1937 in the United Kingdom
The coronation of King George VI took place on May 12, after he had ascended to the throne at the end of the previous year.
| 1937 in the United Kingdom |
| Other years |
| 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 |
| Constituent countries of the United Kingdom |
| England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales |
| Popular culture |
Events from the year 1937 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
- Monarch – George VI
- Prime Minister
- Stanley Baldwin (Coalition) (until 28 May)
- Neville Chamberlain (Coalition) (starting 28 May)
- Parliament – 37th
Events
- 1 January – safety glass in vehicle windscreens becomes mandatory in the United Kingdom.
- 25 February – UK première of the historical film Fire Over England, providing the first pairing of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
- 8 March – Prince Edward, the abdicated King Edward VIII, is created Duke of Windsor.
- 12 April – Frank Whittle ground-tests the world's first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby.
- 27 April – National Maritime Museum opened at Greenwich in former Royal Hospital School premises.
- April – nickel-brass twelve-sided threepence coin first introduced.
- May – the Georgian Group is set up as part of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in England.
- 1–27 May – London's bus drivers and conductors go on strike.[1]
- 12 May – Coronation of George VI and Elizabeth takes place at Westminster Abbey, London. The BBC makes its first outside broadcast covering the event.[2] The newly formed social research organisation Mass Observation makes its first survey of social attitudes on this day.
- 21 May – nearly 4000 Basque (and other) child refugees of the Spanish Civil War arrive at Southampton.
- 27 May – George VI passes letters patent denying the style of Royal Highness to the wife and descendants of the Duke of Windsor.
- 28 May – Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister after Baldwin's retirement.[3]
- 3 June – the Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson in the Château de Candé.[2]
- 1 July – the 999 emergency telephone number is introduced.[2]
- 2 July – Holditch Colliery Disaster, a coal mining accident in Chesterton, Staffordshire, in which thirty men die following a fire and explosions.[4]
- 7 July – Peel Commission proposes partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.[5][6]
- 23 July – Matrimonial Causes Act adds insanity and desertion to infidelity as legitimate grounds for divorce.[3]
- 28 July – assassination attempt on King George VI in Belfast by the Irish Republican Army.[7]
- 4 August – return of the British Graham Land Expedition from Antarctica.
- 27 August – Benjamin Britten's string orchestral work Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10, receives its concert première at the Salzburg Festival, bringing the composer to international attention.[8]
- 30 September – last issue of The Morning Post newspaper before it is absorbed by The Daily Telegraph.
- October–December – Croydon typhoid outbreak of 1937: 341 cases of typhoid fever (43 fatal) result from a polluted well.
- 6 October – the fictional character 'Mrs. Miniver' first appears in the column on domestic life written by 'Jan Struther' for The Times.[9]
- 16 October – Jimmy McGrory plays his last match with Celtic F.C., achieving a United Kingdom record of 550 goals scored during his senior career.[10]
- 4 December – the first issue of children's comic The Dandy, including the character Desperate Dan, is published.[2]
- 10 December
- Nobel Prizes announced:
- Lord Robert Cecil wins the Nobel Peace Prize.[11]
- George Thomson wins the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Clinton Davisson "for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals".[12]
- Walter Haworth wins half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C".[13]
- Castlecary rail crash: an express on the Edinburgh to Glasgow line collides into the rear of a local train standing at Castlecary in the snow, due primarily to a signalman's error; 35 are killed.[14]
- Nobel Prizes announced:
- 16 December – the musical Me and My Girl opens in the West End Victoria Palace Theatre; the dance number "The Lambeth Walk" becomes popular.[15]
- December – the Hawker Hurricane enters service with the Royal Air Force as its first monoplane fighter aircraft (with No. 111 Squadron at Northolt).[16]
Undated
- Ministers of the Crown Act 1937 for the first time formally recognises the offices of Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the Leader of the Opposition and provides them with official salaries (in addition to their stipends as MPs).
