1943 in the United Kingdom
Encyclopedia
Events from the year 1943 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. This year is dominated by World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Incumbents

  • MonarchKing George VI
    George VI of the United Kingdom
    George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...

  • Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
    Winston Churchill
    Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

    , coalition

Events

  • 1 January – Utility furniture
    Utility furniture
    Utility furniture refers to furniture produced in the United Kingdom during and just after World War II, under a Government scheme which was designed to cope with shortages of raw materials and rationing of consumption...

     first becomes available.
  • 23 January – World War II
    World War II
    World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

    : British forces capture Tripoli
    Tripoli
    Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...

     from the Nazis
    Nazism
    Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

    .
  • 11 February – In the Midlothian and Peebles Northern by-election
    Midlothian and Peebles Northern by-election, 1943
    The Midlothian and Peebles Northern by-election, 1943 was a parliamentary by-election held in Scotland on 11 February 1943 to elect a new Member of Parliament for the House of Commons constituency of Midlothian and Peebles Northern....

    , the radical socialist Common Wealth Party
    Common Wealth Party
    The Common Wealth Party was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom in the Second World War. Thereafter, it continued in being, essentially as a pressure group, until 1993.-The war years:...

     candidate Tom Wintringham
    Tom Wintringham
    Thomas Henry Wintringham was a British soldier, military historian, journalist, poet, Marxist, politician and author. He was an important figure in the formation of the Home Guard during World War II and was one of the founders of the Common Wealth Party.-Early life:Tom Wintringham was born 1898...

     comes close to winning the seat
  • 13 February – Nuffield Foundation
    Nuffield Foundation
    The Nuffield Foundation is a British charitable trust, established in 1943 by William Morris , the founder of the Morris Motor Company. Lord Nuffield wanted to contribute to improvements in society, including the expansion of education and the alleviation of disadvantage...

     established by William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield
    William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield
    William Richard Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield GBE, CH , known as Sir William Morris, Bt, between 1929 and 1934 and as The Lord Nuffield between 1934 and 1938, was a British motor manufacturer and philanthropist...

    .
  • 3 March – Panic at the sound of new anti-aircraft
    Anti-aircraft warfare
    NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...

     rockets leads to a crush at Bethnal Green tube station
    Bethnal Green tube station
    Bethnal Green tube station is a station on the Central Line of the London Underground in Bethnal Green, East London. It lies between Liverpool Street and Mile End stations, and in Travelcard Zone 2. The station was opened as part of the long planned Central Line eastern extension on 4 December...

    , killing 183 people.
  • 14 March – Submarine
    Submarine
    A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

     HMS Thunderbolt
    HMS Thetis (N25)
    HMS Thetis was a Group 1 T-class submarine of the Royal Navy which served under two names. Under her first identity, HMS Thetis, she commenced sea trials on 4 March 1939. She sank during trials on 1 June 1939 with the loss of 99 lives...

     sunk off Sicily
    Sicily
    Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

     by an Italian corvette
    Corvette
    A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...

    , the second time this vessel has been lost with all hands.
  • 13 April – Release of the Ministry of Information film Desert Victory
    Desert Victory
    Desert Victory is a 1943 film produced by the British Ministry of Information, documenting the Allies' North African campaign against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps. This documentary traces the struggle between General Erwin Rommel and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, from the...

    , which will win this year's Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
  • 7 May – Capture of Tunis
    Tunis
    Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....

     ends the campaign in North Africa.
  • 17 May – Operation Chastise
    Operation Chastise
    Operation Chastise was an attack on German dams carried out on 16–17 May 1943 by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, subsequently known as the "Dambusters", using a specially developed "bouncing bomb" invented and developed by Barnes Wallis...

     (the 'Dambuster Raid') takes place: the Royal Air Force
    Royal Air Force
    The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

     use bouncing bomb
    Bouncing bomb
    A bouncing bomb is a bomb designed specifically to bounce to a target across water in a calculated manner, in order to avoid obstacles such as torpedo nets, and to allow both the bomb's speed on arrival at the target and the timing of its detonation to be pre-determined...

    s to breach German dams in the Ruhr Valley.
  • 19 May – Winston Churchill
    Winston Churchill
    Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

     addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
  • 9 July–17 August – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily
    Allied invasion of Sicily
    The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis . It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign.Husky began on the night of...

