1934 in the United Kingdom

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1934 in the United Kingdom
Other years
1932 | 1933 | 1934 (1934) | 1935 | 1936
Constituent countries of the United Kingdom
| Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

1934 English cricket season
Football: England | Scotland
1934 in British radio
1934 in British television
1934 in British music

Events from the year 1934 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents[]

  • Monarch – George V
  • Prime Minister – Ramsay MacDonald (Coalition)
  • Parliament – 36th

Events[]

  • 1 January – establishment of the National Council for Civil Liberties by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith.[1]
  • 21 January – ten thousand people attend a British Union of Fascists rally in Birmingham, organised by Oswald Mosley.[2]
  • 27 March – the 1934 Betting and Lotteries Act is passed. Part 1 (betting) is designed to restrict betting on racecourses and tracks to a maximum of 104 days.[3] Part 2 (lotteries) prohibits the sale of lottery tickets, primarily directed against the Irish Free State Hospitals' Sweepstake.[4][5]
  • April – Meccano Ltd introduce the first Dinky Toys.
  • 3 April – Percy Shaw patents the cat's eye road-safety device.[6]
  • 6 April – Rudyard Kipling and William Butler Yeats are awarded the Gothenburg Prize for Poetry.
  • 21 April
    • the "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster, much later admitted to be a hoax, is published in the Daily Mail.[7]
    • David Low's cartoon character Colonel Blimp first appears in the London Evening Standard.[8]
  • May – The London Zoo penguin pool, designed by Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton Architectural Group with Ove Arup, one of the most significant examples of modern architecture in Britain.[9]
  • 4 May – fifty-four-year-old grandmother Mrs G. E. Alington becomes the first woman in Britain to complete a parachute jump, skydiving from 1500 feet over Brooklands Aerodrome.
  • 28 May – opening of first Glyndebourne Festival Opera season.
  • 29 May – first regular domestic airmail service, inaugurated by Highland Airways between Inverness and Kirkwall.[10]
  • 12 July – Petroleum (Production) Act vests ownership of all U.K. subterranean oil and natural gas in the Crown.
  • 18 July – opening of the Queensway Tunnel beneath the River Mersey by King George V.[11]
  • 19 July – 41 squadrons added to the Royal Air Force as part of a new air defence program.[2]
  • 4–11 August – British Empire Games held at Wembley Park, London.
  • 6 September – the BBC's most powerful long-wave transmitter, Droitwich Transmitting Station, starts transmitting regularly at 200 kilohertz, following test transmissions from 8 May.[12]
  • 10 September – the British Graham Land Expedition sets out to explore Graham Land in Antarctica.
  • 22 September – Gresford disaster: a gas explosion takes place at Gresford Colliery in Wrexham, north-east Wales, which leads to the death of 266 miners and rescuers,[11] one of the worst tragedies in Welsh mining history.
  • 26 September – launching of the liner RMS Queen Mary[11] at Clydebank.
  • 29 September – Stanley Matthews makes his debut for the England national football team, beginning a record 23-year international career.
  • 29 November – marriage of Prince George, Duke of Kent, to Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, the first this century, and last, foreign-born princess to marry into the British royal family; the wedding is the first to be broadcast live on radio.[11]
  • 30 November – London and North Eastern Railway steam locomotive Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman becomes the first officially to exceed 100 miles per hour (160.9 km/h) on test in England.[13]
  • 10 December – Arthur Henderson wins the Nobel Peace Prize.[14]
  • 21 December – Special Areas Act provides grants from central government funds to assist regions with high unemployment.[15]

Undated[]

  • The "British Committee for Relations with Other Countries", which will become the British Council, is set up to foster cultural relations.[16]
  • EKCO introduces its distinctive round bakelite radio cabinets.

Publications[]

  • John Betjeman's guidebook Cornwall, first of the Shell Guides.
  • Agatha Christie's novels Murder on the Orient Express (featuring Hercule Poirot) and Why Didn't They Ask Evans?.
  • Robert Graves' novel I, Claudius.
  • James Hilton's novel Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
  • George Orwell's memoir Burmese Days.
  • J. B. Priestley's travelogue English Journey.[17]
  • Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novel The Nine Tailors.
  • Dylan Thomas' first collection 18 Poems, including "The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower".
  • P. L. Travers' first children's story Mary Poppins.
  • Geoffrey Trease's children's story Bows against the Barons.
  • Evelyn Waugh's novel A Handful of Dust.
  • P. G. Wodehouse's Thank You, Jeeves and Right Ho, Jeeves, the first Jeeves stories written as full-length novels.
  • V. M. Yeates' war novel Winged Victory.

