1950 in the United Kingdom

none September 2024 January 2013 1950 Constituent countries of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Popular culture 1950 British Grand Prix 1950 English cricket season Football: England Scotland 1950 in British television 1950 in British radio 1950 in British music Events from the year 1950 in the United Kingdom. Incumbents Monarch – George VI Prime Minister – Clement Attlee (Labour) Events 12 January – Submarine Truculent P315 sinks after collision in the Thames Estuary with 64 deaths (mostly from hypothermia) and 20 survivors.Few Survived – A History of Submarine Disasters Edwyn Gray Leo Cooper 1986 16 January – The BBC Light Programme first airs the daily children's radio feature Listen with Mother.David Kynaston David Kynaston Austerity Britain 1945–1951 London Bloomsbury 2007 978-0-7475-7985-4 26 January India becomes a republic, severing constitutional ties with the United Kingdom and other dominions.https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/26/newsid_3475000/3475569.stm India becomes a republic BBC News 2008-01-29 26 January 1950 https://web.archive.org/web/20080117080154/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/26/newsid_3475000/3475569.stm 17 January 2008 live Donald Hume is sentenced to imprisonment as an accessory to the murder of Stanley Setty, having dumped his dismembered body over the Essex marshes from a light aircraft. 8 February – George Kelly is sentenced to hang for the murder of the Cameo cinema manager in the Liverpool suburb of Wavertree, a conviction which will be quashed as unsafe fifty-three years later. 20 February – Ealing Studios release the film The Blue Lamp, introducing the character PC George Dixon, played by Jack Warner (with Dirk Bogarde as a young criminal). The film has the highest audiences in Britain for a British film this year.https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18193224 Critics Praise Drama: Comedians Win Profits The Sydney Morning Herald 1950-12-29 2015-01-07 3 Trove 21 February – Cunard liner Aquitania arrives at the scrapyard in Faslane at the end of a 36-year career. 23 February – 1950 general election: Labour, led by Clement Attlee, win a second term in government, though with a parliamentary majority of just five seats, a stark contrast to the 146-seat majority gained in 1945. Their popularity took a plunge last year following the devaluation of the pound and the failure of the East African groundnuts scheme, with many recent opinion polls showing a comfortable Conservative lead.https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/24/newsid_2756000/2756707.stm Labour wins slim majority BBC News 2008-01-29 24 February 1950 https://web.archive.org/web/20080307121201/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/24/newsid_2756000/2756707.stm 7 March 2008 live Among the lost Labour seats is Bexley in Kent which 33-year-old Conservative Party candidate Edward Heath seizes from Ashley Bramall.http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/edward-heath Number10.gov.uk » Edward Heath 2010-08-17 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080825211306/http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/edward-heath 25 August 2008 Both Communist Party MP's lose their seats. Voter turnout is 83.9%, an all-time high for a UK general election under universal suffrage. This is the first Parliamentary election at which plural voting is not permitted. University constituencies have been abolished at the dissolution.Representation of the People Act 1948. Postal voting is available to civilians for the first time. BBC Television airs its first election results programme, however no footage survives due to it being broadcast live and not recorded. 1 March – German-born theoretical physicist Klaus Fuchs, working at Harwell Atomic Energy Research Establishment, is convicted following a confession of supplying secret information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/1/newsid_4222000/4222261.stm Communist spy jailed for 14 years BBC News 2008-01-29 1 March 1950 https://web.archive.org/web/20080113225552/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/1/newsid_4222000/4222261.stm 13 January 2008 live 6–8 March – The World Figure Skating Championships are held in London. 