1927 in the United Kingdom

1927 in the United Kingdom

Other years

1925 | 1926 | 1927 (1927) | 1928 | 1929

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport, television and music

1927 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland 1927 in British television 1927 in British music

Events from the year 1927 in the United Kingdom.

This year saw the renaming of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, recognising in name the Irish Free State's independence, it having come into existence with the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George V
• Prime Minister – Stanley Baldwin (Conservative)
• Parliament – 34th

Events

• 1 January – the British Broadcasting Company becomes the British Broadcasting Corporation, when it is granted a Royal Charter. Sir John Reith becomes the first Director-General.
• 7 January – first transatlantic telephone call from New York City to London.
• 15 January – first live sports broadcast on the BBC. The rugby union international England v Wales is commented on by Teddy Wakelam. A week later the first football match is broadcast.
• 19 January – Britain sends troops to China.
• 30 January – gale-force winds reaching 112 miles per hour batter the whole of the United Kingdom, killing twenty-three people.
• 4 February – at Pendine Sands, Sir Malcolm Campbell sets a new world land speed record covering the Flying Kilometre in a mean average of 174.883 mph (281.44 km/h) and the Flying Mile in 174.224 m.p.h. driving the Napier-Campbell Blue Bird, the last time this record will be attained on British soil.^[1][2][3]
• 12 February – first British troops land in Shanghai.
• 14 February – Alfred Hitchcock's silent film thriller The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog released.
• 19 February – general strike in Shanghai in protest at the presence of British troops.
• 1 March – an underground gas and coal dust explosion at Marine Colliery, Cwm, Monmouthshire, kills 52.
• 6 March – 1000 people a week die from an influenza epidemic.
• 29 March – Henry Segrave breaks the land speed record driving the Sunbeam 1000 hp at Daytona Beach, Florida.^[4]
• 5 April – Trade Disputes Act forbids strikes of support.
• 12 April – the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act renames the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The change acknowledges that the Irish Free State is no longer part of the Kingdom.
• 21 April – National Museum of Wales officially opened in Cathays Park, Cardiff.
• 23 April – Cardiff City F.C., members of the English Football League despite being based in Wales, win the FA Cup beating Arsenal 1–0 at Wembley Stadium and taking the trophy out of England for the first time.
• 23 April – publication of first edition of The Countryman magazine, still being issued 90 years later.
• 1 May – Dioceses of Guildford and of Portsmouth created in the Church of England.
• 7 May – Newcastle United finish the football season as First Division champions.^[5] George Camsell, centre-forward of their local rivals Middlesbrough, scores a Football League record of 59 goals this season and a total of 63 in all competitions.^[6]
• 9 May – Joe Davis wins the first World Snooker Championship final held in Birmingham,^[3] an event he will continue to win each year until 1940.
• 12 May – British police raid the London office of the Soviet trading company ARCOS.
• 13 May – George V proclaims the change of his style from King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• 20 May – Treaty of Jeddah: Saudi Arabia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
• 24 May – Britain severs diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union because of revelations of espionage and underground agitation.
• 9 June – Soviet Union executes twenty British for alleged espionage.
• 23 June – England and Yorkshire cricketer Wilfred Rhodes becomes the first person to play in 1,000 first-class cricket matches.
• 7 July
  • Diocese of Derby created in the Church of England.
  • Christopher Stone presents a record programme, becoming the first British disc jockey.^[3]
• 7 September – the Television Society is founded. It will gain Royal patronage in 1966, becoming the Royal Television Society.
• 5 October – the Labour Party votes in favour of nationalisation of the coal industry.^[3]
• 7 October – Mercedes Gleitzer becomes the first British woman to swim the English Channel.
• 5 November – Britain's first automatic traffic lights are deployed experimentally in Wolverhampton.^[3]
• 17 November – Leyland Titan double deck bus introduced. Its low chassis sets a significant trend in bus design which lasts for forty years.^[7]
• 24 November – total solar eclipse over Northern England and Wales.
• December – Joshua Powell of Clacton begins the domestic radio relay service which will become Rediffusion.^[8]
• 12 December – 1600 people hospitalised in London when they hurt themselves on the icy streets.
• 25 December – a Christmas Day blizzard affects Cardiff and much of South Wales together with the Midlands.