Births[]

  • 6 January – Sylvia Syms, actress
  • 8 January – Roy Kinnear, actor (died 1988)
  • 12 January – Mick Sullivan, English rugby league footballer (died 2016)
  • 14 January – Richard Briers, actor (died 2013)
  • 18 January – Raymond Briggs, writer and illustrator
  • 19 January – Ron Newman, British-American soccer player and manager (died 2018)
  • 20 January – Tom Baker, actor
  • 22 January – Graham Kerr, TV cook
  • 25 January – George William Coventry, 11th Earl of Coventry, peer (died 2002)
  • 2 February – Hugh McIlvanney, sports journalist (died 2019)
  • 6 February – Roger Becker, tennis player (died 2017)
  • 11 February
    • Mary Quant, fashion designer
    • John Surtees, racing driver and motorcyclist (died 2017)
  • 17 February – Alan Bates, actor (died 2003)
  • 19 February – David Jones, film director (died 2008)
  • 24 February – Ray Honeyford, head teacher (died 2012)[18]
  • 25 February
    • Bernard Bresslaw, actor (died 1993)
    • Nicholas Edwards, Baron Crickhowell, politician (died 2018)
  • 28 February – Ronnie Moran, football captain (Liverpool F.C.) (died 2017)
  • 4 March – John Dunn, radio presenter (died 2004)
  • 5 March – Nicholas Smith, actor (died 2015)
  • 6 March – John Noakes, children's television presenter (died 2017)
  • 7 March – Zena Walker, actress (died 2003)
  • 8 March – Gawaine Baillie, race car driver and industrialist (died 2003)
  • 11 March – Dilys Laye, actress and screenwriter (died 2009)
  • 15 March – Richard Layard, Baron Layard, economist
  • 20 March – Eric Hebborn, art forger (died 1996)
  • 22 March – Larry Martyn, comic actor (died 1994)
  • 28 March – Laurie Taitt, Olympic sprint hurdler (died 2006)
  • 1 April – Marie Patterson, English trade union leader
  • 2 April – Brian Glover, actor and wrestler (died 1997)
  • 3 April – Jane Goodall, primatologist
  • 6 April – Brian Cosgrove, animator
  • 7 April
    • Ian Richardson, actor (died 2007)
    • Roger Webb, jazz musician (died 2002)
  • 16 April
    • Vince Hill, singer
    • Richard Kershaw, journalist (died 2014)
    • Geoffrey Owen, journalist, academic and businessman
  • 3 May – Henry Cooper, boxer (died 2011)
  • 5 May – Jim Reid, folk musician (died 2009)
  • 8 May – David Williamson, Baron Williamson of Horton, English soldier and politician (died 2015)
  • 9 May
    • Alan Bennett, playwright, screenwriter, actor and author
    • David Plastow, English businessman
    • Peter Ramsden, rugby league player (died 2002)
  • 15 May – George Roper, comedian (died 2003)
  • 16 May – Victor Emery, physicist (died 2002)
  • 24 May
  • 26 May
    • Jeffrey Alan Gray, psychologist (died 2004)
    • Mike Rawson, track and field athlete (died 2000)
  • 29 May – Nanette Newman, actress
  • 11 June – Lady Annabel Goldsmith, socialite
  • 12 June 12 – John Townend, politician (died 2018)
  • 16 June – Eileen Atkins, actress
  • 19 June
    • Terence Clark, soldier and diplomat, British Ambassador to Iraq
    • Brian London, boxer (died 2021)[19]
  • 20 June
    • Brian Barder, diplomat (died 2017)
    • Keith Hopkins, historian and sociologist (died 2004)
  • 21 June
  • 23 June – Keith Sutton, bishop (died 2017)
  • 24 June
  • 26 June – Jeremy Wolfenden, journalist and spy (died 1965)
  • 30 June – Richard Jolly, development economist
  • 1 July
    • Paddy Jones, salsa dancer
    • Jean Marsh, actress
    • Ian Robinson, publisher (died 2004)
  • 4 July – James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Abercorn, British nobleman, peer and politician
  • 5 July – Philip Madoc, actor (died 2012)
  • 7 July – Richard Taylor, medical doctor, politician and Royal Air Force officer
  • 8 July – Marty Feldman, writer, comedian and actor (died 1982)
  • 9 July – John Clegg, Indian-born English actor
  • 11 July – Helen Cresswell, writer (died 2005)
  • 14 July – John Tyndall, politician (died 2005)
  • 15 July – Harrison Birtwistle, composer
  • 21 July – Jonathan Miller, polymath theatre director (died 2019)
  • 23 July – Tony Lee, jazz pianist (died 2004)
  • 28 July
    • Pat Douthwaite, artist (died 2002)
    • Ron Flowers, footballer (died 2021)[20]
  • 6 August – Chris Bonington, mountaineer
  • 8 August – Keith Barron, actor (died 2017)
  • 16 August – Diana Wynne Jones, English writer (died 2011)[21]
  • 18 August – Michael de Larrabeiti, writer (died 2008)
  • 19 August – Ronald Jones, track and field athlete
  • 20 August – Tom Mangold, journalist and author
  • 2 September – Allen Carr, writer and anti-smoking campaigner (died 2006)
  • 4 September – Clive Granger, economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2009)
  • 8 September – Peter Maxwell Davies, composer (died 2016)
  • 11 September – Cedric Price, architect and writer (died 2003)
  • 19 September
    • Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles (died 1967)
    • Austin Mitchell, politician (died 2021)
  • 20 September – David Marquand, academic and politician
  • 21 September – David J. Thouless, Scottish-born condensed-matter physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2019)
  • 24 September
    • Tommy Anderson, Scottish footballer
    • Robert Lang, English stage, television actor (died 2004)
  • 26 September – Dick Heckstall-Smith, jazz saxophonist (died 2004)
  • 30 September
    • Alan A'Court, English footballer (died 2009)
    • Anna Kashfi, Welsh actress (died 2015)
  • 1 October – Geoff Stephens, songwriter and record producer (died 2020)
  • 20 October
    • Maureen Cleave, journalist (died 2021)[22]
    • Timothy West, actor
  • 24 October – Wally Herbert, explorer (died 2007)
  • 27 October
    • David and Frederick Barclay, businessmen (David died 2021)
    • Peter Donaldson, economist (died 2002)
  • 14 November – Dave Mackay, Scottish footballer (died 2015)
  • 28 November – Ted Walker, poet, travel writer and broadcaster (died 2004)
  • 1 December – Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 28th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, peer
  • 3 December – Bob Cryer, politician (died 1994)
  • 9 December – Judi Dench, actress
  • 17 December – Ray Wilson, footballer (died 2018)
  • 27 December – Pat Moss, racing driver (died 2008)
  • 28 December
    • Alasdair Gray, Scottish fiction writer and artist (died 2019)
    • Maggie Smith, English actress[23]