    .
  • 5 August – North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board
    North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board
    The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board was founded to design, construct and manage hydroelectricity projects in the Highlands of Scotland...

     established by Act of Parliament
    Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom
    An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is a type of legislation called primary legislation. These Acts are passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster, or by the Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh....

    .
  • 3 September–16 September – World War II: Allied invasion of Italy
    Allied invasion of Italy
    The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied landing on mainland Italy on September 3, 1943, by General Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group during the Second World War. The operation followed the successful invasion of Sicily during the Italian Campaign...

    .
  • 11 November – Regency Act is passed allowing Counsellors of State
    Counsellor of State
    In the United Kingdom, Counsellors of State are senior members of the British royal family to whom the Monarch, currently Elizabeth II, delegates certain state functions and powers when she is in another Commonwealth realm, abroad or unavailable for other reasons...

     absent during the Sovereign's absence not to be listed among the appointments; and that the heir-apparent or presumptive to the Throne need only to be eighteen to be a Counsellor.
  • 16 November – Total evacuation of part of the South Hams
    South Hams
    South Hams is a local government district on the south coast of Devon, England with its headquarters in the town of Totnes. It contains the towns of Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, Ivybridge, Salcombe — the largest of which is Ivybridge with a population of 16,056....

     of Devon
    Devon
    Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

     begins, to make way for rehearsal of the Normandy Landings.
  • 22 November – World War II: War in the Pacific – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
    Winston Churchill
    Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

    , and ROC leader Chiang Kai-Shek
    Chiang Kai-shek
    Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....

     meet in Cairo
    Cairo
    Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

    , Egypt
    Egypt
    Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

    , to discuss ways to defeat Japan
    Japan
    Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

    .
  • 2 December
    • First "Bevin Boys
      Bevin Boys
      Bevin Boys were young British men conscripted to work in the coal mines of the United Kingdom, from December 1943 until 1948. Chosen at random from conscripts but also including volunteers, nearly 48,000 Bevin Boys performed vital but largely unrecognised service in the mines, many of them...

      " selected from conscripts
      Conscription in the United Kingdom
      Conscription in the United Kingdom has existed for two periods in modern times. The first was from 1916 to 1919, the second was from 1939 to 1960, with the last conscripted soldiers leaving the service in 1963...

       to work in the coal mines.
    • Pigeons White Vision
      White Vision
      White Vision was a pigeon who won the Dickin Medal in 1943 for assisting in the rescue of an aircrew forced to ditch in the Second World War....

      , Winkie
      Winkie (pigeon)
      Winkie was a pigeon who won the Dickin Medal in 1943 for assisting in the rescue of an aircrew forced to ditch in North Sea during the Second World War....

       and Tyke become the first recipients of the Dickin Medal
      Dickin Medal
      The Dickin Medal was instituted in 1943 in the United Kingdom by Maria Dickin to honour the work of animals in war. It is a bronze medallion, bearing the words "For Gallantry" and "We Also Serve" within a laurel wreath, carried on a ribbon of striped green, dark brown and pale blue...

      , instituted to honour the work of animals in war.
  • December – Construction of prototype Mark I Colossus computer
    Colossus computer
    Not to be confused with the fictional computer of the same name in the movie Colossus: The Forbin Project.Colossus was the world's first electronic, digital, programmable computer. Colossus and its successors were used by British codebreakers to help read encrypted German messages during World War II...

    , the world's first totally electronic programmable computing device, at the Post Office Research Station
    Post Office Research Station
    The Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill, London, was first established in 1921 and opened by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald in 1933.In 1943 the world's first programmable electronic computer, Colossus Mark 1 was built by Tommy Flowers and his team, followed in 1944 and 1945 by nine...

    , Dollis Hill
    Dollis Hill
    Dollis Hill is an area of north-west London. It lies close to Willesden, in the London Borough of Brent. As a result, Dollis Hill is sometimes referred as being part of Willesden, especially by the national press...

    , to assist in cryptanalysis
    Cryptanalysis
    Cryptanalysis is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information that is normally required to do so. Typically, this involves knowing how the system works and finding a secret key...

     at Bletchley Park
    Bletchley Park
    Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...

