1939 in the United Kingdom

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1939 in the United Kingdom
Other years
1937 | 1938 | 1939 (1939) | 1940 | 1941
Constituent countries of the United Kingdom
Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales
Popular culture

Events from the year 1939 in the United Kingdom. This year sees the start of the Second World War, ending the Interwar period.

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).
  • 22 July – royal visit to Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, during which the young Princess Elizabeth first meets her future husband Prince Philip of Greece.[13]
  • 26 July – the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham, designed by Robert Atkinson, is officially opened by Queen Mary.[14][15]
  • 5 August – weekly transatlantic flights scheduled by Imperial Airways; suspended in September.[5][verification needed]
  • 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.[16]
  • 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.[17] In London, police defuse two similar bombs and arrest four terrorists.[18]
  • 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.[19]
    • 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.[20]
    • 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.[21]
    • In the week beginning today 400,000 pets are euthanised.[22]
  • 4 September – first bombing of Wilhelmshaven in World War II by Royal Air Force Vickers Wellingtons.
  • 5 September – National Registration Act.[23]
  • 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.[24]
  • 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 – American-born fascist politician William Joyce, at this time holding a British passport, begins broadcasting Nazi propaganda to Britain 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][25] 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.[26]
  • 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.[23]
  • 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.[27]
  • 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.[28]
  • 17 October – first bomb lands in the U.K., at Hoy in the Orkney Islands.[29]
  • 21 October – registration of men aged 20 to 23 for National Service begins.[20]
  • 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.[30]
  • 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.[31]
  • 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
  • 11 January – Phil Williams, Welsh politician (died 2003)
  • 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)
  • 4 March – Keith Skues, radio disc jockey
  • 9 March – John Howard Davies, child screen actor and television comedy director (died 2011)
  • 10 March – Len Ashurst, football player and manager (died 2021)
  • 17 March – Robin Knox-Johnston, yachtsman
  • 18 March – Ron Atkinson, footballer and football manager
  • 23 March
  • 5 April – David Winters, English-American actor, choreographer and director (died 2019)
  • 7 April – David Frost, television personality (died 2013)[32]
  • 10 April – Penny Vincenzi, novelist (died 2018)[33]
  • 12 April – Alan Ayckbourn, playwright
  • 13 April – Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (died 2013)[34]
  • 15 April – Marty Wilde, actor and rock 'n' roll singer
  • 22 April
    • John Chilcot, civil servant (died 2021)[35]
    • Mark Jones, actor (died 2010)
    • Alex Murphy, rugby league footballer and coach
    • Ann Mitchell, English actress
  • 2 May – Peter Dean, actor
  • 4 May – Neil Fox, rugby league footballer
  • 5 May – Terry Walsh, actor and stuntman (died 2002)
  • 7 May – David Hatch, radio broadcaster and actor (died 2007)
  • 10 May – Bill Cash, English lawyer and politician
  • 25 May – Sir Ian McKellen, English actor[36]
  • 31 May
    • Andrew Ray, actor (died 2003)
    • Terry Waite, humanitarian, author and hostage
  • 5 June – Margaret Drabble, novelist and biographer
  • 8 June
    • Francis Jacobs, English lawyer and judge
    • Gordon Reid, Scottish actor (died 2003)
  • 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
  • 28 July – Richard Johns, air marshal
  • 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)
    • Sir Trevor McDonald, Trinidadian-born British journalist and broadcaster
  • 19 August
    • Alan Baker, mathematician (died 2018)[37]
    • Ginger Baker, rock drummer (died 2019)
  • 25 August – John Bardon, actor (died 2014)
  • 30 August – John Peel, né Ravenscroft, disc jockey and radio presenter (died 2004)
  • 12 September – John Pearse, guitarist (died 2008)
  • 18 September – Maurice Colbourne, actor (died 1989)
  • 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)
  • 1 October – Geoffrey Whitehead, actor
  • 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
  • 31 October – Tom O'Connor, entertainer and comedian (d. 2021)[38]
  • 4 November – Michael Meacher, politician (died 2015).[39]
  • 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
  • 13 December – Eric Flynn, singer-songwriter (died 2002)
  • 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)
  • 29 March – Ernest Hanbury Hankin, English bacteriologist and naturalist (born 1865)[40]
  • 18 April – Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, patron and promoter of women's interests (born 1857)[41]
  • 9 May – Sophie Williams, previously Mary, Lady Heath, aviator and athlete (born 1896)
  • 25 May – Sir Frank Dyson, astronomer (born 1868)[42]
  • 25 June – Richard Seaman, racing driver (car crash) (born 1913)[43]
  • 26 June – Ford Madox Ford, novelist, poet, critic and editor (born 1873)
  • 20 July – Sir Dan Godfrey, conductor (born 1868)[44]
  • 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)[45]
  • 19 September – Ethel M. Dell, romantic fiction writer (born 1881)
  • 26 September - Leif Jones, politician (born 1862)[46]
  • 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)[47]

