1947 in the United Kingdom

none August 2020 January 2013 1947 Constituent countries of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Popular culture 1947 English cricket season Football: England Scotland 1947 in British radio 1947 in British television 1947 in British music Events from the year 1947 in the United Kingdom. Incumbents Monarch – George VI Prime Minister – Clement Attlee (Labour) Events 1 January – The government nationalises the coal industry in the UKPenguin Pocket On This Day Penguin Reference Library 0-14-102715-0 2006 and Cable & Wireless.Bill Glover http://www.atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/CandW/CW/ Cable & Wireless Ltd History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications 2010 2011-01-03 2 January – British coins cease to include any silver content. 8 January – A Cabinet sub-committee approves High Explosive Research, a civil project to develop an independent British atomic bomb. 5 February – The Minister of Food, John Strachey, announces the £25,000,000 Tanganyika groundnut scheme.Wood Alan The Groundnut Affair Bodley Head 1950 London 1841364 10 February – Major cuts in power supply due to shortages of fuel under severe winter conditions are imposed in England and Wales.Drastic Cuts in Power Essential The Times London 1947-02-11 4 50682 The BBC Television Service is temporarily suspended until 11 March. 20 February – Earl Mountbatten of Burma is appointed as the last Viceroy of India. 23 February – Ealing Studios release the film Hue and Cry, regarded as the first of the Ealing Comedies.http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/441433/ Hue and Cry screenonline BFI 2010-07-09 February – The coldest February in the CET series with an average of −1.9 C Fhttp://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/mly_cet_mean_sort.txt Monthly ranked Hadley Central England temperature metoffice.gov.uk 20 April 2018 features the coldest Central England maximum temperature for any month since records began in 1878 at 0.1 C F.http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/mly_cet_max_sort.txt Monthly central England maximum temperature metoffice.gov.uk 20 April 2018 15 April 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20180415064522/https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/mly_cet_max_sort.txt dead 4 March – Treaty of Dunkirk (coming into effect 8 September) signed with France providing for mutual assistance in the event of attack. 14 March – Thames flood and other widespread flooding as the exceptionally harsh winter ends in a thaw.Palmer Alan Palmer Veronica 1992 The Chronology of British History Century Ltd London 396–397 0-7126-5616-2 March – Postwar boom in births reaches peak.David Kynaston David Kynaston Austerity Britain 1945–51 London Bloomsbury 2007 978-0-7475-7985-4 April – English country houses at Arundel, Chatsworth and Longleat reopen to the visiting public, after wartime use. 1 April – Raising of school leaving age to fifteen. 3 April – The private healthcare firm BUPA is founded. 9 April – How Does Your Garden Grow? first broadcast on BBC Radio. As Gardeners' Question Time, it will still be running more than seventy-five years later.About The Programme Gardeners' Question Time https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2tx08RB24rVnf8hWrrrl8Jx/about-gardeners-question-time BBC 2011-03-30 15 April – A large bomb planted by members of Israeli militant group Lehi at the Colonial Office building in Whitehall (London) fails to explode.Christopher Andrew (historian) Christopher Andrew The Defence of the Realm London Penguin 2009 2010 978-0-141-02330-4 355 18 April – In the largest non-nuclear single explosive detonation in history, the Royal Navy sets off 6,800 tonnes of surplus ammunition in an attempt to destroy Heligoland, Germany. 23 April – Mumbles Watson life-boat RNLB Edward, Prince of Wales (ON 678) capsizes on service to Liberty ship SS Samtampa off South Wales: all 8 lifeboat and 39 steamship crew are lost.Carl Smith The Men of the Mumbles Head: the Story of the Mumbles Life-boat from 1832 Llandysul Gomer Press 1977 0-85088-384-9 26 April – Charlton Athletic who lost the FA Cup final last year, win this year's final 1–0 against Burnley.http://www.fa-cupfinals.co.uk/1947.htm FA Cup Final 1947 4 December 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20080521034531/http://www.fa-cupfinals.co.uk/1947.htm 21 May 2008 dead May – The Conservative Party publishes its Industrial Charter. 