8 March Carmaker Rover tests a revolutionary new turbine-powered concept car.https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/8/newsid_2516000/2516271.stm Gas turbine car gets road test BBC News 2008-01-06 8 March 1950 Release of comedy film The Happiest Days of Your Life starring Alastair Sim and Margaret Rutherford. 9 March – Welsh-born Timothy Evans, aged 25, is hanged by Albert Pierrepoint at HM Prison Pentonville in London for the murder of his baby daughter (and, by imputation, his wife) at their residence at 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, London. 3 years later, his downstairs neighbour John Christie is found to be a serial killer of at least seven women at this address. Evans is posthumously pardoned in 1966. 12 March – Llandow air disaster: eighty of the eighty-three passengers (returning from a rugby match in Ireland) on board an Avro Tudor V aircraft are killed when it crashes on approach to Llandow in the Vale of Glamorgan, making it the world's worst air disaster at this time. 16 March – The Gambols comic strip first appears in the Daily Express. c. April? – The best-selling Kenwood Chef food mixer is first introduced. 1 April – Corby, a village in Northamptonshire, is designated as the first new town in central England, providing homes for up to 40,000 people by the 1960s.38878 1671 4 April 1950 14 April – The Eagle comic first appears, featuring Dan Dare and Captain Pugwash. 29 April – Arsenal F.C. win the FA Cup with a 2–0 win over Liverpool at Wembley Stadium.http://www.fa-cupfinals.co.uk/1950.htm FA Cup Final 1950 4 December 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20080525093218/http://www.fa-cupfinals.co.uk/1950.htm 25 May 2008 dead 13 May – First Grand Prix held at Silverstone.https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/lostdecade/timeline_html.shtml The Lost Decade Timeline BBC 2008-01-29 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20081016005923/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/lostdecade/timeline_html.shtml 16 October 2008 20 May – The first package holiday air charter, by Vladimir Raitz of Horizon Holidays, from Gatwick Airport to Calvi, Corsica, for camping.Simon Calder Heroes & Villains: Vladimir Raitz The Independent London 10 January 2004 21 May – A tornado tracks across England from Wendover to Blakeney, Norfolk (68 mi km), the longest ever such track in Britain.Paul Simons Since Records Began London Collins 2008 978-0-00-728463-4 35–6 26 May – Motor fuel rationing comes to an end after eleven years, marking another stage in the phasing-out of rationing that was introduced in the wake of World War II.https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/26/newsid_2502000/2502691.stm UK drivers cheer end of fuel rations BBC News 2008-01-29 26 May 1950 https://web.archive.org/web/20080307121107/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/26/newsid_2502000/2502691.stm 7 March 2008 live 6 June – The BBC Light Programme first airs the popular radio comedy feature Educating Archie. 7 June – The pilot episode of the agricultural soap opera The Archers airs on BBC Radio. The series proper begins in January 1951 and will still be running more than 75 years later.Penguin Pocket On This Day Penguin Reference Library 0-14-102715-0 2006 24 June – World Cup opens in Brazil with the England national football team competing for the first time. 28 June – In the World Cup, the England national football team is humiliated by losing 1–0 to the United States in Belo Horizonte. 29 June – The England cricket team loses the Test Match by 326 runs to the West Indies at Lord's, an event commemorated in Lord Beginner's calypso Victory Test Match. 11 July – The first broadcast of the popular BBC Television pre-school children's programme Andy Pandy. 19 July – Release of the film Treasure Island made in England with Robert Newton as Long John Silver.Angus Konstam 2008 https://books.google.com/books?id=USiyy1ZA-BsC&q=WEST+COUNTRY+PIRATE+ACCENT&pg=PA313 Piracy: The Complete History 313 Oxford Osprey Publishing 9781846032400 2011-10-11 May 2024 28 July – Shops Act 1950 (coming into effect 1 October) consolidates legislation on shop closing hours, employment conditions and Sunday trading.Text of statute as originally enacted. 31 July Sainsbury's opens the first purpose-built supermarket in Croydon.Palmer Alan Palmer Veronica 1992 The Chronology of British History Century Ltd London 401–402 0-7126-5616-2 Warwickshire's Eric Hollies beats Nobby Clark's record of 65 innings without reaching double figures when dismissed for 7 against Worcestershire. Hollies will eventually make it 71 before scoring 14 against Nottinghamshire on 16 August. 