See also[]

  • List of British films of 1939

References[]

  1. ^ "Old Firm's enduring appeal". FIFA.com. FIFA. 16 April 2016. Archived from the original on 27 September 2015. 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
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ "London Bomb Outrages". The Times. No. 48221. London. 4 February 1939. col D, p. 12.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Penguin Pocket OnThis Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 385–386. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
  6. ^ Fletcher, Marjorie H. (1989). The WRNS: a history of the Women's Royal Naval Service. London: Batsford. p. 90. ISBN 0-7134-6185-3.
  7. ^ "WW2 People's War Timeline, BBC". Retrieved 2 March 2008.
  8. ^ Libraries and Culture, Stanley Chodorow
  9. ^ Callander, Jane (2004). "Garrod, Dorothy Annie Elizabeth (1892–1968)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37443. Retrieved 14 February 2011. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  10. ^ Warren, C. E. T.; Benson, James (1958). "The Admiralty regrets ...": the story of His Majesty's submarine Thetis and Thunderbolt. London: Harrap.
  11. ^ Narracot, A.H. (1941). "9 – Woman in Blue". How The R.A.F. Works. Frederick Muller Ltd. p. 108 (n115). Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  12. ^ Twinch, Carol (1990). Women on the Land: their story during two World Wars. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press. p. 67. ISBN 0-7188-2814-3.
  13. ^ Heald, Tim (1991). The Duke: A Portrait of Prince Philip. London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-54607-7. p. 57.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ "The Barber Institute: A Cultural Centre For Birmingham". The Times. No. 48366. London. 25 July 1939. p. 17.
  16. ^ Bosman, Suzanne (2008). The National Gallery in Wartime. London: National Gallery Company. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-85709-424-4.
  17. ^ Scott, Jenny (25 August 2014). "Coventry IRA bombing: The 'forgotten' attack on a British city". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  18. ^ Kirby, Dick (2021). IRA Terror on Britain's Streets, 1939–1940. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 9781526786425.
  19. ^ Clouting, Laura. "The Evacuated Children of the Second World War". London: Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  20. ^ a b "Conscription". Spartacus Educational. Archived from the original on 18 February 2002. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
  21. ^ Brennecke, Jochen (2003). The Hunters and the Hunted. Naval Institute Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 1-59114-091-9.
  22. ^ Kean, Hilda (2017). The Great Cat and Dog Massacre. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-31832-5.
  23. ^ a b "1939: An emergency population count in wartime". 2011 Census. 2011. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  24. ^ Matthew, H. C. G. (2004). "Edward VIII, later Prince Edward, duke of Windsor (1894–1972)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31061. Retrieved 8 March 2012. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  25. ^ "The BBC Story – 1930s" (PDF). Retrieved 31 May 2010.
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ Duncan, George. "Lesser-Known Facts of World War II". Retrieved 19 January 2012.
  29. ^ Doyle, Peter (2010). ARP and Civil Defence in the Second World War. Oxford: Shire Publications. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-7478-0765-0.
  30. ^ Flower, Stephen (2011). No Phoney War. Stroud: Amberley. ISBN 978-1-84868-960-2.
  31. ^ English, John (1993). Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. Kendal: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-64-9.
  32. ^ Jeffries, Stuart (1 September 2013). "Sir David Frost obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  33. ^ "Penny Vincenzi: 'I never plot what will happen'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  34. ^ Cocoran, Neil (30 August 2013). "Seamus Heaney obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  35. ^ Sir John Chilcot obituary
  36. ^ "Ian McKellen". BFI. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
  37. ^ Wüstholz, Gisbert (9 April 2018). "Alan Baker obituary". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  38. ^ Shafer, Ellise (18 July 2021). "Tom O'Connor, Comedian and Veteran Game Show Host, Dies at 81". Variety. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  39. ^ Steven, Alasdair (22 October 2015). "Obituary: Michael Meacher, politician". The Scotsman. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  40. ^ Who was who: A Companion to "Who's Who". A. & C. Black. 1960. p. 588.
  41. ^ Ewan, Elizabeth; Pipes, Rose; Rendall, Jane; Reynolds, Siân, eds. (2018). The new biographical dictionary of Scottish women. Edinburgh University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9781474436281.
  42. ^ Frank Watson Dyson 1868-1939)
  43. ^ "Obituary: Mr Richard Seaman". The Times. 27 June 1939. p. 16.
  44. ^ 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.
  45. ^ Gwen John; Michael Holroyd; Anthony d'Offay (Firm) (1982). Gwen John, 1876-1939. Anthony d'Offay. ISBN 9780950398938.
  46. ^ 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.
  47. ^ The Listener. British Broadcasting Corporation. July 1939. p. 1270.

See also[]

  • Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II
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