| 41,644+[18] | 1837–1840 smallpox epidemic | 1837–1840 | Especially severe smallpox epidemic. | |
| 40,000 | 1603 London plague epidemic | 1603 | Bubonic plague epidemic in London.[19] [20] [21] | |
| 40,000[22] | 1775–1776 England Influenza outbreak | 1775–1776 | Unusually deadly influenza epidemic. | |
| 35,417 | 1625 London plague epidemic | 1625 | Bubonic plague epidemic in London.[23] | |
| 33,000 | Asian flu pandemic | 1957–1958 | Influenza pandemic which originated in Guizhou, China. | |
| 32,854 | 1831–1833 | The disease arrived in Britain from Asia in October 1831. Major outbreaks in various cities. Cases tailed off after 1833. | ||
| 23,000[24] | 1783–1784 (Jun–Feb) | Eruption of a volcano in Iceland sent a huge toxic gas cloud across Britain, killing thousands. | ||
| 20,100+ | 1563–1564 | Bubonic plague epidemic in London.[25] | ||
| 20,000 | 1235 | London badly affected; many resort to eating tree bark for survival.[26] | ||
| 19,900+ | 1592–1593 | Bubonic plague epidemic in London.[27] | ||
| 17,000+[28] | 1258 | Crop failures and famines caused by the 1257 Samalas eruption in Indonesia affecting the weather; around 15,000 die in London. | ||
| 15,785 to 16,447 | 1979–present | Approximately 12,105 had died in the UK by 1996.[29] Between 1997 and 2012, 2,450 died of AIDS-related illness in England and Wales.[30] Between 2013 and 2018, approximately 832–1,494 died because of HIV/AIDS in the UK.[31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] About 398 died in Ireland by 2005.[37] | ||
| 15,548+ | 1865–1873 | Major outbreaks in 1865 and 1866. Smaller outbreaks in Scotland in 1873. | ||
| 12,000 | Massive submarine landslides off the coast of Norway cause a huge tsunami to hit the eastern coast of Britain, killing 12,000 prehistoric Britons. This was one quarter of the entire population at the time.[38] | |||
| 8,000 | 1703 (26 November) | Atlantic hurricane across southern England and the English Channel, deaths chiefly at sea, including 1083 in naval ships wrecked on Goodwin Sands[39] | ||
| 7,600 | 1894–1895 (December–February) | An 8-week period of severe cold weather with a weekly death rate of around 950.[40] | ||
| 6,500+[41] [42] | 1729 Influenza epidemic | 1729 (September–December) | Influenza outbreak with very high mortality rates. | |
| 5,000+[43] | 1836–37 influenza pandemic | 1836–1837 | Influenza outbreak with high mortality rates. | |
| 5,000+ | 1315–1317 | |||
| 1952 (December) | ||||
| 4,000 | 1911 (July–September) | Newspapers ran "deaths from heat" columns.[44] | ||
| 3,500+ | 1782 (16–17 Sep) | Loss of HMS Ramillies, HMS Centaur; storeships Dutton and British Queen; captured French prize ships Ville de Paris, Glorieux, Hector and Caton; plus other merchantmen. | ||
| 3,200+[45] [46] | 1917–1924 | Some victims were left in a statue-like condition, and many of those who survived never returned to their pre-existing "aliveness"; it is thought that the Spanish flu pandemic, which coincided with the encephalitis pandemic, contributed to the seriousness of the disease[47] | ||
| 3,000+ | 1970s–1980s (deaths up to decades later)[48] | Importing and use of blood products known to be contaminated with HIV, Hepatitis B, C & E. People continue to die up to the present time.[49] | ||
| 3,000 | 1212 (10 July) | Source for fatalities is the Guinness Book of Records[50] but historical evidence unclear | ||
| 3,000 | 1976 (23 June – 27 August) | At the time the hottest summer in central England in 250 years[51] | ||
| 2,985 | 2022 saw five distinct extreme heat periods between 16 June and 25 August | The summer of 2022 saw the highest ever recorded temperature in England at 40.3C | ||
| 2,323[52] | 2006 (26 June – 30 July) | |||
| 2,234 [53] | 2003 (4–13 August) | |||
| 2,200 | 1880 | [54] | ||
| 2,000+ | 1540 European drought, 1540–1541 great heat and drought, 1540 also known as the 'Big Sun Year' | 1540–1541 | Heat and drought caused freshwater from the Thames to shrink to such an unprecedented extent that seawater flowed on the tide past London Bridge, polluting the water supply. The resulting dysentery and cholera killed 'thousands'.[55] | |
| 2,000 | 1607 (30 January)[56] | |||
| 1,900+ | Christmas Eve storm | 1811 (24 December) | Wrecks, and off Thorsminde, Jutland; and and the transport off Texel, Netherlands | |
| 1,550+ | 1707 (22 October) | HMS Association,, and | ||
| 1,500+ | 1381 (30 May–November) | Peasants protest against poll taxes, serfdom and the socio-economic tensions generated by the Black Death pandemic. Some march on London demanding reform, and after initial successes are brutally suppressed.[57] [58] | ||
| 1,500+ | 1912 (15 April) | Estimates vary but most official sources and historians put the death toll at upwards of 1500. | ||
| 1,200 | Strait of Gibraltar storm | 1694 (1 March) | Wrecks HMS Sussex and accompanying ships | |
