1939 in the United Kingdom
Events from the year 1939 in the United Kingdom. This year sees the start of the Second World War, ending the Interwar period.
| 1939 in the United Kingdom |
| Other years |
| 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 |
| Constituent countries of the United Kingdom |
| Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales |
| Popular culture |
Incumbents
- Monarch – George VI
- Prime Minister – Neville Chamberlain (Coalition)
- Parliament – 37th
Events
January–June
- 2 January – The all-time highest attendance for a British association football league game is set as 118,567 people watch Rangers beat Celtic in an "Old Firm derby" played at Ibrox Park in Glasgow.[1]
- 4 February – The Irish Republican Army bombs two London Underground stations, Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square, injuring seven, two seriously.[2][3]
- 25 February – The first Anderson shelter is built in London.[4]
- 27 February – Borley Rectory, a reputed haunted house in Essex, is destroyed by fire.[4]
- 31 March – Britain pledges support to Poland in the event of an invasion.[5]
- 4 April – The Royal Armoured Corps is formed.
- 11 April – The Women's Royal Naval Service is re-established.[6]
- 27 April – The Military Training Act (coming into force 3 June) introduces conscription; men aged 20 and 21 must undertake six months military training.[7]
- May–September –The Sutton Hoo treasure – an Anglo-Saxon ship burial – is excavated. On 28 July the Sutton Hoo helmet is uncovered. The principal treasures are presented to the British Museum by the landowner, Edith Pretty, at this time its largest ever gift from a living donor.[8]
- 6 May – Dorothy Garrod is elected to the Disney Professorship of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge, the first woman to hold an Oxbridge chair.[9]
- 15 May – The film Goodbye, Mr. Chips is released, for which actor Robert Donat will win the Academy Award for Best Actor.
- 17 May – George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive in Quebec City to begin the first-ever visit to Canada by a reigning British sovereign.
- 1 June – The submarine HMS Thetis sinks during trials in Liverpool Bay. 99 men are lost.[10]
- 7 June – George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit New York City on the first visit to the United States by a reigning British sovereign.[4]
- 14 June–20 August – Tientsin Incident: the Imperial Japanese Army blockades British trading settlements in the north China treaty port of Tientsin.
- 28 June – The Women's Auxiliary Air Force is created, absorbing the forty-eight RAF companies of the Auxiliary Territorial Service which have been formed since 1938.[11]
- 30 June – The Mersey Ferry stops running to Rock Ferry.[4]
July–September
- 1 July – Women's Land Army re-formed to work in agriculture.[12]
- 8 July – the Pan American Airways Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper inaugurates the world's first heavier-than-air North Atlantic air passenger service between the United States and Britain (Southampton).
- 26 July – the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham, designed by Robert Atkinson, is officially opened by Queen Mary.[13][14]
- 5 August – weekly transatlantic flights scheduled by Imperial Airways; suspended in September.[5]
- 15 August – first personnel of the Government Code and Cypher School move to Bletchley Park.
- 19 August – Sir Malcolm Campbell sets the water speed record in Blue Bird K4 on Coniston Water.
- 23 August–2 September – most paintings from the National Gallery in London are evacuated to Wales.[15]
- 24 August – as details of the previous day's Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact become public, Parliament is recalled several weeks early; the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 gives full authority to defence regulations,[5] Army reservists are called up and Civil Defence workers placed on alert.
- 25 August – 1939 Coventry bombing: An Irish Republican Army bomb explodes in Coventry, killing 5 and injuring 70.[16]
- 30 August – Royal Navy proceeds to war stations.
- 1 September
- "Operation Pied Piper": 4-day evacuation of children from London and other major U.K. cities begins.[17]
- Blackout imposed across Britain.[5]
- The Army is officially mobilised.
- The BBC Home Service begins broadcasting[4] but BBC Television shuts down at 12:35 p.m. until 1946.
- 2 September – British Expeditionary Force headquarters formed.
- 3 September – World War II
- Declaration of war by the United Kingdom on Nazi Germany following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September.[4] Shortly after 11.00, Chamberlain announces this news on BBC Radio, speaking from 10 Downing Street. Twenty minutes later, air raid sirens sound in London (a false alarm). Chamberlain creates a small War Cabinet which includes Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty.
- General mobilisation of the armed services begins. The signal "Total Germany" is sent to ships.
- National Service (Armed Forces) Act passed by Parliament introduces National Service for all men aged 18 to 41.[18]
- British liner SS Athenia becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-30 between Rockall and Tory Island. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew are killed.[19]
- In the week beginning today 400,000 pets are euthanised.[20]
- 4 September – first bombing of Wilhelmshaven in World War II by Royal Air Force Vickers Wellingtons.