    , is completed.
  • undatedAnne Loughlin
    Anne Loughlin
    Dame Anne Loughlin, DBE was a British labour activist and organiser.Loughlin was born in Leeds, England. Her father, Thomas, was a boot and shoe operative of Irish descent. When Anne was 12 her mother died, and she had to care for her four sisters...

     becomes the first trades unionist appointed DBE
    Order of the British Empire
    The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

     and the first female President of the Trades Union Congress
    President of the Trades Union Congress
    The President of the Trades Union Congress is a prominent but largely honorary position in British trade unionism.The President is elected at the annual conference of the Trades Union Congress . They officially fill the office for the remainder of the year and then preside over the following...

    .

Publications

  • Nigel Balchin
    Nigel Balchin
    Nigel Balchin was an English novelist and screenwriter particularly known for his novels written during and immediately after World War II: Darkness Falls From the Air, The Small Back Room and Mine Own Executioner.-Life:He was born Nigel Marlin Balchin in Potterne, Wiltshire to...

    's novel The Small Back Room.
  • T. S. Eliot
    T. S. Eliot
    Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

    's poetry Four Quartets
    Four Quartets
    Four Quartets is a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published individually over a six-year period. The first poem, "Burnt Norton", was written and published with a collection of his early works following the production of Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral...

    .
  • C. S. Lewis
    C. S. Lewis
    Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...

    ' novel Perelandra
    Perelandra
    Perelandra is the second book in the Space Trilogy of C. S. Lewis, set in the Field of Arbol...

    .
  • Nikolaus Pevsner
    Nikolaus Pevsner
    Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...

    's book An Outline of European Architecture.
  • Malcolm Saville
    Malcolm Saville
    Leonard Malcolm Saville was an English author born in Hastings, Sussex. He is best known for the Lone Pine series of children's books, many of which are set in Shropshire. His work places emphasis on place, with the books including many vivid descriptions of English countryside, villages and...

    's children's novel Mystery at Witchend, first in The Lone Pine series.

January – February

  • 6 January – Terry Venables
    Terry Venables
    Terence Frederick "Terry" Venables , often referred to as "El Tel", is a former football player and manager, as well as being a media pundit. During the 1960s and 70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers, and gained two caps for England...

    , English football manager
  • 9 January – Freddie Starr
    Freddie Starr
    Freddie Starr is an English comedian who became famous in the early 1970s. He is also an impressionist and singer, with a chart album After the Laughter and UK Top 10 single, "It's You", in March 1974 to his credit.-Early career:Under his real name, he appeared as a teenager in the film Violent...

    , English comedian and singer
  • 15 January – Margaret Beckett
    Margaret Beckett
    Margaret Mary Beckett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and briefly serving as Leader of the Party following Smith's death...

    , politician
  • 16 January – Brian Ferneyhough
    Brian Ferneyhough
    Brian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet notation which features in all his works...

    , British composer
  • 20 January – Mel Hague
    Mel Hague
    Mel Hague is an English country music singer and author.-Early life:...

    , English singer and author
  • 29 January – Tony Blackburn
    Tony Blackburn
    Tony Blackburn is an English disc jockey, who broadcast on the "pirate" stations Radio Caroline and Radio London in the 1960s and was the first disc jockey to broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in 1967. In 2002 he was the winner of the ITV reality TV programme I'm a Celebrity.....

    , British radio disc jockey
  • 7 February – Gareth Hunt
    Gareth Hunt
    Alan Leonard Hunt was an English actor, known as Gareth Hunt, best remembered for playing the footman Frederick Norton in Upstairs, Downstairs and Mike Gambit in The New Avengers.-Early life:...

    , English actor
  • 16 February – Anthony Dowell
    Anthony Dowell
    Sir Anthony James Dowell, CBE is a retired English ballet dancer and former Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet. He studied at the Hampshire School and The Royal Ballet Schools, before joining the Royal Ballet in 1961...

    , ballet dancer and artistic director of the Royal Ballet
  • 18 February – Graeme Garden
    Graeme Garden
    David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:...

    , Scottish writer, comedian, and actor
  • 19 February – Tim Hunt
    Tim Hunt
    Sir Richard Timothy "Tim" Hunt, FRS is an English biochemist.Hunt was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Nurse and Leland H...

    , British biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
    The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...

  • 20 February – Mike Leigh
    Mike Leigh
    Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...