| 1,198 | 1915 (7 May) | Struck by torpedo on starboard side. Sank in the Celtic Sea within 18 minutes | ||
| 1,012 | 1914 (29 May) | Canadian Pacific ship sank in Gulf of St. Lawrence, registered in UK with crew almost entirely from Merseyside | ||
| 1,000+[59] | 1692 | 200 colliers wrecked off the Norfolk coast | ||
| 1,000[60] | 1956 (December) | |||
| 1,000 | 1867 (29 October) | Up to 50 UK vessels driven ashore on Saint Thomas, Danish West Indies, including and RMS Wye (180 deaths between these)[61] | ||
| 1,000 | 1780 (10 October) | Royal Navy ships lost included HMS Stirling Castle, HMS Laurel, HMS Andromeda, HMS Thunderer and HMS Phoenix |
| data-sort-type="number" | Deaths in Italics indicate an ! | Event | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 908 | 2016 heat wave | 2016 (September) | Included the hottest September day in the UK since 1911 | |
| 900+ | Plymouth Sound storm | 1691 (3 September) | Wrecks HMS Coronation[62] and HMS Harwich[63] killing 600 + 300 respectively | |
| 900 | 1744 (3 October) | Wrecked on the Casquets in the Channel Islands | ||
| 892 | 2019 (July–August) | Temperatures were as high as 38.7C in Cambridge, the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK at the time[64] | ||
| 890+ | Quebec Expedition disaster | 1711 (22 August) | Seven transport ships and one storeship wrecked in thick fog on the Saint Lawrence River, Canada | |
| 863 | 2018 (22 June – 7 August) | |||
| 843 | explosion | 1917 (9 July) | Magazine explosion in Scapa Flow | |
| 800 | HMS Royal George capsizes | 1782 (29 August) | At Spithead | |
| 780 | 1873 (December) | The first in a series of major smog build-ups in London[65] [66] | ||
| 779[67] | 1892 (December) | Excess deaths from air pollution | ||
| 778 | 2017 heat wave | 2017 (June) | ||
| 748+ | 1859 (26 October) | The Royal Charter and other ships wrecked in Lligwy Bay, Anglesey | ||
| 738 | HMS Bulwark explosion | 1914 (26 November) | Magazine explosion off Sheerness | |
| 700 to 800[68] | 1948 (26 November – 1 December) | Excess deaths from air pollution | ||
| 699 | HMS Ramillies[69] | 1760 (15 February) | Ran aground off Bolt Head, Devon | |
| 690 | HMS Queen Charlotte fire | 1800 (17 March) | Exploded in the Tuscan Archipelago | |
| 646 | 1917 (21 February) | Rammed by SS Darro off the Isle of Wight | ||
| 640 | disaster | 1878 (3 September) | Collision with the Bywell Castle in the River Thames near Woolwich (Estimates vary, but most historians put the death toll as between 600 and 700) | |
| 635 | SS Norge shipwreck | 1904 (28 June) | Danish ship ran aground off Rockall | |
| 619 | 1995 (28 June – 22 August) | The hottest August on record in England and Wales since 1659[70] | ||
| 612 | 1816 (30 January) | Wrecks the ships,[71] Boadicea and [72] | ||
| 600+ | an unidentified troop ship | 1796 (23 January) | Shipwreck possibly one of Admiral Christian's West Indies convoy wrecked on Loe Bar, Cornwall[73] | |
| 564 | SS Utopia disaster | 1891 (17 March) | British ship carrying (mostly) Italian migrants in collision with HMS Anson off Gibraltar[74] | |
| 546 | 1873 (1 April) | White Star liner struck rocks off Nova Scotia | ||
| 540 to 760[75] | 2013 (July) | Estimate for UK deaths only | ||
| 531+ | 1623–1624 | East Lancashire badly affected;[76] said to be the last peace-time famine in England. | ||
| 531[77] | 1953 (31 Jan1 Feb) | Included the ferry MV Princess Victoria | ||
| 520 | 1749 (14 April) | Wrecked in a storm near Fort St. David, India | ||
| 500 | 1810 (22 December) | Wrecked on Haak Bank near Texel, Netherlands | ||
| 500 | "Black Monday" | 1209 (Easter Monday) | Massacre of English settlers by Irish clans, near Ranelagh, Dublin | |
| 491 | 1804 (Jan) | Struck the Inchcape rock and sank with the loss of her entire crew | ||
| 481 | 1870 (7 September) | Sank off Cape Finisterre, Spain, due to design flaws | ||
| 480 | 1854 (March) | Disappeared after leaving Liverpool for Philadelphia | ||
| 473 | 1874 (18 November) | Caught fire in the South Atlantic | ||
| 464 | 1796 (18 December) | Shipwrecked at Apes' Hill, Barbary Coast (now Monte Hacho, Ceuta, Africa)[78] | ||
| 457[79] | 2009–2010 | Global influenza pandemic, the second involving the influenza A virus subtype H1N1 after the Spanish flu | ||
| 454 | Vryheid | 1802 (23 November) | Formerly, shipwrecked in a gale off the Kent coast between Hythe and Dymchurch; 18 of 472 on board survived | |
| 450 | 1852 (25 February) | Shipwrecked near Cape Town | ||
| 450 | 1859 (26 October) | Wrecked off Dulas Bay, Anglesey | ||
| 439 | 1913 (14 October) | Gas explosion at the Universal Colliery, Senghenydd, Caerphilly, Glamorganshire, Britain's worst mining accident | ||
| 431 | 1918 (6 October) | Shipwrecked off Islay. 351 United States troops and 80 crew perished | ||
