1943 in the United Kingdom

none August 2022 January 2013 1943 Constituent countries of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Popular culture 1943 English cricket season Football: England Scotland 1943 in British radio 1943 in British television 1943 in British music 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) Events 1 January Total ban on civilians travelling to the Isle of Wight (continues until 25 August 1944). Utility furniture first becomes available.Paul Evans Doyle, Peter The 1940s Home Oxford Shire Publications 2009 978-0-7478-0736-0 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.Penguin Pocket On This Day Penguin Reference Library 0-14-102715-0 2006 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. 3 March – panic at the sound of new anti-aircraft rockets leads to a crush at Bethnal Green tube station in East London, killing 183 people.Palmer Alan Palmer Veronica 1992 The Chronology of British History Century Ltd London 391–392 0-7126-5616-2 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.Gloster Meteor This Day in Aviation https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/gloster-meteor/#:~:text=Fifth%20of%20eight%20F9/40%20prototypes,%20Gloster%20Meteor%20DG206/G,first%20flight%20at%20RAF%20Cranwell%20in%20Lincolnshire,%20England. 2026-02-23 www.thisdayinaviation.com 14 March – submarine HMS Thunderbolt is sunk off Sicily by an Italian corvette, the second time this vessel has been lost with all hands.HMS Thunderbolt (N 25) uboat.net http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3485.html 2010-10-21 17 March – last church service in the village of Derwent, Derbyshire, before it is demolished (together with Ashopton) for construction of Ladybower Reservoir.Hallam Vic 1989 Silent Valley: the story of the lost Derbyshire villages of Derwent and Ashopton Sheffield Sheaf Publishing 0-9505458-9-9 27 March – Royal Navy escort carrier 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. 130 bombs killed 93 civilians and 27 soldiers.BBC - WW2 People's War - Bombs dropped on Aberdeen 21 April 1943 https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/76/a4167876.shtml 2026-02-23 www.bbc.co.uk 7 May – capture of Tunis ends the campaign in North Africa. 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.http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/85/a3677385.shtml The Battle of Bamber Bridge Harold Pollins BBC WW2 People's War 17 February 2005 2012-11-03 21 November 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20101121072610/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/85/a3677385.shtml dead 9 July–17 August – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily. 5 August – North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board established by Act of Parliament.http://www.scottish-southern.co.uk/sseinternet/assets/569CABFE-1165-4ED8-9419-CF3B5A64BC98.pdf Power From the Glens 2010-06-18 Perth Scottish and Southern Energy 2005 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20071018233304/http://www.scottish-southern.co.uk/sseinternet/assets/569CABFE-1165-4ED8-9419-CF3B5A64BC98.pdf 18 October 2007 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.The Twentieth Century Society The Twentieth Century Society 100 Houses 100 Years London Batsford 2017 978-1-84994-437-3 1943 26 September – trouble flares between black American soldiers and white military police stationed in Launceston, Cornwall; shots are fired.An American Uprising in Second World War England: Mutiny in the Duchy Kate Werran Barnsley Pen & Sword 2020 9781526759542 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.Regency Act 1943 c. 42 Total evacuation of an area near Portmahomack in Scotland begins, to make way for rehearsal of the Normandy Landings.Notable Dates in History http://www.scotsindependent.org/dates1-g.htm The Flag in the Wind 2014-07-17 usurped https://web.archive.org/web/20140523225830/http://www.scotsindependent.org/dates1-g.htm 2014-05-23 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.Grace Bradbeer The Land Changed its Face: the Evacuation of Devon's South Hams 1943–1944 Newton Abbot David & Charles 1973 0-7153-5781-6 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.Barbara Tomblin With Utmost Spirit: Allied Naval Operations in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945 University Press of Kentucky 2004 308–310 2 December First "Bevin Boys" selected from conscripts to work in the coal mines.Bevin Boys. https://web.archive.org/web/20090714065513/http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/sources/coal/bevin/page41441.html 14 July 2009 Pigeons White Vision, Winkie and Tyke become the first recipients of the Dickin Medal, instituted to honour the work of animals in war.http://www.pdsa.org.uk/about-us/animal-bravery-awards/dickin-medal-pigeons Dickin medal pigeons PDSA 2010-03-01 https://web.archive.org/web/20100213211708/http://www.pdsa.org.uk/about-us/animal-bravery-awards/dickin-medal-pigeons 2010-02-13 dead 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;Chris Mann British Policy and Strategy towards Norway, 1941–45 Palgrave Macmillan 2012 34–35 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.2006 Copeland B. Jack Colossus: the Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers Oxford University Press 978-0-19-284055-4 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 (died 2023) 7 January – Richard Armstrong, English conductor 9 January – Freddie Starr, English comedian and singer (died 2019) 10 January – Christopher Wicking, English screenwriter (died 2008) 13 January – Lorna Sage, academic (died 2001) 15 January – Margaret Beckett, politician 16 January Michael Attwell, English actor (died 2006) Gavin Bryars, composer and double bassist Brian Ferneyhough, English-born composer 17 January – Malcolm Clarke, British composer (died 2003) 18 January – Prunella Ransome, English actress (died 2002) 20 January – Mel Hague, English singer and author (died 2023) 29 January – Tony Blackburn, English radio disc jockey 3 February – Eric Haydock, pop guitarist (died 2019) 9 February – Ryland Davies, Welsh opera singer (died 2023) 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) 7 March – Chris White, musician (The Zombies) 8 March Michael Grade, television executive and life peer Lynn Redgrave, English actress (died 2010) 15 March – Lynda La Plante, writer and actress 16 March Roger Dean, English guitarist (died 2008) John Leeson, English actor 17 March – Clare Venables, English theatre director (died 2003) 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) 23 March – Ken White, muralist and painter (died 2025) 24 March – John Timpson, businessman 28 March – Richard Eyre, theatre and opera director 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) 8 April – James Herbert, horror writer (died 2013) 10 April – Margaret Pemberton, writer 16 April Ruth Madoc, actress (died 2022) Dave Peverett, English singer and musician (died 2000) 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)Obituary: Ian Dunn | The Independent 5 May Michael Palin, comedian Kay Ullrich, politician (died 2021) 8 May – Pat Barker, writer and historian 9 May Vince Cable, politician Colin Pillinger, planetary scientist (died 2014) 10 May – Lady Lucinda Lambton, photographer and writer 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 Arlene Phillips, choreographer 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 12 June – Tim Razzall, Baron Razzall, lawyer and politician 13 June Len Garrison, Jamaican-born activist and historian (died 2003) Malcolm McDowell, actor 18 June Barry Evans, actor (died 1997) Willie Irvine, Norther Irish footballer (died 2025) 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 3 July – Gary Waldhorn, actor and comedian (died 2022) 7 July – Robert East, actor 10 July – Gavin Strang, politician 12 July Christine McVie, pop rock singer-songwriter and keyboardist (Fleetwood Mac) (died 2022) Ronnie Radford, footballer (died 2022) 15 July – Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astronomer 20 July John Lodge, rock musician (died 2025) Wendy Richard, actress (died 2009) 25 July – Jim McCarty, drummer 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 Julia Foster, actress Rose Tremain, fiction writer 11 August – Denis Payton, saxophonist (died 2006) 15 August – Malcolm Gregson, golfer (died 2024) 17 August – John Humphrys, broadcaster 19 August – Billy J. Kramer, né William H. Ashton, pop singer 20 August – Sylvester McCoy, né Percy Kent-Smith, Scottish actorSylvester McCoy https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba3c85b98 https://web.archive.org/web/20160528093240/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba3c85b98 dead 28 May 2016 BFI 9 January 2022 en 22 August – Alun Michael, politician 3 September – Andrew Jennings, investigative journalist (died 2022) 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 27 September – Max Boyce, Welsh singer and entertainer 28 September – Mike Dickin, DJ and radio personality (died 2006) 30 September – Ian Ogilvy, English actor October – December 2 October – Anna Ford, journalist and newsreader 5 October – Michael Morpurgo, writer 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) 28 November – Susan Brookes, television chef 7 December – Sue Johnston, actress 9 December – Joanna Trollope, novelist (died 2025) 11 December – Betty Kershaw, nurse and academic 13 December – Marti Webb, singer and actress 14 December – Britt Allcroft, television producer (died 2024) 17 December – Ron Geesin, musician and songwriter (Pink Floyd) 18 December – Keith Richards, rock guitarist and songwriter (The Rolling Stones) 25 December – Eve Pollard, journalist and editor 27 December – Peter Sinfield, lyricist and producer (died 2024) 28 December Keith Floyd, celebrity chef (died 2009) 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 (born 1864) 8 January – Albert Goldthorpe, rugby league footballer (born 1871) 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)The Encyclopedia Americana: The International Reference Work https://books.google.com/books?id=qe4aAQAAMAAJ 1962 Americana Corporation of Canada 546 9 February – Sir Eustace Fiennes, soldier and politician (born 1864) 23 February – Edward Heaton-Ellis, naval officer (born 1868) 27 February – Dilly Knox, cryptanalyst (born 1884) 3 March – George Thompson, cricketer (born 1877) 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)https://biography.wales/article/s2-DAVI-BEN-1858 Davies, Benjamin ('Ben'; 1858-1943), singer Robert David Griffith Dictionary of Welsh Biography National Library of Wales 15 March 2019 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) Henry B Wimbush, landscape painter, book illustrator and postcard artist (born 1858)Henry Wimbush Home Page http://www.jhsn.eclipse.co.uk/id19.htm 2 September 2017 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) 24 August – Simone Weil, philosopher (born 1909 in France) 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)Beatrix Potter British author https://www.britannica.com/biography/Beatrix-Potter Encyclopædia Britannica 24 November 2020 en 23 December – Sir Frederic Fisher, admiral (born 1851) See also List of British films of 1943 Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II References 1943 Category:Years of the 20th century in the United Kingdom United Kingdom Category:1940s in the United Kingdom United Kingdom