    , British film director
  • 24 February – George Harrison
    George Harrison
    George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

    , English musician (The Beatles
    The Beatles
    The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

    ) (died 2001
    2001 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 2001 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:* Monarch - HM Elizabeth II* Prime Minister - Tony Blair, Labour Party-Events:...

    )
  • 27 February – Graham Bowers, British musician, artist and engineer

March – April

  • March – John Leeson
    John Leeson
    John Leeson is a British actor who is best known for voicing K-9 on the television series Doctor Who from 1977 to 1979, and again in the 1980–1981 season. He was called back to do the voice of K-9 again for the 2006 episode "School Reunion" and again for the 2008 Doctor Who episode "Journey's End"...

    , British actor
  • 8 March – Lynn Redgrave
    Lynn Redgrave
    Lynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE was an English actress.A member of the well-known British family of actors, Redgrave trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962...

    , English actress (died 2010)
  • 21 March – Vivian Stanshall
    Vivian Stanshall
    Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.-The great...

    , English comedian, writer, artist, broadcaster, and musician (died 1995
    1995 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1995 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch - Elizabeth II*Prime Minister - John Major, Conservative-January:* 1 January - South Korean industrial giant Daewoo announces plans to build a new car factory in the United Kingdom within the next few years, costing up to...

    )
  • 22 March – Keith Relf
    Keith Relf
    Keith William Relf , was a musician best known as the lead singer and harmonica player of The Yardbirds. After the Yardbirds broke up Relf formed the acoustic duo Together, with fellow Yardbird Jim McCarty, followed by Renaissance, which also featured his sister, singer Jane Relf, then hard rock...

    , British musician (The Yardbirds
    The Yardbirds
    - Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...

    ) (died 1976
    1976 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1976 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch - Elizabeth II*Prime Minister - Harold Wilson, Labour Party , James Callaghan, Labour-Events:...

    )
  • 29 March
    • Eric Idle
      Eric Idle
      Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....

      , English actor, writer, and composer
    • John Major
      John Major
      Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...

      , British Conservative politician and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
      Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
      The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

  • 2 April – Frank Feather, British business futurist and author
  • 8 April – Tony Banks, Baron Stratford
    Tony Banks, Baron Stratford
    Anthony Louis Banks, Baron Stratford was a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament from 1983 to 2005, before being made a Member of the House of Lords. In government, he served for two years as Minister for Sport...

    , former Labour Party MP and Minister for Sport (died 2006
    2006 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 2006 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:* Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II* Prime Minister - Anthony Blair, Labour Party-January:...

    )
  • 20 April – John Eliot Gardiner
    John Eliot Gardiner
    Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE FKC is an English conductor. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique...

    , English conductor
  • 25 April – Tony Christie
    Tony Christie
    Tony Christie is an English musician, singer and actor. He is best known for his track, "Is This The Way To Amarillo", a double UK chart success.-Career:Tony Christie has sold over 10 million albums Worldwide...

    , singer

May – June

  • 5 May – Michael Palin
    Michael Palin
    Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....

    , British comedian
  • 8 May – Pat Barker
    Pat Barker
    Pat Barker CBE, FRSL is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres around themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and plainspoken.-Personal life:...

    , writer and historian
  • 14 May – Jack Bruce
    Jack Bruce
    John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...

    , British musician and songwriter
  • 22 May – Betty Williams, Northern Irish political activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
    Nobel Peace Prize
    The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...

  • 27 May – Cilla Black
    Cilla Black
    Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...

    , singer-songwriter and television personality
  • 8 June – Colin Baker
    Colin Baker
    Colin Baker is a British actor who is known for playing Paul Merroney in The Brothers from 1974 to 1976 and as the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, from 1984 to 1986.- Background:Colin Baker was born in London, but moved north to...

    , British actor
  • 13 June – Malcolm McDowell
    Malcolm McDowell
    Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...

    , actor
  • 29 June – Maureen O'Brien
    Maureen O'Brien
    Maureen O'Brien is an English actress of Irish descent and author best known for playing the role of Vicki in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, although she has appeared in many other television programmes as well.She played the part of Vicki in 38 episodes of Doctor Who from 2...

    , British actress

July – August

  • 10 July – Gavin Strang
    Gavin Strang
    Gavin Steel Strang is a British politician who served in the House of Commons for forty years , representing Edinburgh East in the Labour interest. He served as a minister in the 1974-1979 government under Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan as well as in the Cabinet under Tony Blair...