| 424 | Pomona | 1859 (30 April) | American ship carrying, mainly Irish, emigrants from Liverpool to New York, wrecked on a sandbank at Ballyconigar, off Wexford, Ireland | |
| 421 | 1915 (30 December) | Magazine explosion. Precise number of deaths disputed; 421 is highest estimate | ||
| 400+ | 1807 (20 November) | Ships carrying troops leaving Dublin for the Napoleonic Wars | ||
| 400+ | 1801 (16 March) | Sank off Norfolk while en route to the Battle of Copenhagen | ||
| 400 | 1695 (1 September) | Shipwrecked on a reef off Key Largo, Florida | ||
| 400 | Cataraqui | 1845 (4 August) | Shipwrecked off King Island (Tasmania) | |
| 384 | Annie Jane | 1853 (28 September) | Emigrant ship out of Liverpool, wrecked on Vatersay in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland | |
| 361 | 1866 (12 December) | Colliery disaster, Barnsley, Yorkshire (383 claimed but not verified)[80] | ||
| 380 | Mary Rose | 1545 (18 July) | Warship sank in action off Portsmouth | |
| 379 | 1943 (27 March) | Aircraft carrier: accidental fuel explosion in Firth of Clyde | ||
| 374 | Driver | 1856 (February) | American clipper ship carrying migrants to the US out of Liverpool, disappeared while crossing the Atlantic Ocean | |
| 372 | 1815 (30 May) | Wrecked at Waenhuiskrans, South Africa | ||
| 369[81] | Queen | 1814 (14 Jan) | Wrecked in Carrick Roads, Cornwall | |
| 360+ | 1810 (27 December) | Chartered East Indiaman wrecked off Dunkirk | ||
| 358 | 1893 (22 June) | Rammed by HMS Camperdown in the Mediterranean Sea | ||
| 352 | 1915 (27 May) | Explosion while on the River Medway, Sheerness | ||
| 349 | 1799 (5 November) | Wrecked during a storm in Table Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope[82] | ||
| 347 | 1806 (20 October) | Wrecked off Tunisia; 100 survivors crammed into the ship's launch | ||
| 344 | 1910 (21 December) | Underground explosion at the Hulton Bank Colliery, Westhoughton, Lancashire | ||
| 340 | 1805 (23 October) | Troopship wrecked on the Îles aux Mortes along the Canadian coastline while carrying troops to Quebec | ||
| 338 | 1942 (2 October) | Light cruiser run down and cut in two by north of Ireland | ||
| 335 | 1875 (7 May) | German liner wrecked off the Isles of Scilly | ||
| 329 | 1985 (23 June) | Act of terror: destroyed by a bomb, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while in Irish airspace | ||
| 317[83] | 1878 (22 March) | Sank off the Isle of Wight; commemorated by Gerard Manley Hopkins in the poem "The Loss of the Eurydice" | ||
| 316+ | Sybelle | 1834 (11 September) | Emigrant ship out of Cromarty wrecked off St. Paul Island (Nova Scotia)[84] | |
| 303[85] | 1887 (20 January) | Emigrant ship out of London, collided with the barque Ada Melmore off Brazil | ||
| 300 to 400 | 1962 London smog | 1962 (December) | ||
| 300 | White Ship | 1120 (25 November) | Shipwrecked off Barfleur, Normandy, taking the only legitimate son of King Henry I of England | |
| 300+ | 1796 (22 September) | Magazine explosion while at Plymouth, Devon | ||
| 300 | 1665 (7 March) | Accidental explosion while in the Thames Estuary | ||
| 297 | 1854 (21 January) | Shipwrecked off Lambay Island, Dublin Bay during its maiden voyage after its iron hull deflected its compass | ||
| 293 | 1873 (22 January) | Rammed at night by a Spanish steamboat while anchored off Dungeness | ||
| 290 | Albion Colliery explosion | 1894 (23 June) | Firedamp explosion at Cilfynydd in South Wales[86] [87] | |
| 285 | 1780 (2–13 June) | Rioters shot by troops | ||
| 281 | 1880 (31 January) | HMS Eurydice's sister ship, disappeared after leaving Bermuda bound for Falmouth, Cornwall | ||
| 276 | 1743 (13 June) | Shipwrecked off Annet, Isles of Scilly | ||
| 270 | 1864 (11 March) | Caused by collapse of Dale Dike Reservoir during its first filling | ||
| 270[88] | 1988 (21 December) | Blown apart at 31,000 ft over Lockerbie, Scotland, by terrorist bomb in hold | ||
| 268 | 1878 (11 September) | Mining disaster at Abercarn, Monmouthshire | ||
| 266 | 1934 (22 September) | Mining accident near Wrexham, North Wales | ||
| 260 | 1805 (5 February) | East Indiaman shipwrecked off Portland Bill | ||
| 253 | 1811 (4 December) | Shipwrecked during gale off Lough Swilly, Donegal, Ireland | ||
| 250+ | 1839 (6–7 January) | A severe windstorm sweeps across Ireland causing flooding and other damage | ||
| 250+ | 1850 (30 March) | Irish paddle steamer shipwrecked on Tongue Sands off Margate, Kent[89] | ||
| 247 | 1755 (17 July) | Shipwrecked in Algoa Bay, South Africa | ||
| 246 | 1847 (20 December) | Wrecked off the Galite Islands, Tunisia | ||
| 241 | 1847 (28 April) | Shipwrecked off Islay[90] | ||
| 240 | 1799 (9 October) | Shipwrecked off Vlieland | ||
| 238[91] | 1961 (8 April) | British-India Steam Navigation Company passenger liner evacuated in the Persian Gulf off Dubai following explosion and fire | ||