6 May – East Kilbride designated as the first New Town in Scotland under powers of the New Towns Act 1946.e 16436 189 9 May 1947 11–15 June – First Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod is held.Llangollen International Eisteddfod – How it Started http://www.llangollen.com/eist3.html Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod 2012-05-08 https://web.archive.org/web/20170824054357/http://www.llangollen.com/eist3.html 24 August 2017 dead 15 June – Restrictions on foreign travel imposed during World War II lifted.The Lost Decade Timeline, BBC https://web.archive.org/web/20060821095537/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/lostdecade/timeline_html.shtml 21 August 2006 June – Retail Prices Index begins.http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=21 Finding RPI Data Office for National Statistics 2010 2011-01-06 10 July – Princess Elizabeth (the future Elizabeth II) announces her engagement to Lt. Philip Mountbatten (the future Duke of Edinburgh). 15 July–20 August – "Convertibility Crisis": Pound sterling fully convertible into United States Dollars, leading to loss of currency reserves. 27–28 July – English endurance swimmer Tom Blower becomes the first person to swim the North Channel, from Donaghadee in Northern Ireland to Portpatrick in Scotland. 31 July – Fire Services Act returns fire services in the United Kingdom from the National Fire Service to control of local authorities (from 1948) and provides the legislative basis for their organisation for more than fifty years. First few days of August – Anti-Jewish riots, primarily in North West England, following 'the Sergeants affair' in Mandatory Palestine.http://www.newstatesman.com/2012/05/britains-last-anti-jewish-riots Britain's last anti-Jewish riots Daniel Trilling 23 May 2012 New Statesman 29 May 2012 5 August – Release of Holiday Camp, first of the popular Huggetts Trilogy of comedy films. 14 & 15 August – PakistanPakistan. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. and IndiaIndia https://web.archive.org/web/20210318202107/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/india 18 March 2021 . The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. gain independence from the UK, remaining Dominions with the Commonwealth of Nations under King George VI. 15 August A mining accident at William Pit, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, kills 104 people.60th anniversary of William Pit disaster https://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/content/articles/2006/12/04/1947_william_pit_disaster_feature.shtml BBC 2008 2010-10-14 2 March 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120302183833/http://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/content/articles/2006/12/04/1947_william_pit_disaster_feature.shtml dead "GLEEP" (the Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile) experimental nuclear reactor runs for the first time at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, near Oxford, the first reactor to operate in Western Europe. 24 August – First Edinburgh Festival of the Arts opens. On 31 August, the first Edinburgh International Film Festival opens as part of the overall festival; it will become the world's oldest continually running film festival.http://www.scotland.com/blog/scotland-hosts-the-worlds-longest-running-film-festival Scotland Hosts the World's Longest Running Film Festival Scotland.com 2014-07-18 September – The University of Cambridge votes to allow women to become full students. 29 September – Harold Wilson is appointed President of the Board of Trade at thirty-one years old; he is the youngest member of the Cabinet this century. October – Snoek is imported as a food fish from South Africa.Andrew Andrew Marr Marr A History of Modern Britain London Macmillan 2007 978-1-4050-0538-8 83 10 November – Decision of the Court of Appeal in Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corp, a leading case in the law of judicial review, establishing a standard of unreasonableness ("Wednesbury unreasonableness") of public-body decisions that makes them liable to be quashed on review. 12 November – Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Dalton inadvertently reveals some of the contents of his Budget while on his way to the House of Commons to deliver his speech, effectively finishing his political career.Ben Pimlott Ben Pimlott Dalton, (Edward) Hugh Neale, Baron Dalton (1887–1962) 2004 Online http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32697 10.1093/ref:odnb/32697 16 November – The British Army begins to withdraw troops from Palestine. 