- 5 September – National Registration Act.[21]
- 9 September – British Expeditionary Force crosses to France.[5]
- 10 September – British submarine HMS Triton torpedoes and sinks another British submarine, HMS Oxley, believing her to be a German U-boat, with the loss of 52 crew.
- 16 September – the Duke of Windsor is appointed a major-general attached to the British Military Mission to France.[22]
- 17 September – aircraft carrier HMS Courageous is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-29 in the Western Approaches with the loss of 519 crew, the first British warship loss of the War.
- 18 September – Fascist politician William Joyce, at this time holding a British passport, begins broadcasting Nazi propaganda from Berlin, inheriting the nickname Lord Haw-Haw.[4]
- 19 September – popular radio comedy show It's That Man Again with Tommy Handley first broadcast on the BBC Home service, following trial broadcasts from 12 July.[5][23] Known as "ITMA", it runs for ten years.
- 24 September – petrol rationing introduced.[5]
- 26 September – flying from HMS Ark Royal in the North Sea, Lieutenant B. S. McEwen of the Fleet Air Arm scores the first British victory over a German aircraft of the war, shooting down a flying boat. The aircraft carrier comes under air attack but survives.[24]
- 27 September – first war tax is revealed by the Cabinet, including a significant rise in income taxes.
- 29 September – national register of citizens compiled to support the introduction of identity cards and rationing.[21]
- 30 September – Identity cards introduced.[5]
October–December
- 1 October – call-up proclamation: All men aged 20–21 must register with the military authorities.
- 7 October – Cruiser HMS Emerald departs Plymouth in convoy for Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying £2M in gold bar to be used for purchase of military materiel in North America, a predecessor of Operation Fish.[25]
- 14 October – HMS Royal Oak sunk by a German U-boat in Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands with the loss of 833 crew.[4]
- 16 October – first enemy aircraft shot down by RAF Fighter Command, a Junkers Ju 88 brought down into the sea by Spitfires following an attack on Rosyth Naval Dockyard in Scotland.[26]
- 17 October – first bomb lands in the U.K., at Hoy in the Orkney Islands.[27]
- 21 October – registration of men aged 20 to 23 for National Service begins.[18]
- 30 October – British battleship HMS Nelson is unsuccessfully attacked by U-56 under the command of captain Wilhelm Zahn off Orkney and is hit by three torpedoes, none of which explode; Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty), Admiral of the Fleet Dudley Pound (First Sea Lord) and Admiral Charles Forbes (Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet) are on board.[28]
- 4 November – Stewart Menzies is appointed head of the Secret Intelligence Service.
- 8 November – Venlo Incident: two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.
- 23 November – British armed merchantman HMS Rawalpindi is sunk in the GIUK gap in an action against the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
- 24 November – British Overseas Airways Corporation formed by merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. effective from 1 April 1940.
- 4 December
- HMS Nelson strikes a mine (laid by U-31) off the coast of Scotland and is laid up for repairs until August 1940.
- German submarine U-36 is torpedoed and sunk by British submarine HMS Salmon off Stavanger, the first enemy submarine lost to a British one during the War.
- 9 December – first soldier of the British Expeditionary Force killed: Corporal Thomas Priday triggers a French land mine.
- 12 December – escorting destroyer HMS Duchess (H64) sinks after a collision with battleship HMS Barham (04) off the Mull of Kintyre in heavy fog with the loss of 124 men.[29]
- 13 December – the Battle of the River Plate takes place between HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles and the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee,[4] forcing the latter to scuttle herself on 17 December.
- 18 December – Battle of the Heligoland Bight: RAF Bomber Command, on a daylight mission to attack Kriegsmarine ships in the Heligoland Bight, is repulsed by Luftwaffe fighter aircraft.
- December – Pilgrim Trust establishes Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, predecessor of the Arts Council.
Publications
- H. E. Bates' short story collection My Uncle Silas.
- Joyce Carey's novel Mister Johnson.
- James Hadley Chase's thriller No Orchids for Miss Blandish.
- Agatha Christie's novels Murder Is Easy and And Then There Were None.
- Henry Green's novel Party Going.
- Aldous Huxley's novel After Many a Summer.
- Richard Llewellyn's novel How Green Was My Valley.
- Jan Struther's short story collection Mrs. Miniver.
- Poetry London: a Bi-Monthly of Modern Verse and Criticism, founded by Tambimuttu, first published (January/February).