15 August – Elizabeth II Duchess of Edinburgh gives birth to her and her husband, The Duke of Edinburgh's second child and only daughter.BBC On this Day – 15 August 19 August – The Football League season begins with four new members, taking membership from 88 to 92 across the four divisions.http://www.statto.com/football/stats/results/1950-08-19 Results : Saturday 19th August 1950 statto.com 2013-05-13 https://web.archive.org/web/20150915194301/http://www.statto.com/football/stats/results/1950-08-19 15 September 2015 live The new members are Colchester United, Gillingham (who lost their league status in 1938),http://gillsconnect.com/s/GillsBlog_by_iblue/Entries/2009/9/22_The_Fall_and_Rise_of_Gillingham_Football_Club_-_from_non-league_wilderness_to_league_status.html The Fall and Rise of Gillingham Football Club – from non-league wilderness to league status 2009-09-22 2013-05-13 https://web.archive.org/web/20120323023530/http://gillsconnect.com/s/GillsBlog_by_iblue/Entries/2009/9/22_The_Fall_and_Rise_of_Gillingham_Football_Club_-_from_non-league_wilderness_to_league_status.html 23 March 2012 dead Scunthorpe & Lindsey United and Shrewsbury Town.https://www.fchd.info/lghist/fl1951.htm 1950-51 Football League F.C.H.D 2013-05-13 24 August – Vale Park football stadium opens in Stoke-on-Trent, to serve Port Vale F.C. It has an initial capacity of more than 30,000 and it had been billed as the "Wembley of the North" when first proposed, but high costs mean that the new stadium is much more basic than had been planned.History http://www.port-vale.co.uk/club/history/ Port Vale F.C 2013-05-13 4 June 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20130604063508/http://www.port-vale.co.uk/club/history/ dead 27 August – The BBC makes its first television broadcast from the European continent. 29 August 4,000 British troops are sent to Korea.https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/29/newsid_3053000/3053107.stm British troops arrive in Korea BBC News 2008-01-29 29 August 1950 https://web.archive.org/web/20080307121121/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/29/newsid_3053000/3053107.stm 7 March 2008 live The Duchess of Edinburgh and The Duke of Edinburgh's fourteen-day-old daughter is named as Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise. She is known at this time as Princess Anne of Edinburgh and later as The Princess Royal. 8 September – 116 miners are trapped underground in a landslide at Knockshinnoch Castle colliery at New Cumnock in Ayrshire, Scotland.https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/8/newsid_2995000/2995048.stm Miners trapped underground by landslide BBC News 2008-01-29 8 September 1950 https://web.archive.org/web/20080307121117/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/8/newsid_2995000/2995048.stm 7 March 2008 live 9 September Post-war soap rationing ends. The first miners are rescued from Knockshinnoch Castle colliery. 11 September – The rescue operation from Knockshinnoch Castle colliery is completed, with all 116 miners saved. 26 September – 80 miners are killed underground in a machinery fire at Cresswell colliery in Derbyshire.http://www.dmm.org.uk/ukreport/8574-03.htm Report on the causes of, and circumstances attending, the accident which occurred at Creswell Colliery, Derbyshire, on the 26th September, 1950 Minister of Fuel and Power Durham Mining Museum 1952 A. M. Bryan 2025-03-26 1 October – Full-time military service by conscripted National Servicemen is extended to two years. 18 October – The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board's Loch Sloy Hydro-Electric Scheme is inaugurated.https://archive.today/20130118120431/http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=34450 Newsreel footage of opening ceremony. 