Deaths[]

  • 6 January – Herbert Chapman, football manager (born 1878)
  • 23 January
    • Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, politician and jurist (born 1850)
    • Sir William Hardy, biologist and food scientist (born 1864)
  • 23 February – Sir Edward Elgar, composer (born 1857)
  • 10 March – Thomas Anstey Guthrie, comic novelist 'F. Anstey' (born 1856)
  • 25 March – Edmund Selous, ornithologist and writer (born 1857)
  • 11 April – John Collier, writer and Pre-Raphaelite painter (born 1850)
  • 25 May – Gustav Holst, composer (born 1874)
  • 10 June – Frederick Delius, composer (born 1862)
  • 10 September – Sir George Henschel, musician (born 1850)
  • 27 September – Ellen Willmott, horticulturalist (born 1858)
  • 3 November – Sir Robert McAlpine, 1st Baronet, builder (born 1847)
  • 16 November – Alice Hargreaves, née Alice Liddell, inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (born 1852)
  • 25 November – N. E. Brown, English plant taxonomist (born 1849)

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (January 2000). Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organisations. ISBN 9780826458148. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
  2. ^ a b Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 378–379. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
  3. ^ "Betting and Lotteries Act, 1934" (PDF). Legislation.gov.uk.
  4. ^ Coleman, Marie (2005). ""A terrible danger to the morals of the country": The Irish hospitals' sweepstake in Great Britain, 1930–87". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C. 105 (5). Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
  5. ^ Coleman, Marie (2009). The Irish Sweep – A History of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake, 1930–87. University College Dublin Press. ISBN 978-1-906359-41-6.
  6. ^ Challoner, Jack, ed. (2009). 1001 Inventions That Changed the World. London: Cassell. pp. 634–5. ISBN 978-1-84403-611-0.
  7. ^ Martin, David; Boyd, Alastair (1999). Nessie – the Surgeon's Photograph Exposed. East Barnet: authors. ISBN 0-9535708-0-0.
  8. ^ "David Low". British Cartoon Archive. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  9. ^ "Berthold Lubetkin". Design Museum. Archived from the original on 25 March 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2008.
  10. ^ Blake, Richard. The Book of Postal Dates, 1635–1985. Caterham: Marden. p. 29.
  11. ^ a b c d Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  12. ^ Phillips, John (December 2006). "Droitwich Calling". Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  13. ^ "No. 4472 Flying Scotsman". The Heritage Trail. Archived from the original on 21 June 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  14. ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 1934". Archived from the original on 27 January 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2007.
  15. ^ The History Today Companion to British History. London: Collins & Brown. 1995. p. 709. ISBN 1-85585-178-4.
  16. ^ "1930s and 1940s". British Council. Archived from the original on 15 April 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
  17. ^ Marr, Andrew (2008). A History of Modern Britain. Macmillan. p. xxii. ISBN 978-0-330-43983-1.
  18. ^ "Ray Honeyford".
  19. ^ Boxer Brian London who fought Muhammad Ali for world title dies
  20. ^ Ron Flowers obituary
  21. ^ "Diana Wynne Jones | British writer | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  22. ^ Maureen Cleave obituary
  23. ^ "Maggie Smith: A glorious antidote to the self-absorption of so many in her profession". The Independent. 13 November 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
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