| 237 | 1863 (27 April) | Canadian ship wrecked in dense fog off Cape Race, Newfoundland, Canada on passage from Liverpool | ||
| 228 | 1797 (16 November) | Wrecked during a storm off Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada | ||
| 226 | 1915 (22 May) | Three-train collision in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, Britain's worst railway accident[92] | ||
| 224 | 1835 (13 May) | Convict ship out of Cork wrecked on reefs off King Island, Tasmania | ||
| 220 | 1866 (11 January) | Sank during gale in the Bay of Biscay[93] | ||
| 220 | 1891 (9–13 March) | Strong winds and snow across southern England lead to deaths on land and at sea[94] | ||
| 220 | 1862 (16 January) | Caused by steam engine metal fatigue, in Northumberland | ||
| 215 | Lady of the Lake | 1833 (11 May) | Struck iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank | |
| 212 | Sovereign | 1814 (18 October) | Wrecked off St. Paul Island (Nova Scotia) | |
| 210 | SS Rinaldo | 1878 (18 December) | Collision with French steamship Byzantin (which sustains most casualties) in the Dardanelles | |
| 208 | Harpooner | 1816 (10 November) | Military transport ship shipwrecked off Newfoundland | |
| 207 | 1877 (22 October) | Gas explosion in a Scottish colliery | ||
| 205 | 1860 (20 February) | A Canadian Allan Line Royal Mail Steamer out of Liverpool and Queenstown (Cobh) wrecked off Cape Sable Island (Nova Scotia)[95] | ||
| 201 | 1919 (1 January) | Admiralty yacht returning soldiers to the Isle of Lewis after World War I sank off Holm near Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides[96] |
| data-sort-type="number" | Deaths in Italics indicate an ! | Event | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 193 | 1987 (6 March) | Ferry capsized off Zeebrugge in under one minute after its RORO bow doors were left open. Unlawful killing verdict. | ||
| 192 | 1809 (22 January) | Both ships sank after hitting The Manacles.[97] | ||
| 191 | (Inman Line) | 1870 (after 28 January) | Ship out of New York City and Halifax, Nova Scotia, bound for Liverpool disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean, possibly struck an iceberg | |
| 189 | 1857 (19 February) | Colliery disaster, Wombwell, Yorkshire. | ||
| 189 | Wood Pit Colliery explosion | 1878 (7 June) | Colliery disaster, Haydock, Lancashire. The total fatalities, which included one man and all of his five sons, may have been 204 or more.[98] | |
| 189 | 1863 (7 February) | Sank off Auckland due to outdated nautical charts and shortcuts. | ||
| 189 | 1881 (14 October) | Local fishing fleet sank during a European windstorm that struck the southeast coast of Scotland. http://sites.scran.ac.uk/secf_final/danger/links/link3.php | ||
| 186 | 1887 (5 September) | Fire at the Theatre Royal, Exeter caused by gas lights. | ||
| 186 | 1856 (after 23 January) | American ship lost at sea out of Liverpool [sister ship of [[SS Arctic|SS ''Arctic'']]] | ||
| 183 | 1883 (16 June) | Crowd crush at Sunderland after a children's Variety show to get prizes and gifts resulted in compressive asphyxia and trampling. | ||
| 179 | 1870 (19 October) | Shipwrecked at Inishtrahull | ||
| 178 | 1996–2001 | Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease outbreak in the UK. Known colloquially as "mad cow disease", victims contracted the disease through eating infected beef.[99] [100] | ||
| 178 | First Ferndale Colliery disaster | 1867 (8 November) | Mining disaster in the Rhondda Valley, Glamorganshire, caused by gas accumulation and miners tampering with safety lamps | |
| 178 | Ocean Monarch | 1848 (24 August) | Shipwreck and fire off Great Orme, Llandudno caused by steerage passengers' smoking materials | |
| 178 | Clifton Hall Colliery explosion | 1885 (18 June) | Explosion of firedamp gas in a colliery at Salford | |
| 176 | 1974 (3 March) | Crashed in the Ermenonville Forest, France due to cargo door design flaw.[101] The flight was headed to London Heathrow and most of the passengers were British | ||
| 176 | Llannerch, Cwmnantddu | 1890 (6 February) | Colliery gas explosion near Pontypool, Monmouthshire after the mine refused safety lamps by its MD two months earlier | |
| 173 | Bethnal Green tube station panic | 1943 (3 March) | Crowd crush caused by British anti-aircraft battery salvo | |
| 172 | 1890 (9 November) | Royal Navy torpedo cruiser launched in 1887 shipwrecked off Camariñas, Galicia | ||
| 168 | 1909 (16 February) | Mining disaster at Stanley, County Durham | ||
| 167 | 1988 (6 July) | Oil platform gas leak, explosion and fire 30m above cold seas in the North Sea | ||
| 164 | Seaham Colliery accident | 1880 (8 September) | Mining accident at Seaham, County Durham | |
| 163[102] | 1946–1956 | Though controversially acquitted in court of the murder of a patient in 1957, Doctor John Bodkin Adams is widely suspected to have murdered around 163 of his patients over 10 years[103] | ||