18 November – Tommy Lawton, 28-year-old centre-forward, becomes Britain's first £20,000 footballer in a move from Chelsea to Notts County.Tommy Lawton http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/sherwoodtimes/lawton.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20050311134612/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/sherwoodtimes/lawton.htm dead 11 March 2005 2011-09-22 19 November – Philip Mountbatten is created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich with the style His Royal Highness. 20 November – Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh: Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II), daughter of George VI, marries The Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey, London. The procession is watched by an estimated 400,000 television viewers and is the oldest surviving telerecording in Britain.The Royal Wedding, 1947 https://www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Farchive%2Fthe-royal-wedding-1947%2Fzhxnqp3 BBC Archive 2022-01-16 25 November – New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom. 29 November – The United Nations approves the Partition Plan for Palestine thus ending the British Mandate of Palestine. 6 December – Women are admitted to full membership of the University of Cambridge.Fact sheet: Women at Cambridge: A Chronology http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/press/factsheets/women2.html University of Cambridge 2010 2010-09-13 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20071107063131/http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/press/factsheets/women2.html 7 November 2007 December Edward Victor Appleton wins the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer".http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1947/ The Nobel Prize in Physics 1947 nobelprize.org 20 April 2018 Robert Robinson wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids"http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1947/ The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1947 nobelprize.org 20 April 2018 The Friends Service Council wins the Nobel Peace Prize.http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1947/ The Nobel Peace Prize 1947 nobelprize.org 20 April 2018 First permanent Oxfam charity shop begins trading, in Broad Street, Oxford. Undated Discovery of the pion, a subatomic particle, by Cecil Frank Powell at the University of Bristol.10.1038/159694a0 Lattes, C. M. G. Muirhead, H. Occhialini, G. P. S. Powell, C. F. Processes involving charged mesons Nature 159 694–697 1947 4047 1947Natur.159..694L 4152828 Discovery of the kaon, a subatomic particle, by George Rochester and C. C. Butler. Poliomyelitis epidemic in the UK begins.Smallman-Raynor M. R. Cliff A. D. Poliomyelitis : a world geography: emergence to eradication Oxford University Press 2006 019924474X 317–18 Royal Military Academy Sandhurst established by merger of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Robert Wiseman Dairies founded by Robert Wiseman with a horse and cart used for doorstep deliveries in East Kilbride.http://www.wiseman-dairies.co.uk/our-company/company-history/ Company history Robert Wiseman Dairies 2011-01-23 https://archive.today/20120918232729/http://www.wiseman-dairies.co.uk/our-company/company-history/ 18 September 2012 dead Soft toilet paper first goes on sale in the UK, at Harrods.Mitchell Symons Mitchell Symons Numberland London Michael O'Mara Books 2013 978-1-78243-060-5 30 The avocet resumes breeding in England, at Havergate Island and Minsmere RSPB reserve. Publications Malcolm Lowry's novel Under the Volcano. Compton Mackenzie's comic novel Whisky Galore. Stephen Potter's book The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship: Or, The Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating.Lowrey Burling http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1993/autumn/lowrey-timelessness/ The Timelessness of Stephen Potter's Gamesmanship Virginia Quarterly Review Autumn 1993 718–26 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20090907172010/http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1993/autumn/lowrey-timelessness/ 7 September 2009 Births 4 January – Rick Stein, chef, author and restaurateurhttp://www.dunedinlibraries.govt.nz/new-and-recommended/adults/featured-authors/rick-stein https://web.archive.org/web/20170725181456/http://www.dunedinlibraries.govt.nz/new-and-recommended/adults/featured-authors/rick-stein dead 