1943 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1943 in the United Kingdom. The year was dominated by the Second World War.

Incumbents[]

• Monarch – George VI
• Prime Minister – Winston Churchill (Coalition)
• Parliament – 37th

Events[]

• 1 January
  • Total ban on civilians travelling to the Isle of Wight (continues until 25 August 1944).
  • Utility furniture first becomes available.^[1]
• 14 January – to counter a "serious increase" in U-boat operations the Royal Air Force switches its bombing campaign from industrial targets to U-boat bases in France attacking Lorient and Cherbourg-Octeville.
• 17 January – anti-aircraft shrapnel shells kill 23 people and injure 60 during a raid on London by 118 planes; six are reported losses.
• 20 January – Sandhurst Road School Disaster: a bomb kills 38 children and 6 teachers at a school in Catford, south-east London.
• 23 January – World War II: British forces capture Tripoli from the Nazis.^[2]
• 11 February – in the Midlothian and Peebles Northern by-election, the radical socialist Common Wealth Party candidate Tom Wintringham comes close to winning the seat.
• 13 February – Nuffield Foundation established by William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield.^[2]
• 3 March – panic at the sound of new anti-aircraft rockets leads to a crush at Bethnal Green tube station, killing 183 people.^[3]
• 4–12 March – "Exercise Spartan", a major rehearsal for next year's Allied Invasion of Normandy, is staged across southern England.
• 5 March – the Gloster Meteor, the first operational military jet aircraft for the Allies, has its first test flight, at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.
• 14 March – submarine HMS Thunderbolt sunk off Sicily by an Italian corvette, the second time this vessel has been lost with all hands.^[4][5]
• 17 March – last church service in the village of Derwent, Derbyshire, before it is demolished (together with Ashopton) for construction of Ladybower Reservoir.^[6]
• 27 March – Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Dasher (D37) is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379 of the crew of 528.
• 13 April – release of the Ministry of Information film Desert Victory, which will win this year's Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
• 21 April – worst bombing of Aberdeen.
• 7 May – capture of Tunis ends the campaign in North Africa.^[3]
• 16–17 May – Operation Chastise (the 'Dambuster Raid') takes place: No. 617 Squadron RAF use bouncing bombs to breach German dams in the Ruhr Valley.
• 19 May – Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the United States Congress.
• 1 June – BOAC Flight 777, a DC-3 on a scheduled passenger flight, is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by eight German Junkers Ju 88s; all 17 persons aboard perish, including the actor Leslie Howard.
• 24/25 June – Battle of Bamber Bridge: trouble flares between black American soldiers and white military police stationed in the Lancashire town; one black soldier is killed.^[7][8][9]
• 9 July–17 August – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily.
• 5 August – North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board established by Act of Parliament.^[10]
• 3–16 September – World War II: Allied invasion of Italy: Allied forces under General Sir Bernard Montgomery land in mainland Italy. On 16 September, the Salerno Mutiny occurs when soldiers of the British Army's X Corps refuse postings to new units.
• 15 September – first examples of standard cottages for farmworkers are completed, at Hildenborough, Kent.^[11]
• 26 September – trouble flares between black American soldiers and white military police stationed in Launceston, Cornwall; shots are fired.^[12]
• 11 November
  • Regency Act is passed allowing Counsellors of State 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.^[13]
  • Total evacuation of an area near Portmahomack in Scotland begins, to make way for rehearsal of the Normandy Landings.^[14]
• 16 November – total evacuation of the village of Imber on Salisbury Plain concludes, to make way for U.S. troop training; total evacuation of part of the South Hams of Devon begins, to make way for rehearsal of the Normandy Landings.^[15]
• 22–26 November – Cairo Conference ("Sextant"): Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt and Chairman of the National Government of China Chiang Kai-shek meet at Cairo in Egypt to discuss ways to defeat Japan in the Pacific War.
• 26 November – World War II: British troopship HMT Rohna is sunk off the north African coast by a Luftwaffe Henschel Hs 293 radio controlled glide bomb killing 1015.^[16][17]
• 2 December
  • First "Bevin Boys" selected from conscripts to work in the coal mines.^[18]
  • Pigeons White Vision, Winkie and Tyke become the first recipients of the Dickin Medal, instituted to honour the work of animals in war.^[19]
• 26 December – World War II: Battle of the North Cape – German battleship Scharnhorst is torpedoed and sunk in a night action north of the Arctic Circle by Royal Navy battleship HMS Duke of York and her escorts with the loss of all but 36 of the German crew of 1,943;^[20][21] this is the war's last action between big-gun capital ships of Britain and Germany.
• December – construction of prototype Mark I Colossus computer, the world's first totally electronic programmable computing device, at the Post Office Research Station, Dollis Hill, to assist in cryptanalysis at Bletchley Park, is completed.^[22]
• Undated – Anne Loughlin becomes the first trades unionist appointed DBE and the first female President of the Trades Union Congress.

