1939 in the United Kingdom

1939 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport, Television and music

1939 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland 1939 in British television

Events from the year 1939 in the United Kingdom. This year sees the start of World War II.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George VI
• Prime Minister – Neville Chamberlain (national coalition)

Events

• 2 January – All-time highest attendance for a U.K. Association football league game as 118,730 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.
• 25 February – First Anderson shelter built in London.^[2]
• 27 February – Borley Rectory, a reputed haunted house, destroyed by fire.^[2]
• 31 March – Britain pledges support to Poland in the event of an invasion.^[3]
• 11 April – Women's Royal Naval Service re-established.^[4]
• 27 April – Military Training Act (coming into force 3 June) introduces conscription; men aged 20 and 21 must undertake six months military training.^[5]
• May–September – The Sutton Hoo treasure – an Anglo-Saxon ship burial – is excavated. The principal treasure is presented to the British Museum by the landowner, Edith Pretty, at this time its largest ever gift from a living donor.^[6]
• 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.^[7]
• 15 May – Film Goodbye, Mr. Chips released.
• 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 – Submarine HMS Thetis sinks during trials in Liverpool Bay. 99 men are lost.^[8]
• 7 June – George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit New York City on the first visit to the United States by a reigning British sovereign.^[2]
• 14 June–20 August – Tientsin Incident: The Imperial Japanese Army blockades British trading settlements in the north China treaty port of Tientsin.
• 28 June – Women's Auxiliary Air Force created, absorbing the forty-eight RAF companies of the Auxiliary Territorial Service which have been formed since 1938.^[9]
• 30 June – The Mersey Ferry stops running to Rock Ferry.^[2]
• 1 July – Women's Land Army re-formed to work in agriculture.^[10]
• 8 July – The Pan American Airways Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper inaugurates the world's first heavier-than-air North Atlantic air passenger service between the United States and Britain (Southampton).
• 26 July – The Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham, designed by Robert Atkinson, is officially opened by Queen Mary.^[11][12]
• 5 August – Weekly transatlantic flights scheduled by Imperial Airways; suspended in September.^[3]
• 24 August – Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 gives full authority to 'defence regulations'.^[3] Parliament recalled, Army reservists called up and Civil Defence workers placed on alert.
• 25 August – Irish Republican Army bomb explodes in Coventry, killing 25.^[3]
• 30 August – Royal Navy proceeds to war stations.
• late August – Most paintings evacuated from the National Gallery in London to Wales.^[13]
• 1 September
  • "Operation Pied Piper": 4-day evacuation of children from London and other major U.K. cities begins.^[14]
  • Blackout imposed across Britain.^[3]
  • The Army is officially mobilised.
  • The BBC Home Service begins broadcasting^[2] but BBC Television shuts down until 1946.
• 3 September – World War II
  • Declaration of war by the United Kingdom on Nazi Germany following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September.^[2] 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.
  • National Service (Armed Forces) Act passed by Parliament introduces National Service for all men aged 18 to 41.^[15]
  • 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.^[16]
• 4 September – First bombing of Wilhelmshaven in World War II by the Royal Air Force.
• 5 September – National Registration Act.^[17]
• 9 September – British Expeditionary Force crosses to France.^[3]
• 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.^[18]
• 17 September – Aircraft carrier HMS Courageous is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-29 in the Western Approaches with the loss of 519 crew, the first British warship loss of the War.
• 18 September – Fascist politician William Joyce begins broadcasting Nazi propaganda under the name Lord Haw-Haw.^[2]
• 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.^[3][19] Known as "ITMA", it runs for ten years.
• 24 September – Petrol rationing introduced.^[3]
• 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.^[17]
• 30 September – Identity cards introduced.^[3]
• 1 October – Call-Up Proclamation: All men aged 20–21 must register with the military authorities.
• 14 October – HMS Royal Oak sunk by a German U-boat in Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands with the loss of 833 crew.^[2]
• 16 October – First enemy aircraft shot down by RAF Fighter Command, a Junkers Ju 88 brought down by Spitfires following an attack on Rosyth Naval Dockyard in Scotland.^[20]
• 17 October – First bomb lands in the U.K., at Hoy in the Orkney Islands.^[21]
• 21 October – Registration of men aged 20 to 23 for National Service begins.^[15]
• 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.
• 24 November – British Overseas Airways Corporation formed by merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. effective from 1 April 1940.
• 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.^[22]
• 13 December – The Battle of the River Plate takes place between HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles and the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee,^[2] 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 Ten Little Indians.
• 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