25 July 2017 Rick Stein dunedinlibraries.govt.nz 4 January 2017 5 January – Chris Cutler, drummer and songwriter Britannica Educational Publishing Alternative, Country, Hip-Hop, Rap, and More: Music from the 1980s to Today https://books.google.com/books?id=WfGcAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT59 1 December 2012 Britannica Educational Publishing 978-1-61530-910-8 47 6 January – Sandy Denny, folk rock singer (died 1978) 8 January – David Bowie, born David Jones, rock singer (died 2016) 10 January Patricia Hodgson, broadcaster, educationalist and academic Matthew Oakeshott, Baron Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay, banker and politician 15 January – Pete Waterman, record producer and songwriter 16 January Magdalen Nabb, author (died 2007) Harvey Proctor, Conservative Member of Parliamenthttps://books.google.com/books?id=aJPGCwAAQBAJ Credible and True: The Political and Personal Memoir of K. Harvey Proctor 9781785900594 Harvey Proctor K. 29 March 2016 Biteback Jamie Reid, visual artist (died 2023)‘Artist, iconoclast, anarchist, punk, hippie, rebel and romantic’: A personal tribute to Jamie Reid 23 January – Mary Arden, lawyer and judge 27 January – Philip Sugden, historian and author (died 2014) 30 January Les Barker, poet Steve Marriott, rock singer and guitarist (Small Faces, Humble Pie) (died 1991) 3 February – Dave Davies, singer-songwriter and guitarist 10 February – Nicholas Owen, newsreader (ITN) 20 February – Peter Osgood, footballer (died 2006) 26 February – Sandie Shaw, pop singer 28 February – Stephanie Beacham, actress 1 March – Mike Read, television presenter and radio disc jockey 6 March – Kiki Dee, pop singer 7 March – Jane Relf, singer 10 March – Piers Corbyn, weather forecaster and political activist 11 March – Alan Yentob, television executive (died 2025) 14 March Pam Ayres, comic verse writer and performer Peter Skellern, singer-songwriter (died 2017) 18 March – Susan Sheridan, actress (died 2015) 24 March Mike Kellie, rock musician (died 2017) Alan Sugar, entrepreneur 25 March – Elton John, born Reginald Dwight, rock musician 28 March – Peter Hennessy, historian 16 April – Gerry Rafferty, singer-songwriter (died 2011) 20 April – David Leland, actor, director, and screenwriter 23 April – Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster 30 April – Leslie Grantham, actor (EastEnders) and murderer (died 2018) 2 May – James Dyson, inventor and entrepreneur 6 May – Kit Martin, architect and author 8 May Felicity Lott, soprano (died 2026) John Reid, Labour politician, Home Secretary 12 May – Mike Cruise, astronomer and astrophysicist (died 2026) 19 May – Paul Brady, singer-songwriter 20 May – Greg Dyke, media executive, Director-General of the BBC 27 May – Felix Dennis, publisher and philanthropist (died 2014) 1 June Jonathan Pryce, Welsh actor Ronnie Wood, rock guitarist 2 June – Mark Elder, conductor 3 June – Mickey Finn, percussionist (died 2003) 5 June Tom Evans, rock singer-songwriter (died 1983) David Hare, playwright 6 June – David Blunkett, Labour politician, Home SecretaryDavid Blunkett British politician https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Blunkett Encyclopedia Britannica 6 July 2021 en 7 June – Annette Brooke, educator and politician 11 June – Richard Palmer-James, singer-songwriter and guitarist 17 June – Paul Young, pop singer-songwriter (died 2000) 21 June – Joey Molland, songwriter and guitarist (died 2025) 22 June Trevor Blades, cricketer David Jones, Northern Irish golfer 23 June – Anne Owers, chief inspector of prisons 24 June Mick Fleetwood, rock drummer Clarissa Dickson Wright, chef and television personality (died 2014) 25 June – John Hilton, English table tennis player 28 June – Stephen Whittaker, actor (died 2003) 2 July Elizabeth Anionwu, nurse and healthcare administrator Ann Taylor, Labour politician 3 July – Adrian Bird, geneticist and academic 6 July – Richard Beckinsale, actor (died 1979) 7 July – Rob Townsend, rock drummer (Family) 12 July Gareth Edwards, Welsh rugby player Wilko Johnson, musician (died 2022) 13 July Colin Thurston, record producer (died 2007) Edward Wilson, actor (died 2008) 15 July – Peter Banks, guitarist and songwriter (died 2013) 17 July Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom, née Shand Phil Cordell, musician (died 2007) Mick Tucker, musician (died 2002) 19 July – Brian May, rock guitarist (Queen) 23 July – David Essex, actor and singer 24 July Geoff McQueen, screenwriter and producer (died 1994) Chris Townson, musician (died 2008) 