Publications

• Board of Education's Report of the Consultative Committee on the Education of the Adolescent (Chairman: W. H. Hadow; dated 1926) recommending a division between primary and secondary schools at age 11.
• Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novel The Big Four.
• F. Tennyson Jesse's children's story Moonraker, or, The Female Pirate and Her Friends.
• H. V. Morton's travelogue In Search of England, in book form.
• Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novel Unnatural Death.
• Evelyn Sharp's The London Child about the plight of slum children in London
• Nevil Sidgwick's The Electronic Theory of Valency, an important work in chemistry.
• Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, 2nd edition of Principia Mathematica, one of the most important and seminal works in mathematical logic and philosophy.
• Henry Williamson's novel Tarka the Otter.
• P. G. Wodehouse's short story "Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey", introducing Lord Emsworth's prize pig, Empress of Blandings.
• Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse.
• The Economic History Review begins publication (January).

Births

• 13 January – Sydney Brenner, South African-born biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 28 January – Ronnie Scott, jazz saxophonist and club owner (died 1996)
• 16 February – June Brown, actress
• 18 February – Peter Fryer, English journalist and author (died 2006)
• 25 February – David Oates, English archaeologist (died 2004)
• 15 March – Brian Shenton, track and field sprinter (died 1987)
• 29 March – John Robert Vane, pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2004)
• 1 April – Peter Cundall, English-Australian soldier, horticulturist and author
• 2 April – Kenneth Tynan, theatre critic (died 1980)
• 26 April – Jack Douglas, actor (died 2008)
• 27 April – Sheila Scott, aviator (died 1988)
• 4 May – Terry Scott, actor and comedian (died 1994)
• 11 May – Bernard Fox, actor (died 2016)
• 31 May – Joe Robinson, actor and wrestler (died 2017)
• 8 June
  • Michael Levey, art historian (died 2008)
  • Anne Warburton, academic and diplomat (died 2015)
• 12 June – Al Fairweather, jazz musician (died 1993)
• 13 June – Brian Wilde, actor (died 2008)
• 18 June – Paul Eddington, actor (died 1995)
• 28 June – Correlli Barnett, historian
• 3 July – Ken Russell, film director (died 2011)
• 16 July – Shirley Hughes, children's book illustrator
• 30 July – Tony Hiller, songwriter and record producer (died 2018)
• 8 August – Basil Kirchin, drummer and composer (died 2005)
• 9 August – Robert Shaw, actor and novelist (died 1978)
• 6 September – Jack Parker, hurdler
• 21 September – Bill Speakman, soldier (died 2018)
• 22 September – Gordon Astall, footballer
• 25 September – Colin Davis, orchestral conductor (died 2013)
• 6 October – Antony Grey, born Anthony Wright, LGBT rights activist (died 2010)
• 11 October – Jim Prior, Conservative politician, cabinet minister (died 2016)
• 14 October – Roger Moore, screen actor (died 2017)
• 28 October – Cleo Laine, singer
• 3 November – Tiny Wharton, Scottish football referee (died 2005)
• 7 November – Ivor Emmanuel, actor (died 2007)
• 9 November – Ken Dodd, comedian and singer (died 2018)
• 15 November – Gregor Mackenzie, Labour Party politician (died 1992)
• 17 November – Fenella Fielding, actress (died 2018)
• 7 December – Helen Watts, contralto (died 2009)
• 19 December – James Booth, actor (died 2005)
• 26 December – Denis Quilley, actor (died 2003)
• 28 December – Simon Raven, novelist (died 2001)

Deaths

• 2 May – Ernest Starling, physiologist (born 1866)
• 11 June – William Attewell, cricketer (born 1861)
• 14 June – Jerome K. Jerome, writer (born 1859)
• 8 October – Mary Webb, novelist (born 1881)

See also

• List of British films of 1927

References

External links