- Littlewoods, the pools company formed fourteen years ago by Liverpool businessman John Moores, expands to create a department store in Blackpool, Lancashire.[17]
Publications
- 21 May – Penguin Books launches its Pelican Books sixpenny paperback non-fiction imprint with a 2-volume edition of Bernard Shaw's The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism.[18]
- Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels Dumb Witness and Death on the Nile.
- A. J. Cronin's medical novel The Citadel.
- C. S. Forester's first Horatio Hornblower novel The Happy Return.
- David Jones' World War I epic In Parenthesis.
- George Orwell's book The Road to Wigan Pier.
- J. R. R. Tolkien's children's fantasy novel The Hobbit.
Births
- 1 January
- Anne Aubrey, actress
- John Fuller, poet and author
- 2 January – Terence Rigby, actor (died 2008)
- 8 January – Shirley Bassey, Welsh-born singer
- 9 January – Michael Nicholson, journalist and author (died 2016)[19]
- 14 January – Ken Higgs, English cricketer (died 2016)
- 27 January – John Ogdon, pianist (died 1989)
- 29 January – Jeff Clyne, jazz bassist (died 2009)
- 30 January – Vanessa Redgrave, actress
- 10 February – Anne Anderson, Scottish physiologist (died 1983)
- 11 February – Ian Gow, Member of Parliament for Eastbourne assassinated by the IRA (died 1990)[20]
- 12 February – Roland Boyes, Labour politician (died 2006)
- 16 February – Peter Hobday, presenter and journalist (died 2020)
- 17 February – Peter Beet, doctor and railway preservationist (died 2005)
- 21 February – Jilly Cooper, novelist
- 25 February – Tom Courtenay, actor
- 9 April
- Barrington J. Bayley, science fiction author (died 2008)
- Valerie Singleton, television presenter
- 18 April
- Jan Kaplický, British architect of Czech origin (died 2009)
- Teddy Taylor, politician (died 2017)
- 29 April – Jill Paton Walsh, born Gillian Bliss, novelist
- 1 May
- Tamsyn Imison, illustrator and educator
- Una Stubbs, actress
- 12 May – Susan Hampshire, actress
- 13 May
- Trevor Baylis, inventor of the wind-up radio (died 2018)
- John Cope, Baron Cope of Berkeley, accountant and politician, Treasurer of the Household
- 19 May – Pat Roach, wrestler and actor (died 2004)
- 26 May – Neil Ardley, composer (died 2004)
- 2 June – Rosalyn Higgins, born Rosalyn C. Cohen, President of the International Court of Justice
- 8 June – Gillian Clarke, Welsh poet and playwright
- 15 June – Alan Thornett, Trotskyist activist
- 16 June – Charmian May, actress (died 2002)
- 21 June – John Edrich, cricketer
- 23 June – Sir Nicholas Shackleton, geologist (died 2006)
- 26 June – Len Worley, English footballer
- 2 July – Dee Palmer (b. David Palmer), composer, arranger and progressive rock keyboardist
- 3 July
- Brian Garvey, English footballer
- Tom Stoppard, Czech-born playwright
- 13 July – Ghillean Prance, botanist and ecologist
- 14 July – Duncan MacKay, Scottish footballer (died 2019)
- 16 July
- Tommy Bruce, singer (died 2006)
- Jeremy Spenser, actor
- 17 July – Alan Hopper, English professional footballer
- 18 July – Peter Smith, Scottish footballer
- 21 July – Neville Bannister, footballer
- 27 July – Anna Dawson, actress
- 4 August – Dave Pearson, painter (died 2008)
- 6 August – Barbara Windsor, actress
- 18 August – Willie Rushton, comedian, actor and writer (died 1996)
- 20 August – Jim Bowen, born Peter Williams, stand-up comedian and television host (died 2018)
- 21 August – Donald Dewar, First Minister of Scotland (died 2000)
- 2 September
- John Cornforth, architectural historian (died 2004)
- Derek Fowlds, actor (died 2020)
- 13 September – Jessica Mann, crime novelist (died 2018)
- 16 September – Keith Bosley, broadcaster, poet and translator (died 2018)
- 1 October – Matthew Carter, type designer
- 4 October – Jackie Collins, romance novelist (died 2015 in the United States)
- 7 October – Christopher Booker, journalist (died 2019)
- 9 October – Brian Blessed, actor
- 11 October – Bobby Charlton, English footballer