| 157 | 1875 (6 December) | Shipwrecked during a blizzard on Kentish Knock sandbank, Thames Estuary. Tugboat rescue delayed until the next day, most died of hypothermia | ||
| 155 | Minnie Pit disaster | 1918 (12 January) | Mining disaster at Podmore Hall, Halmer End, Staffordshire | |
| 150 | Clifford's Tower fire massacre | 1190 (16 March) | Massacre of Jews in York by a mob | |
| 146 | Risca Blackvein Disaster | 1860 (1 December) | Coal mining disaster at Risca, Monmouthshire caused by a gas explosion | |
| 146 | 1980 (25 April) | Air traffic control instructed the plane to fly an unpublished holding pattern, which led the plane into the dangerously high terrain of Mount Esperanza, Tenerife | ||
| 146 | 1966 (21 October) | Coal-waste spoil tip collapsed onto a junior school, Glamorganshire | ||
| 143 | Swaithe Main Colliery disaster | 1875 (6 December) | Mining disaster at Worsbrough, Yorkshire | |
| 141 | 1907 (21 February) | Great Eastern Railway steamship out of Harwich wrecked off Hook of Holland | ||
| 140 | 1901 (3 December) | Ship lost with all hands in a gale off Vancouver Island | ||
| 140 | 2004 (26 December) | UK victims only; see Countries affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake | ||
| 139 | 1835 (12 April) | Convict ship wrecked in D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Tasmania | ||
| 139 | Combs Pit disaster | 1893 (4 July) | Mining disaster at Thornhill, Yorkshire | |
| 137 | National Shell Filling Factory explosion | 1918 (1 July) | Munitions explosion at Chilwell in Nottinghamshire. Eight tons of TNT exploded | |
| 136 | Wellington Pit disaster | 1910 (11 May) | Coal mining disaster at Whitehaven, Cumberland | |
| 135 | 1893 | The last outbreak of cholera in Britain took place in 1893 | ||
| 135 | 1815 (27 March) | Ship out of Bombay wrecked near Portland within sight of shore. The ship was caught in a gale and ran aground at night | ||
| 133 | 1833 (31 August) | Convict ship from Woolwich to Australia wrecked off Boulogne | ||
| 133 | 1953 (31 January) | Early roll-on/roll-off ferry disaster in the North Channel during a storm. | ||
| 131 | Lincoln typhoid fever epidemic | 1904 (November) – 1905 (April) | ||
| 130 | 1831 (18 August) | Paddle steamer from Liverpool shipwrecked in the Menai Strait under the command of a drunken captain. | ||
| 129 | 1845–1848 | HMS Erebus and HMS Terror caught in pack ice; the crews endured botulism, lead poisoning and cannibalism before starvation. | ||
| 128 | 1963 (22 December) | Caught fire and sank off Madeira. Resulted in 98 (mainly British) passenger deaths, plus 33 crew fatalities. | ||
| 128 | 1908 (25 April) | Shipwrecked in a collision with an American steamship during a snowstorm, Isle of Wight. | ||
| 125 | 1809 (22 January) | Shipwrecked on The Manacles, Cornwall. | ||
| 125 | 1905 (18 November) | London & South Western Railway steamship wrecked in snow squalls off Saint-Malo. | ||
| 124 | 1966 (5 March) | Aircraft broke up in flight near Mount Fuji, Japan. A significant percentage of the fatalities were American and Japanese citizens. | ||
| 124 | 1883 (3 July) | Capsized during her ship naming and launching, River Clyde, Glasgow. | ||
| 123 | Ocean Queen | 1856 (February) | Clipper ship out of London disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean. | |
| 121 | 1857 (20 August) | Clipper out of Plymouth wrecked at Sydney Cove, Australia. | ||
| 120 | New Risca pit explosion | 1880 (5 July) | Coal mining disaster, Risca, Monmouthshire. | |
| 120+ | 1857 (15 July) | Massacre of European women and children at Cawnpore (Kanpur), India during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. | ||
| 119 | National Colliery explosion | 1905 (11 July) | Coal mine explosion at Wattstown, Rhondda Valley, Glamorganshire. | |
| 118 | 1972 (18 June) | Crashed into a field at Staines. Possible heart attack suffered by the pilot after takeoff. | ||
| 114 | Cymmer Colliery explosion | 1856 (15 July) | Coal mine explosion at Cymmer, Porth, Glamorganshire. | |
| 112 | Parc Slip Colliery gas explosion | 1892 (26 August) | Gas explosion due to a damaged Davy lamp, Tondu, Glamorganshire | |
| 112 | 1899 (30 March) | London & South Western Railway steamship wrecked on a granite reef in fog at full speed, sinking in 8 minutes, at the Casquets, Channel Islands. | ||
| 112 | 1952 (8 October) | Three trains collided in patchy fog in morning rush hour. Death toll second only to Quintinshill rail crash.[104] | ||
| 112 | 1970 (3 July) | De Havilland Comet crashed into a mountain in Catalonia, Spain | ||
| 111 | 1962 (4 March) | Crashed after take-off from Douala, Cameroon | ||
| 110 [105] | 1852 (4 January) | Steam engine of a wooden mail paddle steamer caught fire in the Bay of Biscay | ||