Publications[]

• Nigel Balchin's novel The Small Back Room.
• T. S. Eliot's poetry Four Quartets.
• David Lack's study The Life of the Robin.
• C. S. Lewis' novel Perelandra.
• Nikolaus Pevsner's book An Outline of European Architecture.
• Malcolm Saville's children's novel Mystery at Witchend, first in The Lone Pine series.

Births[]

January – March[]

• 6 January – Terry Venables, English football manager
• 9 January – Freddie Starr, English comedian and singer (died 2019)
• 10 January – Christopher Wicking, English screenwriter (died 2008)
• 15 January – Margaret Beckett, politician
• 16 January
  • Michael Attwell, English actor (died 2006)
  • Brian Ferneyhough, British composer
• 20 January – Mel Hague, English singer and author
• 29 January – Tony Blackburn, British radio disc jockey
• 15 February – Lal Waterson, English folk singer-songwriter (died 1998)
• 16 February – Anthony Dowell, ballet dancer and artistic director of the Royal Ballet
• 18 February – Graeme Garden, Scottish writer, comedian, and actor
• 19 February – Tim Hunt, British biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 20 February – Mike Leigh, British film director
• 25 February – George Harrison, English musician (The Beatles) (died 2001)
• 26 February – Darcus Howe, Trinidadian-born civil rights activist (died 2017)
• 2 March – Tony Meehan, English pop drummer (The Shadows) (died 2005)
• 8 March – Lynn Redgrave, English actress (died 2010)
• 16 March
  • Roger Dean, English guitarist (died 2008)
  • John Leeson, English actor
• 21 March – Vivian Stanshall, English comedy musician, writer, artist and broadcaster (died 1995)
• 22 March – Keith Relf, English blues rock vocalist and harmonica player (The Yardbirds) (died 1976)
• 29 March
  • Eric Idle, English comedy actor, writer and composer
  • John Major, British Conservative politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1990-1997

April – June[]

• 2 April – Nicky James, British singer-songwriter (The Moody Blues) (died 2007)
• 3 April – Jonathan Lynn, English comedy screenwriter and actor
• 6 April – Max Clifford, publicist (died 2017)
• 20 April – John Eliot Gardiner, English conductor
• 21 April – Alan Fersht, English chemist and academic
• 24 April – Hew Pike, general
• 25 April – Tony Christie, singer
• 28 April – Jeffrey Tate, orchestral conductor (died 2017 in Italy)
• 1 May – Ian Dunn, gay and paedophile rights activist, founder of the Scottish Minorities Group (died 1998)^[23]
• 5 May
  • Michael Palin, comedian
  • Kay Ullrich, politician (died 2021)
• 8 May – Pat Barker, writer and historian
• 12 May – Tom Sawyer, Baron Sawyer, academic and politician
• 13 May – Anthony Clarke, Baron Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, judge
• 14 May – Jack Bruce, musician and songwriter (died 2014)
• 22 May – Betty Williams, Northern Irish political activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 2020)
• 26 May
  • Ian Breakwell, artist (died 2005)
  • Carol Lee Scott, television actress and singer (died 2017)
• 27 May – Cilla Black, born Priscilla White, singer-songwriter and television personality (died 2015)
• 1 June – David Newbery, English economist and academic
• 8 June – Colin Baker, actor
• 13 June – Malcolm McDowell, actor
• 22 June – J. Michael Kosterlitz, Scottish-born condensed matter physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• 29 June – Maureen O'Brien, actress

July – September[]

• 10 July – Gavin Strang, politician
• 12 July – Christine McVie, née Perfect, pop rock musician (Fleetwood Mac)
• 15 July – Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astronomer
• 20 July – Wendy Richard, actress (died 2009)
• 26 July
  • Andrew Crozier, poet (died 2008)
  • Mick Jagger, English rock singer (Rolling Stones)
• 28 July – Richard Wright, English progressive rock keyboardist (Pink Floyd) (died 2008)
• 31 July – John Dyson, Master of the Rolls
• 2 August – Rose Tremain, née Thomson, fiction writer
• 19 August – Billy J. Kramer, né William H. Ashton, pop singer
• 20 August – Sylvester McCoy, né Percy Kent-Smith, Scottish actor
• 22 August – Alun Michael, politician
• 5 September – Richard Dunn, CEO of Thames Television (died 1998)
• 6 September
  • Richard J. Roberts, English biochemist and molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • Roger Waters, English musician
• 28 September – Mike Dickin, DJ and radio personality (died 2006)
• 30 September – Ian Ogilvy, English actor