- 17 October – Paxton Whitehead, English actor
- 24 October – Barry Davies, English journalist and sportscaster
- 16 November – Alan Budd, economist and academic
- 8 November – Paul Foot, British journalist (died 2004)
- 17 November – Peter Cook, comedian and writer (died 1995)
- 27 November – Rodney Bewes, television actor (died 2017)
- 30 November – Ridley Scott, film director
- 7 December – Kenneth Colley, actor
- 10 December – Scott Baker, lawyer and judge
- 21 December – Jimmy Collins, Scottish footballer (died 2018)
- 26 December – John Horton Conway, mathematician (died 2020)
- 29 December – Barbara Steele, actress
- 30 December – Gordon Banks, English goalkeeper (died 2019)
- 31 December – Anthony Hopkins, Welsh-born actor
Deaths
- 18 January – Isaac Barr, Anglican clergyman, promoter of colonial settlement schemes (born 1847)
- 13 March – Elihu Thomson, engineer and inventor (born 1853; died in the United States)
- 17 March – Austen Chamberlain, statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (born 1863)
- 25 March – John Drinkwater, poet and dramatist (born 1882)
- 19 April – Martin Conway, art critic, politician and mountaineer (born 1856)
- 19 June – J. M. Barrie, novelist and dramatist (born 1860)
- 22 June – Sir Eric Geddes, transport manager and politician (born 1875)
- 22 August – Albert Goodman, politician (born 1880)
- 9 November – Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1866)
- 25 November – Lilian Baylis, theatrical producer (born 1874)
- 9 December — Lilias Armstrong, phonetician (born 1882)
See also
References
- "What London Bus Strike Is Costing". Commercial Motor (archive). 21 May 1937.
- Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 382–383. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- Holditch, Charles. "Disaster at Holditch Colliery 1937 Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine". The Holdiches. Retrieved 10 November 2015
- League of Nations Mandates - Palestine: Report of the Palestine Royal Commission. July 1937. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- Schechtman, Joseph B. (1949). Population Transfers in Asia. New York: Hallsby Press. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
- Chen, C. Peter. "George VI". World War II Database. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
- "BRITTEN Frank Bridge Variations etc. NAXOS 8.557200 [KS]: Classical CD Reviews- August 2005 MusicWeb-International". www.musicweb-international.com.
- "Mrs. Miniver (1942)". Reel Classics. Archived from the original on 2 May 2008. Retrieved 28 April 2008.
- McManus, John (28 October 2006), "Jimmy McGrory", The Scotsman, Lives and Times, retrieved 19 October 2012
- "The Nobel Peace Prize 1937". Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 25 November 2007.
- "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1937". Archived from the original on 22 October 2007. Retrieved 25 November 2007.
- "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1937". Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 25 November 2007.
- "Accident at Castlecary on 10th December 1937". Railways Archive. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
- "Peace and 'The Lambeth Walk'". The Times. 18 October 1938. p. 15.
- Crosby, Francis (2006). The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the World's Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day. London: Anness Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-84476-917-9..
- "Jobs to go as Index stores close". BBC News. 19 April 2005. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
- "Pelican Books". Penguin First Editions. 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
- "Michael Nicholson, war correspondent who worked in Vietnam, the Falklands and Iraq – obituary". Daily Telegraph. 16 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
- "Mr Ian Gow (Hansard)". api.parliament.uk.
External links
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