    , politician
  • 12 July – Christine McVie
    Christine McVie
    Christine McVie is an English rock singer, keyboardist, and songwriter. Her primary fame came as a member of the British/American rock band Fleetwood Mac, though she has also released three solo albums...

    , British musician (Fleetwood Mac
    Fleetwood Mac
    Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...

    )
  • 15 July – Jocelyn Bell Burnell
    Jocelyn Bell Burnell
    Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell, DBE, FRS, FRAS , is a British astrophysicist. As a postgraduate student she discovered the first radio pulsars with her thesis supervisor Antony Hewish. She was president of the Institute of Physics from October 2008 until October 2010, and was interim president...

    , astronomer
  • 20 July – Wendy Richard
    Wendy Richard
    Wendy Richard, MBE was an English actress best known for playing Miss Brahms in Are You Being Served? and Pauline Fowler in EastEnders...

    , British actress (died 2009
    2009 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 2009 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch - HM Queen Elizabeth II*Prime Minister - Gordon Brown, Labour Party-January:...

    )
  • 26 July – Mick Jagger
    Mick Jagger
    Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....

    , English singer (Rolling Stones)
  • 28 July – Rick Wright, English keyboardist (Pink Floyd
    Pink Floyd
    Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...

    )
  • 2 August – Rose Tremain
    Rose Tremain
    Rose Tremain CBE is an English author.-Life:Rose Tremain was born Rosemary Jane Thomson on August 2, 1943 in London and attended Francis Holland School then Crofton Grange School from 1954 to 1961; the Sorbonne from 1961–1962; and graduated from the University of East Anglia in 1965 where she then...

    , author
  • 20 August – Sylvester McCoy
    Sylvester McCoy
    Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...

    , British actor
  • 22 August – Alun Michael
    Alun Michael
    Alun Edward Michael is a British Labour Co-operative politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Cardiff South and Penarth since 1987. He was formerly First Minister of Wales and leader of the Welsh Labour Party from 1999 to 2000.-Education:Michael was born at Bryngwran Anglesey, son of...

    , politician

September – October

  • 6 September
    • Richard J. Roberts
      Richard J. Roberts
      Sir Richard "Rich" John Roberts is a British biochemist and molecular biologist. He was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Phillip Allen Sharp for the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing.When he was 4, his family moved to Bath. In...

      , English biochemist and molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
      Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
      The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...

    • Roger Waters
      Roger Waters
      George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...

      , English musician
  • 30 September – Ian Ogilvy
    Ian Ogilvy
    Ian Raymond Ogilvy is an English film and television actor.-Early life:He was born in Woking, Surrey, England, the son of advertising executive Francis Ogilvy and actress Aileen Raymond .He was educated at Sunningdale School, Eton College and at the Royal Academy of...

    , English actor
  • 11 October – John Nettles
    John Nettles
    John Vivian Drummond Nettles, OBE is an English actor, historian and writer who is best known for playing the lead roles in Bergerac and Midsomer Murders.-Early life:...

    , actor
  • 23 October – Anita Roddick
    Anita Roddick
    Dame Anita Roddick, DBE was a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of The Body Shop, a cosmetics company producing and retailing beauty products that shaped ethical consumerism...

    , businesswoman (died 2007
    2007 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 2007 in the United Kingdom. The year sees changes in the leadership of the ruling Labour Party and of the Liberal Democrats, and the country is hit by severe weather events throughout the year.-Incumbents:*Monarch – Elizabeth II...

    )
  • 31 October – Paul Frampton
    Paul Frampton
    Paul Frampton is a particle phenomenologist.Since 1996, he is the Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Distinguished Professor of physics and astronomy, at the University of North Carolina...

    , English physicist

November – December

  • 17 December – Ron Geesin
    Ron Geesin
    Ronald 'Ron' Geesin is a British musician and composer, noted for his quirky creations and novel applications of sound. He is probably best known as the orchestrator and organizer of Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother" in 1970, after the band found themselves hopelessly deadlocked over how to...

    , British musician and songwriter (Pink Floyd
    Pink Floyd
    Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...

    )
  • 18 December – Keith Richards
    Keith Richards
    Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...