31 July – Richard Griffiths, actor (Withnail and I, Harry Potter) (died 2013) 9 August – Roy Hodgson, football manager 12 August – William Hartston, journalist and chess player 14 August – Christopher Hughes, quizzer and television personality (died 2025) 16 August – Katharine Hamnett, fashion designer 23 August Willy Russell, playwright Rowena Wallace, English-born Australian actress 28 August – Emlyn Hughes, footballer (died 2004) 10 September – David Pountney, theatre and opera director 16 September – Roger Millward, English rugby league footballer and coach 17 September – Tessa Jowell, Labour politician, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (died 2018) 18 September – Paul Seed, television director and former actor 21 September – Rupert Hine, musician, songwriter, and record producer (died 2020)Rupert Hine, Synth-Pop Music Producer, Dies at 72 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/15/arts/music/rupert-hine-synth-pop-music-producer-dies-at-72.html The New York Times Pareles Jon 15 June 2020 15 June 2020 27 September – Barbara Dickson, singer and actress 28 September – Jon Snow, journalist and trelevision presenter 30 September – Marc Bolan, musician (died 1977) 1 October – Larry Lamb, actor 4 October – Ann Widdecombe, Conservative politician (died 2026) 5 October – Brian Johnson, rock singer 7 October – Pip Williams, record producer 11 October – Alan Pascoe, athlete 16 October Nicholas Day, actor Terry Griffiths, snooker player (died 2024) Ken Woodward, footballer 2 November – Dave Pegg, folk musician, bass player (Fairport Convention, Jethro Tull) 6 November Jim Rosenthal, ITV sport presenter Carolyn Seymour, actress 8 November – Jenny Boyd, model 10 November – Greg Lake progressive rock singer-songwriter (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) (died 2016) 21 November – Nickolas Grace, actor 1 December – Bob Fulton, English-Australian rugby league footballer and coach 2 December Michael P. Green, businessman Tommy Jenkins, footballer and manager Andy Rouse, racing driver 6 December – Geoffrey Hinton, English-born cognitive psychologist and computer scientist 7 December – Anne Fine, writer 8 December – John MacDougall, politician (died 2008) 12 December – Will Alsop, architect 16 December – Ben Cross, actor (died 2020) 20 December – Roger Alton, journalist 26 December – Liz Lochhead, poet and playwright Deaths 17 January – Arthur Headlam, theologian and Bishop of Gloucester (born 1862) 30 January – Frederick Blackman, plant physiologist (born 1866) 6 February – Ellen Wilkinson, socialist (born 1891) 11 February – Ernest Terah Hooley, financial fraudster (born 1859) 13 February – Pauline Johnson, silent film actress (born 1899) 21 February – Richard Barry Parker, architect and urban planner (born 1867) 2 March – Stanhope Forbes, painter of the Newlyn school (born 1857) 6 March – Sir Halford Mackinder, geographer (born 1861) 13 March – Angela Brazil, school-story writer for girls (born 1868) May – Edgar Philip Perman, chemistry professor (born 1866) 16 May – Sir Frederick Hopkins, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (born 1861) 6 June – James Agate, author and critic (born 1877) 24 July – Ernest Austin, composer (born 1874) 25 July – Kathleen Scott (Lady Scott), sculptor, widow of Capt. Scott (born 1878) 23 August – Roy Chadwick, aircraft designer (born 1893; killed in aircraft accident) 13 October – Sidney Webb, political economist (born 1859) 28 November – James Miller, Scottish architect (born 1860) 1 December Samuel Courtauld, art collector (born 1876) Aleister Crowley, occultist (born 1875) G. H. Hardy, mathematician (born 1877) 14 December Stanley Baldwin, former Prime Minister (born 1867) Will Fyffe, Scottish music hall entertainer (born 1885; fell from hotel room window)Ian Jack Ian Jack Will Fyffe: Glasgow and the art of drinking The Guardian London 2006-06-03 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jun/03/featuresreviews.guardianreview23 23 (Review) 2016-01-11 15 December – Arthur Machen, Welsh journalist, novelist and short-story writer (born 1863) 17 December – Bernard Spilsbury, forensic pathologist (born 1877; suicide) 30 December – Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher (born 1861) See also List of British films of 1947 The Winter of 1946-47 in the U.K. 1947 English cricket season, in what was called a "glorious summer" References 1947 Category:Years of the 20th century in the United Kingdom Category:1947 by country Category:1940s in the United Kingdom Category:1947 in Europe