Births
- 8 January – Alan Wilson, mathematician and academic
- 15 January – Neil Cossons, industrial archaeologist and museum director
- 20 January – Chandra Wickramasinghe, Ceylonese-born British astronomer and poet
- 29 January – Tony Green, sportscaster
- 5 February – Derek Wadsworth, jazz trombonist and composer (died 2008)
- 10 February – Peter Purves, actor and television presenter
- 20 February – Frank Arundel, footballer (died 1994)
- 3 March – Bill Frindall, cricket statistician (died 2009)
- 9 March – John Howard Davies, child screen actor and television comedy director (died 2011)
- 23 March
- Robin Herd, engineer and businessman (d. 2019)
- Terry Paine, footballer
- 17 March – Robin Knox-Johnston, yachtsman
- 5 April – David Winters, English-American actor, choreographer and director (died 2019)
- 7 April – David Frost, television personality (died 2013)[30]
- 10 April – Penny Vincenzi, novelist (died 2018)[31]
- 12 April – Alan Ayckbourn, playwright
- 13 April – Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (died 2013)[32]
- 22 April
- Mark Jones, actor (died 2010)
- Alex Murphy, rugby league footballer and coach
- Ann Mitchell, English actress
- 4 May – Neil Fox, rugby league footballer
- 7 May – David Hatch, radio broadcaster and actor (died 2007)
- 10 May – Bill Cash, English lawyer and politician
- 31 May – Terry Waite, humanitarian, author and hostage
- 5 June – Margaret Drabble, novelist and biographer
- 8 June – Francis Jacobs, English lawyer and judge
- 11 June
- Rachael Heyhoe Flint, England cricketer (died 2017)
- Jackie Stewart, Scottish racing driver
- 14 June – Peter Mayle, writer (died 2018)
- 19 June – Michael Standing, actor
- 26 June – Arthur Sutton, cricketer
- 30 June – Tony Hatch, musical theatre and television composer
- 2 July – Ferdinand Mount, journalist and novelist
- 7 July – Stanley Henig, academic and politician
- 10 July – John Dunlop, racehorse trainer (died 2018)
- 15 July – Reg Pridmore, motorcycle road racing national champion
- 16 July – Corin Redgrave, actor and political activist (died 2010)
- 17 July – Spencer Davis, Welsh beat musician, multi-instrumentalist (The Spencer Davis Group) (died 2020 in the United States)
- 18 July – Brian Auger, jazz and rock keyboardist
- 22 July – Robert Phelps, modern pentathlete
- 4 August – Jack Cunningham, politician
- 11 August – Naseem Khan, journalist (died 2017)
- 15 August – Bill Wratten, air marshal
- 16 August – Carole Shelley, actress (died 2018)
- 19 August
- Alan Baker, mathematician (died 2018)[33]
- Ginger Baker, rock drummer (died 2019)
- 30 August – John Peel, né Ravenscroft, disc jockey and radio presenter (died 2004)
- 12 September – John Pearse, guitarist (died 2008)
- 19 September – Louise Botting, businesswoman and radio presenter
- 25 September – Leon Brittan, politician (died 2015)
- 26 September - Ricky Tomlinson, Actor
- 27 September – Nicholas Haslam, interior designer
- 29 September – Rhodri Morgan, Welsh politician (died 2017)
- 6 October – Melvyn Bragg, media arts presenter, critic and novelist
- 7 October – Harry Kroto, organic chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (died 2016)
- 19 October – David Clark, Baron Clark, Scottish politician
- 23 October – Peter Armitage, English actor (died 2018)
- 24 October – John Adye, intelligence officer
- 25 October – Dave Simmonds, road racer (died 1972)
- 27 October – John Cleese, comic actor
- 4 November – Michael Meacher, politician (died 2015).[34]
- 8 November – Elizabeth Dawn, actress (died 2017)
- 11 November – Alf Adams, physicist
- 12 November – Terry McDonald, footballer and coach
- 16 November – Michael Billington, drama critic
- 17 November – Auberon Waugh, journalist (died 2001)
- 18 November
- Bill Giles, weather forecaster
- Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington, née Callaghan, politician
- Ian McCulloch, actor
- 16 December – Gordon Miller, Olympic high jumper
- 20 December – Tony Bentley, footballer
- 26 December – Carol M. Black, physician and academic
Deaths
- 9 January – Edwin Farley, mayor (born 1864)
- 2 March – Howard Carter, archaeologist (born 1874)
- 18 April – Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, patron and promoter of women's interests (born 1857)[35]
- 9 May – Sophie Williams, previously Mary, Lady Heath, aviator and athlete (born 1896)
- 25 June – Richard Seaman, racing driver (car crash) (born 1913)
- 26 June – Ford Madox Ford, novelist, poet, critic and editor (born 1873)
- 20 July – Sir Dan Godfrey, conductor (born 1868)[36]
- 6 September – Arthur Rackham, illustrator (born 1867)
- 13 September – Henry Halcro Johnston, botanist, physician, rugby union international and Deputy Lieutenant for Orkney (born 1856)
- 18 September - Gwen John, artist (born 1876)[37]
- 19 September – Ethel M. Dell, romantic fiction writer (born 1881)
- 26 September - Leif Jones, politician (born 1862)[38]
- 3 December – Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, daughter of Queen Victoria (born 1848)
- 19 December – Eric Fogg, composer and conductor (killed by train) (born 1903)[39]
See also
References
- "Old Firm's enduring appeal". FIFA.com. FIFA. 16 April 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
The clubs [Celtic and Rangers] also hold the British record attendance for a league match - 118,567 at Ibrox on 2 January 1939
- Bodwen, Tom (1976). "The IRA and the changing tactics of terrorism". Political Quarterly. 47 (4): 425–437. doi:10.1111/j.1467-923X.1976.tb02203.x.