    , English guitarist and songwriter (The Rolling Stones
    The Rolling Stones
    The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

    )
  • 27 December – Peter Sinfield
    Peter Sinfield
    Peter John Sinfield is an English poet, lyricist and artist, most famously known as the lyricist and co-founding member of early incarnations of King Crimson, whose debut album In the Court of the Crimson King has been regarded as one of the most influential progressive rock albums ever...

    , British lyricist and producer
  • 28 December – Richard Whiteley
    Richard Whiteley
    John Richard Whiteley, OBE DL , usually known as Richard Whiteley, was an English broadcaster and journalist. He was famous for his twenty-three years as host of Countdown, a letters and numbers arrangement game show broadcast most weekdays on Channel 4...

    , English television presenter (died 2005
    2005 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 2005 in the United Kingdom. The year is dominated by the 7/7 London bombings.-Incumbents:*Monarch – Elizabeth II*Prime Minister – Tony Blair -January:* 1 January...

    )
  • 31 December – Ben Kingsley
    Ben Kingsley
    Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...

    , English actor

Deaths

  • 26 March – Leonard Darwin
    Leonard Darwin
    Major Leonard Darwin , a son of the English naturalist Charles Darwin, was variously a soldier, politician, economist, eugenicist and mentor of the statistician and evolutionary biologist Ronald Fisher.- Biography :...

    , soldier, politician, economist, eugenicist (born 1850
    1850 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1850 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Lord John Russell, Liberal-Events:...

    )
  • 28 March – Robert W. Paul
    Robert W. Paul
    Robert W. Paul was a British electrician, scientific instrument maker and early pioneer of British film.-Early career:...

    , pioneer of cinematography (born 1869
    1869 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1869 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal-Events:* 6 March — The first international cycle race is held at Crystal Palace, London....

    )
  • 26 April – Alastair Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, son of Prince
    Prince Arthur of Connaught
    Prince Arthur of Connaught and Strathearn was a member of the British Royal Family, a grandson of Queen Victoria. Prince Arthur held the title of a British prince with the style His Royal Highness...

     and Princess Arthur of Connaught (born 1914
    1914 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1914 in the United Kingdom. This year sees the start of World War I.-Incumbents:* Monarch - King George V* Prime Minister - H. H...

    )
  • 30 April – Beatrice Webb
    Beatrice Webb
    Martha Beatrice Webb, Lady Passfield was an English sociologist, economist, socialist and social reformer. Although her husband became Baron Passfield in 1929, she refused to be known as Lady Passfield...

    , socialist, economist and reformer (born 1858
    1858 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1858 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Viscount Palmerston, Liberal , Earl of Derby, Conservative-Events:...

    )
  • 1 June – Leslie Howard
    Leslie Howard (actor)
    Leslie Howard was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer. Among his best-known roles was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind and roles in Berkeley Square , Of Human Bondage , The Scarlet Pimpernel , The Petrified Forest , Pygmalion , Intermezzo , Pimpernel Smith...

    , actor (born 1893
    1893 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1893 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal-Events:...

    )
  • 12 August – Bobby Peel
    Bobby Peel
    Robert "Bobby" Peel was a Yorkshire and England cricketer: a left-arm spinner who ranks as one of the finest bowlers of the 1890s. He was also a capable batsman, who once hit 210 not out...

    , English cricketer (born 1857
    1857 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1857 in the United Kingdom. This is a General Election year.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Viscount Palmerston, Liberal-Events:* 7 January — London General Omnibus Company begins operating....

    )
  • 7 October – Radclyffe Hall
    Radclyffe Hall
    Radclyffe Hall was an English poet and author, best known for the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness.- Life :...

    , author and poet (born 1880
    1880 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1880 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:* Monarch—Queen Victoria* Prime Minister—Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative , William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal-Events:...

    )
  • 26 November – Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
    Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1909–1943)
    Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the second eldest son of Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his wife, Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein....

    , great grandson of Queen Victoria (born 1909, Germany)
  • 22 December – Beatrix Potter
    Beatrix Potter
    Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...

    , British children's author and illustrator (born 1866
    1866 in the United Kingdom
    Events from the year 1866 in the United Kingdom.-Incumbents:*Monarch — Queen Victoria*Prime Minister — Lord John Russell, Liberal , Earl of Derby, Conservative-Events:...

    )

See also

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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