| 109 | Faversham gunpowder mill explosion | 1916 (2 April) | ||
| 108 | 1973 (10 April) | Crashed into a forested, snowy hillside near Hochwald, Switzerland | ||
| 106 | 1898 (14 October) | Shipwrecked off The Manacles, Cornwall | ||
| 104 | William Pit disaster | 1947 (15 August) | Coal mining disaster at Whitehaven, Cumberland[106] | |
| 104 | 1800 (26 January) | Shipwrecked off Newhaven, Sussex. | ||
| 102 | 1793 (20 March) | Sank in the River Mersey. | ||
| 102 | 1711 (7 October) | Shipwrecked off Scatarie Island, Louisbourg, Nova Scotia. | ||
| 102 | Wallsend Colliery explosion | 1835 (18 June) | Colliery explosion, Wallsend, Northumberland.[107] | |
| 101 | Naval Steam Colliery explosion | 1880 (10 December) | Colliery explosion, Tonypandy, Rhondda Valley. 4 bodies unidentified.[108] | |
| 100+ | 1748 (27 February) | Wrecked on the Seven Stones reef.[109] | ||
| 100 to 240[110] [111] | 1957 (10 October) (deaths up to decades later) | One of the world's worst nuclear accidents.[112] Radioactive material released, causing many local cancer deaths in the long term.[113] Number of deaths disputed. | ||
| 100 | 1918 (31 January – 1 February) | Two Royal Navy submarines sunk after collisions during naval exercise | ||
| 100 | 1848 (19 August) | Open hulled fishing fleet storm disaster | ||
| 100 | HMS Confiance | 1822 (21 September) | 36-gun, 393 ton brig sloop was wrecked between Mizen Head and Three Castles Head, at the south-westernmost point of Ireland | |
| 100[114] | Avalanche | 1877 (11 September) | Ship out of London for Wellington, New Zealand, collided with American Forest Queen off Isle of Portland, English Channel, both sinking, with a further 20+ casualties from the Forest Queen |
| data-sort-type="number" | Deaths Italics indicate an ! | Event | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99 | 1809 (16 August) | Over-laden ferryboat sank in Dornoch Firth, Scotland | ||
| 99 | HMS Thetis submarine disaster | 1939 (1 June) | Flooded through torpedo tube during pre-war sea trials, Liverpool Bay, salvaged but sunk by depth charges with all hands in 1943 | |
| 98 | 1850 (19 November) | A chartered passenger sailing vessel sunk at Edmond Point in Kilkee, County Clare with 216 on board | ||
| 98 | 1966 (1 September) | Britannia Airways Bristol Britannia G-ANBB from Luton Airport, aircrash at Ljubljana | ||
| 97 | 1989 (15 April) | 97 people died after being crushed against perimeter fencing after thousands of people tried to enter the stadium through a narrow tunnel | ||
| 95 | Haswell Colliery explosion | 1844 (28 September) | County Durham | |
| 95 | "Fatal Vespers" | 1623 (26 October) | Floor collapse at house in Blackfriars, London, being used as a chapel | |
| 94 | Carlingford Lough disaster | 1916 (3 November) | and a coalship SS Retriever collided and sank, Carlingford Lough, County Down | |
| 93 | 1355 (10–12 February) | A "town and gown" dispute over beer escalates over three days | ||
| 92 | Felling mine disaster, County Durham | 1812 (25 May) | ||
| 91 | Carrick-on-Suir disaster | 1799 (9 February) | Barge capsize under bridge, in Ireland[115] | |
| 91 | 1912 (9 July) | Two underground coal mine explosions at Cadeby, South Yorkshire | ||
| 90 | Lewisham rail crash | 1957 (4 December) | Railway signals missed in the rush hour fog | |
| 88 | 1889 (12 June) | 10 runaway railway passenger cars on a Sunday School day trip | ||
| 88 | 1967 Air Ferry DC-4 accident, | 1967 (3 June) | Douglas C-54 G-APYK, from Kent International Airport, Mont Canigou, France | |
| 87 | 1890 (10 March) | Glamorganshire, Colliery gas explosion | ||
| 86 | 1922 (20 May) | |||
| 85 | Rohilla | 1914 (30 October) | Ran aground off Whitby, with a survivor of the sinking of the two years earlier rescued again | |
| 84 | 1964 (29 February) | International Airlines aircrash Bristol Britannia G-AOVO from Heathrow Airport, Innsbruck, Austria, | ||
| 84 | 1810 (10 November) | Canal pleasure boat capsize, Paisley, Scotland | ||
| 83 | 1901 (24 May) | Glamorganshire, Colliery gas explosion, precursor to the 1913 disaster | ||
| 81 | 1885 (23 December) | Glamorganshire, mining disaster | ||
| 81 | 1951 (29 May) | County Durham, coal mine explosion, | ||
| 81 | 1852 (5 February) | Bilberry Reservoir collapsed, Holme Valley, West Yorkshire | ||
| 80+ | 1853 (15 February) | |||
| 80 | 1950 (12 March) | Fairflight Avro Tudor G-AKBY, Sigginstone, Glamorganshire, with returning Welsh Rugby Union supporters on board (highest confirmed death toll of any civil aviation disaster up to that date) | ||
| 80 | 1950 (26 September) | Mining accident caused by smoke inhalation, Creswell, Derbyshire | ||
| 79 | 1846 (2 May) | Collapse above a river, killing children watching a clown | ||
| 79 | 1874 (23 May) | |||
| 79 | 1918 (16 September) | Wrecked by accidental explosion, Dover harbour | ||