25 October – The Festival Ballet, later to become the English National Ballet, founded as a touring company by English dancers Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin, makes its debut performance.The Hutchinson Factfinder Helicon 1999 1-85986-000-1 26 October – The rebuilt House of Commons, following its destruction by bombing in World War II, is used for the first time. October Alan Turing's paper "Computing machinery and intelligence", proposing the Turing test, is published in Mind. A group of Conservative politicians publishes the tract One Nation: a Tory approach to social policy. November – An attempt to hold the Second World Peace Congress at Sheffield City Hall is thwarted by the British authorities preventing many international delegates from entering the country and it is relocated to Warsaw.T. W. E. Roche The Key in the Lock London Murray 1969 0-7195-1907-1 176–7 registration https://archive.org/details/keyinlockhi00roch/page/176 5 November – The BBC Light Programme first airs Life with the Lyons, the UK's first sitcom, featuring British-domiciled American couple Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon. 28 November – James Corbitt is hanged at Strangeways Prison, Manchester, for the premeditated murder in August of his mistress at Ashton-under-Lyne. He is well acquainted with his executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, from Pierrepoint's other calling as a pub landlord in Oldham. 10 December Bertrand Russell wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought".https://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950 2008-01-29 Cecil Frank Powell wins the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and his discoveries regarding mesons made with this method".https://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1950/ The Nobel Prize in Physics 1950 2008-01-29 25 December – The Stone of Scone, the traditional coronation stone of Scottish monarchs, English monarchs and more recently British monarchs, is stolen from London's Westminster Abbey by a group of four Scottish students with nationalist beliefs. It turns up in Scotland on 11 April 1951. 28 December – An order to designate the Peak District as the first of the National parks of the United Kingdom is submitted to the Minister of Town and Country Planning for approval.National Park in the Peak The Times London 1950-12-29 3 51885 Undated Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones opens in Amlwch on Anglesey as Britain's first purpose-built comprehensive school. Construction of Shoeburyness Boom, a Cold War submarine defensive boom across the Thames Estuary, begins. Publications Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel A Murder is Announced. Catherine Cookson's first novel Kate Hannigan. William Cooper's novel Scenes from Provincial Life. Marion Crawford's royal biography The Little Princesses: the Story of the Queen's Childhood by her Nanny. Elizabeth David's recipe book A Book of Mediterranean Food. C. S. Forester's historical novel Mr. Midshipman Hornblower. Doris Lessing's novel The Grass is Singing. C. S. Lewis's novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, first of The Chronicles of Narnia series (16 October).http://cslewis.drzeus.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=93874 Lucy Barfield: The Real Lucy of Narnia Into the Wardrobe 27 May 2006 2010-10-04 Mervyn Peake's novel Gormenghast, second of the eponymous series. Barbara Pym's novel Some Tame Gazelle. Evelyn Waugh's novel Helena. Births thumb|100px|Philip Craven 1 January – Chris Black, Scottish hammer thrower 2 January – Angela Gallop, forensic scientist 5 January – Malcolm Hardee, comedian (died 2005) 7 January – Malcolm Macdonald, footballer and manager 9 January – Alec Jeffreys, geneticist 19 January – David Tredinnick, politician 1 February – John Bowe, actor 3 February – Pamela Franklin, actress 13 February – Peter Gabriel, musician 16 February – Peter Hain, politician 19 February – Andy Powell, rock guitarist (Wishbone Ash) 22 February – Julie Walters, English actressJulie Walters Facts https://www.britannica.com/facts/Julie-Walters Encyclopædia Britannica 7 October 2020 25 February – Tony Lloyd, politician (died 2024)Sir Tony Lloyd obituary 4 March Wendy Dagworthy, fashion designer Ken Robinson, educationalist (died 2020) 5 March – Henry Marsh, neurosurgeon 22 March – Jocky Wilson, Scottish darts player (died 2012) 27 March – Terry Yorath, footballer and football manager (died 2026) 29 March – Richard Feilden, architect (died 2005) 30 March – Robbie Coltrane, Scottish actor and comedian (died 2022)Robbie Coltrane obituary https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/oct/14/robbie-coltrane-obituary The Guardian 15 October 2022 14 October 2022 3 April – Sally Thomsett, actress 19 April – Julia Cleverdon, charity worker 20 April – Robert Mair, engineer and academic 22 April Peter Frampton, rock singer-songwriter Jancis