- "London Bomb Outrages". The Times (48221). London. 4 February 1939. col D, p. 12.
- Penguin Pocket OnThis Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 385–386. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- Fletcher, Marjorie H. (1989). The WRNS: a history of the Women's Royal Naval Service. London: Batsford. p. 90. ISBN 0-7134-6185-3.
- "WW2 People's War Timeline, BBC". Retrieved 2 March 2008.
- Libraries and Culture, Stanley Chodorow
- Callander, Jane (2004). "Garrod, Dorothy Annie Elizabeth (1892–1968)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37443. Retrieved 14 February 2011. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
- Warren, C. E. T.; Benson, James (1958). "The Admiralty regrets ...": the story of His Majesty's submarine Thetis and Thunderbolt. London: Harrap.
- Narracot, A.H. (1941). "9 – Woman in Blue". How The R.A.F. Works. Frederick Muller Ltd. p. 108 (n115). Retrieved 30 July 2009.
- Twinch, Carol (1990). Women on the Land: their story during two World Wars. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press. p. 67. ISBN 0-7188-2814-3.
- Spencer-Longhurst, Paul (2004). "Atkinson, Robert (1883–1952)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38347. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
- "The Barber Institute: A Cultural Centre For Birmingham". The Times (48366). London. 25 July 1939. p. 17.
- Bosman, Suzanne (2008). The National Gallery in Wartime. London: National Gallery Company. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-85709-424-4.
- Scott, Jenny (25 August 2014). "Coventry IRA bombing: The 'forgotten' attack on a British city". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
- Clouting, Laura. "The Evacuated Children of the Second World War". London: Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
- "Conscription". Spartacus Educational. Archived from the original on 18 February 2002. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
- Brennecke, Jochen (2003). The Hunters and the Hunted. Naval Institute Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 1-59114-091-9.
- Kean, Hilda (2017). The Great Cat and Dog Massacre. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-31832-5.
- "1939: An emergency population count in wartime". 2011 Census. 2011. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
- Matthew, H. C. G. (2004). "Edward VIII, later Prince Edward, duke of Windsor (1894–1972)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31061. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- "The BBC Story – 1930s" (PDF). Retrieved 31 May 2010.
- Sturtivant, Ray (1990). British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917-1990. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 33–34. ISBN 0-87021-026-2.
- Draper, Alfred (1979). Operation Fish: The Fight to Save the Gold of Britain, France and Norway from the Nazis. Don Mills: General Publishing. ISBN 9780773600683.
- Duncan, George. "Lesser-Known Facts of World War II". Retrieved 19 January 2012.
- Doyle, Peter (2010). ARP and Civil Defence in the Second World War. Oxford: Shire Publications. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-7478-0765-0.
- Flower, Stephen (2011). No Phoney War. Stroud: Amberley. ISBN 978-1-84868-960-2.
- English, John (1993). Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. Kendal: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-64-9.
- Jeffries, Stuart (1 September 2013). "Sir David Frost obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
- "Penny Vincenzi: 'I never plot what will happen'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
- Cocoran, Neil (30 August 2013). "Seamus Heaney obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
- Wüstholz, Gisbert (9 April 2018). "Alan Baker obituary". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
- Steven, Alasdair (22 October 2015). "Obituary: Michael Meacher, politician". The Scotsman. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
- Ewan, Elizabeth; Pipes, Rose; Rendall, Jane; Reynolds, Siân (eds.). The new biographical dictionary of Scottish women. Edinburgh University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9781474436281.
- Sean Street; Ray Carpenter (1 January 1993). The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, 1893-1993: a centenary celebration. Dovecote Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-874336-10-5.
- Gwen John; Michael Holroyd; Anthony d'Offay (Firm) (1982). Gwen John, 1876-1939. Anthony d'Offay.
- Llewelyn Gwyn Chambers. "Jones, Leifchild Stratten (1862-1939), Liberal politician and temperance advocate". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- The Listener. British Broadcasting Corporation. July 1939. p. 1270.
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