| 79 | 1938 (10 May) | |||
| 78 | Burwell, Cambridgeshire Barn fire | 1727 (8 September) | Occurred during a puppet show with the doors nailed shut | |
| 77 | Ocean Home | 1856 (5 September) | American ship sinks after collision with Cherubim off Lizard Point, Cornwall | |
| 77 | 1895 (14 January) | Inrush of water into Diglake Colliery, North Staffordshire | ||
| 76 | 1896–1926 | Series of outbreaks across Britain and Ireland as part of a pandemic, with Glasgow and Suffolk being particularly badly affected (the last death of plague in Britain occurred in 1926)[116] [117] | ||
| 76 | 1908 (18 August) | Underground explosion at Abram, Lancashire | ||
| 75 | 1879 (28 December) | |||
| 75 | 1951 (17 April) | Mysterious submarine disaster in English Channel | ||
| 75 | 1972 (11 May) | A Houlder Line cargo liner, destroyed by fire after a collision with Liberian-registered tanker Tien Chee in the Rio de la Plata | ||
| 74 | 1893 (19 February) | Lost at sea, possibly due to iceberg strike off Nova Scotia, out of Liverpool, with no Wireless Telegraph to make a distress call | ||
| 73 | 1887 (28 May) | Hamilton, Scotland, firedamp explosion | ||
| 73 | 1917 (19 January) | Explosion in a TNT factory in West Ham https://web.archive.org/web/20110927122816/http://www.lalamy.demon.co.uk/sivex.htm | ||
| 72 | 1967 (4 June) | British Midland Airways Argonaut G-ALHG, an unrecognised flaw in the fuel system made the plane returning from Majorca uncontrollable. | ||
| 72 | 2017 (14 June) | Residential tower block in North Kensington, London[118] | ||
| 71 | 1929 (31 December) | Paisley, Scotland[119] | ||
| 70+ | 1900 | 6,000 people poisoned by consuming arsenic-tainted beer, with Manchester being the worst affected area[120] | ||
| 70 | 1871 (10 February) | Bridlington 100 shipwrecks, incl. Royal National Lifeboat Harbinger, plus other losses at sea, estimated total of 70 marine fatalities | ||
| 70 | 1944 (27 November) | Munitions explosion during World War II, Staffordshire[121] | ||
| 69 | 1925 (12 November) | Submarine wreck in collision with Swedish surface vessel off Plymouth | ||
| 69[122] | 1882 (16 February) | Underground explosion in County Durham | ||
| 67 | 2001 (11 September) | [UK victims only] | ||
| 66 | 1967 (12 October) | Off Rhodes [all nationalities] http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19671012-0&lang=en | ||
| 66 | 1971 (2 January) | Compressive asphyxia spectator crush on stairway at Ibrox Park football stadium, Glasgow | ||
| 65 | Theatre Royal, Dunlop Street, Glasgow | 1849 (17 February) | Panic ensuing from a false fire alarm | |
| 65 | Cherokee class brig-sloop HMS Jasper | 1817 (20 January) | Wrecked in hurricane-force winds on either Rame Head, Cornwall or Bear's Head, Mount Batten, Devon[123] | |
| 64 | Middle Duffryn Mine | 1852 (14 May) | Colliery explosion near Aberdare, Glamorganshire[124] | |
| 64 | 1841 (5 July) | John and William overturns on launch near Rotherham[125] | ||
| 64 | 1950 (12 January) | Submarine collision on the surface, Thames Estuary, survivors died of hypothermia on mid-winter mudbanks | ||
| 63 | 1976 (10 September) | Mid-air collision with Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 550 above Zagreb, caused by ATC error[126] | ||
| 63 | 1896 (30 April) | |||
| 63 | 1851 (15 March) | Explosion[127] | ||
| 63 | 1893 (11 April) | Rhondda Valley Colliery mining disaster, South Wales | ||
| 63 | BEA Flight 706 aircrash | 1971 (2 October) | A Vickers Vanguard G-APEC flight 706, Aarsele, Belgium | |
| 63 | 1889 (5 September) | Underground fire, Penicuik, Scotland[128] | ||
| 63 | 1879 (13 January) | Colliery gas explosion at Llantrisant, Rhondda Valley, Glamorganshire[129] | ||
| 62 | 1825 (21 October) | Sank in collision off Gourock, Scotland | ||
| 61 | 1841 (4 January) | Steamship shipwrecked in a night-time storm, Isles of Scilly | ||
| 61 | 1944 (23 August) | A USAAF Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber crashed into a village school in a storm, Freckleton, Lancashire, (3 aircrew, 58 ground fatalities) | ||
| 60+ | 1807 (18 April) | A 'grossly overladen' coastal vessel capsizes while transporting soldiers and their families | ||
| 60 | Dalhousie | 1853(October) | "Blackwall frigate" sank off Beachy Head | |
| 60 | 1932 (26 January) | Floods through her Parnall Peto seaplane hangar doors, Lyme Bay | ||
| 58 | 1936 (6 August) | Underground explosion caused by an electrical fault | ||
| 58 | Garland of Topsham | 1649 (30 January) | A vessel carrying Charles I's possessions wrecked on Godrevy Island, Cornwall[130] | |
| 57 | 1896 (27 January) | Rhondda Valley Colliery mining disaster, South Wales | ||
| 57 | 1942 (1 January) | |||
| 57 | 1921 (24 January) | A submarine sank in deep water, 120 miles south-west of the Isles of Scilly during sea trials | ||