Robinson, wine writer 1 May – Danny McGrain, footballer 3 May – Mary Hopkin, singer 11 May – Jeremy Paxman, television presenter and author 12 May Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, barrister and politician Jenni Murray, radio presenter (died 2026) 13 May – Danny Kirwan, guitarist and singer (died 2018) 15 May – Keith Mills, businessman 17 May – Alan Johnson, politician 22 May Mary Tamm, actress (died 2012) Bernie Taupin, songwriter 23 May – Martin McGuinness, Irish republican politician and soldier (died 2017) 1 June – Tom Robinson, singer and musician 2 June Jonathan Evans, Welsh lawyer and politician Anne Phillips, theorist and academic 5 June – Paul Flowers, Labour politician and non-executive chairman of The Co-operative Bank 12 June – Michael Fabricant, politician 13 June – Nick Brown, politician 14 June – Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury 20 June – Rita Rae, Lady Rae, Scottish judge 30 June Olly Flynn, race walker Leonard Whiting, actorBirthdays The Sunday Times London 30 June 2013 4 July – Philip Craven, 2nd President of the International Paralympic Committee 6 July Geraldine James, actress Jonathon Porritt, English environmentalist and academic 8 July – Sarah Kennedy, television presenter 14 July – Bruce Oldfield, fashion designer 18 July – Richard Branson, entrepreneur 19 July Simon Cadell, actor (died 1996) Adrian Noble, theatre director 23 July Len McCluskey, trade unionist Paul Patrick, gay rights activist (died 2008) 26 July – Susan George, actress 27 July – Simon Jones, actor 30 July – Harriet Harman, politician 13 August – Jane Carr, actress 15 August – Anne, Princess RoyalPrincess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/royals/princess-anne-daughter-of-queen-elizabeth-ii https://web.archive.org/web/20180525133555/https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/royals/princess-anne-daughter-of-queen-elizabeth-ii/ dead 25 May 2018 Westminster Abbey 8 October 2022 18 August – Dennis Elliott, drummer 20 August – Andrew Downes, composer (died 2023) 21 August – Cindy Buxton, wildlife filmmaker 28 August – Tony Husband, cartoonist (died 2023) 30 August – Antony Gormley, sculptor 11 September – Barry Sheene, motorcycle racer (died 2003 in Australia) 14 September – Paul Kossoff, blues rock guitarist (Free) (died 1976) 21 September – Charles Clarke, politician 24 September – Harriet Walter, actress 27 September – Linda Lewis, pop singer (died 2023) 28 September – Brian Keenan, Northern Irish writer and hostage 1 October – Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, scientist and life peer 5 October – Eddie Clarke, heavy metal guitarist (Motörhead) (died 2018) 22 October – Harry Gration, broadcaster and journalist (died 2022) 25 October – Steve Barry, race walker 27 October – A. N. Wilson, writer 14 November – Sarah Radclyffe, production manager and producer 17 November – Colin Fletcher, suffragan bishop 26 November – Davey Graham, guitarist (died 2008) 6 December – Helen Liddell, politician 10 December – Nicky Henderson, horse trainer 14 December – Vicki Michelle, actress 20 December – Geoffrey Grimmett, mathematician and academic 21 December – David Thacker, director and screenwriter 28 December – Clifford Cocks, cryptographer 31 December – Phil Blakeway, English rugby player Deaths 21 January – George Orwell, author (born 1903) 9 March – Timothy Evans, victim of wrongful execution (born 1924) 19 March – Sir Norman Haworth, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1883) 24 March – Harold Laski, political theorist and economist (born 1893) 30 March – Joe Yule, Scottish-born comedian (born 1894) 19 April – Edward Unwin, Victoria Cross recipient (born 1864) 2 August – Nina Boucicault, actress (born 1867)Nina Boucicault (1867—1950) 17 August – Sir Francis Lindley, diplomat (born 1872) 6 September – Olaf Stapledon, author and philosopher (born 1886) 21 September – Arthur Milne, physicist (born 1896) 2 November – George Bernard Shaw, playwright (born 1856) 12 November – Julia Marlowe, English-American actress (born 1865) 23 November – Percival Mackey, pianist, composer and bandleader (born 1894) 28 November – James Corbitt, murderer (born 1913) See also 1950 in British music 1950 in British television List of British films of 1950 References 1950 Category:Years of the 20th century in the United Kingdom Category:1950 by country Category:1950s in the United Kingdom Category:1950 in Europe