October – December[]

• 11 October – John Nettles, actor
• 21 October – Jason Hughes, sociologist
• 23 October – Anita Roddick, businesswoman (died 2007)
• 29 October – Norman Hunter, England footballer (died 2020)
• 31 October – Paul Frampton, English physicist
• 8 November – Martin Peters, England footballer (died 2019)
• 7 December – Sue Johnston, actress
• 11 December – Betty Kershaw, nurse and academic
• 17 December – Ron Geesin, musician and songwriter (Pink Floyd)
• 18 December – Keith Richards, rock guitarist and songwriter (The Rolling Stones)
• 27 December – Peter Sinfield, lyricist and producer
• 28 December – Richard Whiteley, television presenter (died 2005)
• 31 December – Ben Kingsley, actor

Deaths[]

January – June[]

• 3 January – F. M. Cornford, classicist and poet (born 1874)
• 7 January – Sir Henry Maybury, civil engineer (biorn 1864)
• 9 January – R. G. Collingwood, philosopher and historian (born 1889)
• 19 January – William Pettigrew, Scottish-born Christian missionary to India (born 1869)
• 24 January – John Burns, trade union leader, politician and historian (born 1858)
• 27 January – Ben Tillett, trade union leader (born 1860)
• 2 February – Alfred Cavendish, general (born 1859)
• 7 February – Clara Novello Davies, Welsh-born singer (born 1861)
• 9 February – Sir Eustace Fiennes, soldier and politician (born 1864)
• 23 February – Edward Heaton-Ellis, naval officer (born 1868)
• 27 February – Dilly Knox, cryptanalyst (died 1943)
• 10 March – Laurence Binyon, poet and scholar (born 1869)
• 14 March – Mervyn Herbert, Viscount Clive, British peer, army officer (killed on active service in aviation accident) (born 1904)
• 26 March – Leonard Darwin, soldier, politician, economist, eugenicist (born 1850)
• 28 March
  • Ben Davies, operatic tenor (born 1858)
  • Edward Heron-Allen, polymath, lawyer, scientist and scholar (born 1871)
  • Robert W. Paul, pioneer of cinematography (born 1869)
• 5 April – William George Howard Gritten, barrister, writer and Conservative politician (born 1870)
• 26 April – Alastair Windsor, 2nd Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, son of Prince and Princess Arthur of Connaught (born 1914)
• 29 April – Sidney Keyes, poet (killed in action) (born 1922)
• 30 April – Beatrice Webb, socialist, economist and reformer (born 1858)
• 5 May – Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart, politician and judge (born 1870)
• 25 May – Percy Shakespeare, painter (killed on active service) (born 1906)
• 27 May – Arthur Mee, topographer and children's encyclopedist (born 1875)
• 17 May – Montagu Love, actor (born 1877)
• 1 June – Leslie Howard, actor (born 1893)
• 3 June – Osgood Hanbury, pilot (killed on active service) (born 1917)
• 17 June – Annie S. Swan, Scottish romantic fiction writer and political activist (born 1859)

July – December[]

• 12 August – Bobby Peel, English cricketer (born 1857)
• 26 August – Ted Ray, golfer (born 1877)
• 27 August – William de Burgh, philosopher (born 1866)
• 6 September – Reginald McKenna, Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer (born 1863)
• 21 September – Sir Kingsley Wood, politician (born 1881)
• 23 September – Elinor Glyn, romantic fiction writer and screenwriter (born 1864 in Jersey)
• 7 October – Radclyffe Hall, author and poet (born 1880)
• 21 October – Sir Dudley Pound, admiral (born 1877)
• 22 October – Sir William Reginald Hall ("Blinker" Hall), admiral and cryptanalyst (born 1870)
• 28 October – Sir Aurel Stein, archaeologist (born 1862 in Hungary)
• 26 November – Prince Hubertus of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, pilot, great grandson of Queen Victoria (born 1909 in Germany)
• 6 December – G. O. Smith, amateur footballer and cricketer (born 1872)
• 8 December – Donald Mackintosh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow (born 1876)
• 18 December – Hector Gray, RAF officer (executed in Japanese Prisoner of War camp) (born 1911)
• 22 December – Beatrix Potter, children's author, illustrator and conservationist (born 1866)^[24]
• 23 December – Sir Frederic Fisher, admiral (born 1851)

References[]

See also[]

• List of British films of 1943
• Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II