| 56 | 1985 (11 May) | Bradford City A.F.C.'s Valley Parade stadium caught fire after a discarded cigarette set fire to rubbish underneath the wooden stands | ||
| 56 | 2005 (7 July) | By suicide bombers on public transport | ||
| 55 | 1985 (22 August) | |||
| 53 | Second Ferndale Colliery disaster | 1869 (10 June) | Explosion in Rhondda Valley, Glamorganshire | |
| 53 | 1854 (6 October) | Firestorm and explosion | ||
| 52 | 1849 (10 August) | Underground explosion, Aberdare, South Wales[131] | ||
| 52 | Yellow fever outbreak, | 1861 (July) | West Indies[132] | |
| 52 | 1878 (1 June) | A clipper out of Gravesend, Kent, wrecked off Loch Ard Gorge, just off the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria, Australia in thick fog | ||
| 52 | 1884 (22 September) | |||
| 52 | 1927 (1 March) | Gwm near Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, coal mine disaster | ||
| 51 | Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum fire, London | 1903 (27 January) | In an early psychiatric hospital holding up to 3,500 patients | |
| 51 | 1989 (20 August) | A pleasure boat rammed by a dredger under a bridge | ||
| 51 | St Hilda Colliery, South Shields, coal pit explosion | 1839 (28 June) | [133] | |
| 50+ | 1962–63 | One of the coldest winters on record in the United Kingdom. The river Thames froze solid[134] | ||
| 50 | Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 aircrash | 1969 (5 January) | ||
| 50 | 1973 (2 August) | |||
| 50 | 1979 (8 January) | Explosion of oil tanker Betelguese in Bantry Bay, Ireland | ||
| 49? | 1854 (30 November) | All the crew and passengers died when she hit The Stones reef off Godrevy Head, Cornwall; leading to building of the lighthouse[135] | ||
| 49 | 1941 (31 October) | Fire at a major clothing factory in Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire[136] | ||
| 49 | HMS Punjabi collision with the battleship | 1942 (1 May) | Sinking 469 miles north-west of Shetland. | |
| 49 | 1967 (5 November) | In London, a broken rail caused derailment of an express train | ||
| 48 | 1981 (14 February) | A nightclub fire in Artane, Dublin, 841 people had attended a disco there, of whom 48 died and 214 were injured as a result of the fire | ||
| 48 | 1968 (9 August) | |||
| 47[137] | 1990 (25 January) | Violent storm that started on Burns' day and affected north-western Europe, hurricane-force winds in some areas | ||
| 47 | Emma | 1828 (29 February) | Capsizes after launching, Mersey and Irwell Navigation, Manchester[138] | |
| 47 | 1862 (19 February) | First of two underground colliery explosions at Abercanaid, near Merthyr Tydfil. South Wales | ||
| 47 | R101 airship crash | 1930 (5 October) | Beauvais, France | |
| 47 | 1947(23 April) | Wrecked off Sker Point in the Bristol Channel (death toll includes 8 crew of Mumbles lifeboat) | ||
| 47 | Auchengeich coal mining disaster | 1959 (18 September) | ||
| 47 | 1989 (8 January) | British Midland Flight 92, Leicestershire, the pilot shut down the wrong engine (just missed the M1 Motorway) | ||
| 47 | 1973 (5 March) | [British victims only] Two aircraft heading to London Heathrow collided due to ATC error.[139] | ||
| 46 | 1865 (14 January) | (39 fatalities) and lifeboat crew (7 fatalities) in Liverpool Bay | ||
| 45 | 1931 (20 November) | |||
| 45 | 1960 (28 June) | |||
| 45 | 1957 (15 November) | |||
| 45 | 1986 (6 November) | A Brent oilfield CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed at sea | ||
| 45 | 1860 (28 February) | An Irish steamer sank off St David's Head | ||
| 45 | 1927 (27 October) | A strong gale killed 45 fishermen off the coast of County Galway | ||
| 44 | R38 (ZR-2) airship crash | 1921 (24 August) | ||
| 44 | 1980 (9 September) | Bibby Line bulk carrier sank during Typhoon Orchid, south of Japan (by tonnage the largest UK-flagged ship loss) | ||
| 43 | 1937 (October–December) | Outbreak originating from a polluted chalk water well; 341 cases[140] | ||
| 43 | 1945 (30 September) | Derailment taking crossover at speed near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire; driver had worked for 26 consecutive days | ||
| 43 | 1975 (28 February) | London Underground train runs at speed into dead-end tunnel in the morning rush hour | ||
| 41 | 1965 (6 July) | |||
| 40 | Garden Pit Disaster | 1844 (14 February) | 40 men and boys are crushed or drowned when water from the River Cleddau broke through the roof of their coalmine at Landshipping, Pembrokeshire, Wales[141] | |
| 40 | Regent's Park ice-skating disaster | 1867 (15 January) | Ice covering the boating lake collapsed and 200 people plunged in[142] | |
| 40 | 1916 (21 August) | Explosion at a picric acid plant producing explosives for the war effort in the First World War[143] | ||
. Daniel Defoe. A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain. 1727.