• 20 January – Chandra Wickramasinghe, Ceylonese-born British astronomer and poet
• 10 February – Peter Purves, actor and television presenter
• 8 March – Christopher Story, editor and intelligence analyst (died 2010)
• 7 April – David Frost, television personality (died 2013)
• 12 April – Alan Ayckbourn, playwright
• 13 April – Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (died 2013)
• 22 April – Alex Murphy, English rugby league footballer and coach
• 4 May – Neil Fox, rugby league footballer
• 10 May – Bill Cash, English lawyer and politician
• 31 May – Terry Waite, humanitarian, author and hostage
• 5 June – Margaret Drabble, novelist and biographer
• 8 June – Francis Jacobs, English lawyer and judge
• 11 June – Jackie Stewart, Scottish racing driver
• 10 July – John Dunlop, racehorse trainer
• 4 August – Jack Cunningham, politician
• 19 August – Alan Baker, mathematician
• 30 August – John Peel, disc jockey and radio presenter (died 2004)
• 25 September – Leon Brittan, politician (death 2015)
• 7 October – Harry Kroto, organic chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (died 2016)
• 19 October – David George Clark, Baron Clark, politician
• 27 October – John Cleese, comic actor
• 4 November – Michael Meacher, politician (died 2015)
• 11 November – Alf Adams, physicist
• 12 November – Terry McDonald, footballer and coach
• 18 November – Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington, born Margaret Callaghan, politician
• 16 December – Gordon Miller, Olympic high jumper
• 20 December – Tony Bentley, footballer

Deaths

• 9 January – Edwin Farley, mayor (born 1864)
• 2 March – Howard Carter, archaeologist (born 1874)
• 9 May – Sophie Williams, previously Mary, Lady Heath, aviator and athlete (born 1896)
• 26 June – Ford Madox Ford, novelist, poet, critic and editor (born 1873)
• 6 September – Arthur Rackham, illustrator (born 1867)
• 3 December – Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, daughter of Queen Victoria (born 1848)

References

1. "Notable Dates in History". The Flag in the Wind. The Scots Independent. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
2. Penguin Pocket OnThis Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
3. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 385–386. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
4. Fletcher, Marjorie H. (1989). The WRNS: a history of the Women's Royal Naval Service. London: Batsford. p. 90. ISBN 0-7134-6185-3.
5. "WW2 People's War Timeline, BBC". Retrieved 2008-03-02.
6. Libraries and Culture, Stanley Chodorow
7. Callander, Jane (2004). "Garrod, Dorothy Annie Elizabeth (1892–1968)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37443. Retrieved 2011-02-14. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
8. Warren, C.E.T.; Benson, James (1958). "The Admiralty regrets ...": the story of His Majesty's submarine Thetis and Thunderbolt. London: Harrap.
9. Narracot, A.H. (1941). "9 – Woman in Blue". How The R.A.F. Works. Frederick Muller Ltd. p. 108 (n115). Retrieved 2009-07-30.
10. Twinch, Carol (1990). Women on the Land: their story during two World Wars. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press. p. 67. ISBN 0-7188-2814-3.
11. Spencer-Longhurst, Paul (2004). "Atkinson, Robert (1883–1952)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38347. Retrieved 2010-12-31.
12. "The Barber Institute: A Cultural Centre For Birmingham". The Times (48366). London. 25 July 1939. p. 17.
13. Bosman, Suzanne (2008). The National Gallery in Wartime. London: National Gallery Company. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-85709-424-4.
14. Clouting, Laura. "The Evacuated Children Of The Second World War". London: Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 2015-08-19.
15. "Conscription, Spartacus Educational". Retrieved 2008-03-02.
16. Brennecke, Jochen (2003). The Hunters and the Hunted. Naval Institute Press. pp. 15–16. ISBN 1-59114-091-9.
17. "1939: An emergency population count in wartime". 2011 Census. 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-13.
18. Matthew, H. C. G. (2004). "Edward VIII, later Prince Edward, duke of Windsor (1894–1972)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31061. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
19. "The BBC Story – 1930s" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-05-31.
20. Duncan, George. "Lesser-Known Facts of World War II". Retrieved 2012-01-19.
21. Doyle, Peter (2010). ARP and Civil Defence in the Second World War. Oxford: Shire Publications. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-7478-0765-0.
22. English, John (1993). Amazon to Ivanhoe: British Standard Destroyers of the 1930s. Kendal: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-64-9.

See also

• 1939 in British music
• 1939 in British television
• Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II