1935 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1935 in the United Kingdom. This year was the Silver Jubilee of King George V. Political events included a general election in November and changes in the leadership of both the Conservative and Labour parties.

Incumbents

Monarch – George V
Prime Minister - Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin

Events

1 January – Ramblers' Association founded.
21 February – the Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine is first flown, at Hucknall Aerodrome.
26 February – Robert Watson-Watt first demonstrates the use of radar, at Daventry.
2 March – King Prajadhipok of Siam abdicates and flees with his wife Rambai Barni to England.
6 March – Croydon Aerodrome robbery: £21,000 worth of gold is stolen and never recovered.
12 March – speed limit in built-up areas reduced to 30 mph.
18 March – Britain protests at Germany's introduction of conscription.
April – reflective cat's-eyes first used on British roads.
6 May – silver jubilee celebrations for King George V.
11 May – Ewart Astill captains Leicestershire County Cricket Club for the remainder of the season, the first professional cricketer to lead any county on a regular basis since the 19th century.
13 May – Arabist, historian and war hero T. E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, is involved in a serious accident while riding his motorcycle near Clouds Hill, his home in Dorset; he dies of his injuries on 19 May, aged 46.
14 May – Northamptonshire County Cricket Club gains what proves to be their last victory for 99 matches, easily a record in the County Championship. Their next Championship win will not be until 29 May 1939.
19 May – canonization of Cardinal John Fisher and Sir Thomas More by Pope Pius XI. This year also, Bede is sanctified by the Catholic Church.
21 May – the funeral of T. E. Lawrence is held at St Nicholas' Church, Moreton in Dorset. Winston Churchill, E. M. Forster, Lady Astor and King Ghazi of Iraq attend.
22 May – the government announces plans to triple the size of the Royal Air Force in the next two years, partly in response to German re-armament.
23 May – Woolmington v DPP, a landmark case decided on appeal in the House of Lords, reaffirms the presumption of innocence as the "golden thread" in criminal law.
1 June – the driving test becomes compulsory.
6 June – Alfred Hitchcock's film of The 39 Steps released in the UK.
7 June – Ramsay MacDonald retires; Stanley Baldwin takes over as prime minister.
18 June – Anglo-German Naval Agreement: Britain agrees to a German navy equal to 35% of her own naval tonnage.
29 June – first portion of Swanscombe skull, belonging to a woman from 400,000 years past, is discovered in north Kent.
12 July – rioting breaks out in Belfast following Orange parades; by the end of August eight Protestants and five Catholics have been killed, hundreds injured and over 2,000 homes destroyed.
13 July – official completion of the London County Council's Becontree estate in East London, the largest housing estate in the world, consisting of some 27,000 new council houses which are home to more than 100,000 people. The first families moved to the estate, which straddles the borders of Dagenham, Barking and Ilford, in 1921.
29 July – T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom is first published in an edition for general circulation, two months after his death resulting from a motorcycle accident.
30 July – Allen Lane founds Penguin Books to publish the first mass market paperbacks in Britain.
17–24 August – the Deaflympics take place in London.
18 August – last service held in Mardale church in the Lake District prior to the village's flooding to create Manchester Corporation's Haweswater Reservoir.
3 September – Malcolm Campbell breaks the 300 mph barrier for the first time and sets a new land speed record of at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, driving the Campbell-Railton Blue Bird.
11 September – Bahram completes the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and St Leger.
12 September – an underground explosion at North Gawber colliery, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, kills nineteen.
30 September – the London and North Eastern Railway begins to run the Silver Jubilee train between London King's Cross and Newcastle, Britain's first streamliner, using Nigel Gresley's LNER Class A4 steam locomotives.
October – first steel produced from new works at Corby.
8 October – Clement Attlee is appointed as interim leader of the Labour Party in succession to George Lansbury who has resigned due to a wish to maintain his Christian pacifist principles.
21 October – Grant v Australian Knitting Mills, a landmark case in consumer law, decided on appeal in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
4 November – opening of Hornsey Town Hall, London, designed by Reginald Uren, the first major UK building in the International Style.
6 November – maiden flight of the Royal Air Force's Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft, at Brooklands.
14 November – in the general election, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin is returned to office at the head of a National Government led by the Conservative Party with a large but reduced majority. This election begins the modern tradition of the Speaker of the House of Commons seeking re-election as such rather than under a party label. There will be no further general election for 10 years.
26 November
* In the Labour Party leadership election, Clement Attlee is confirmed as leader.
* Release of Scrooge, the first all-talking full-length film version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with Sir Seymour Hicks in the title rôle.
10 December
* James Chadwick wins the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the neutron."
* 1935 SABENA Savoia-Marchetti S.73 crash at Tatsfield: all eleven on board the flight are killed.
12 December – opening of The De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill on Sea in East Sussex, designed by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff in the International style.
18 December – Samuel Hoare resigns as foreign secretary; replaced by Anthony Eden.
Undated – Rowntree's of York produce their first Chocolate Crisp bars, which will in 1937 be renamed Kit Kat.

Publications

Enid Bagnold's novel National Velvet.
Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels Three Act Tragedy and Death in the Clouds.
Graham Greene's novel England Made Me.
Georgette Heyer's Regency romance Regency Buck.
Christopher Isherwood's novel Mr Norris Changes Trains.
John Masefield's children's fantasy The Box of Delights.
George Orwell's novel A Clergyman's Daughter.
Marion Richardson's teaching guides Writing and Writing Patterns.
Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novel Gaudy Night.
Caroline Spurgeon's study Shakespeare's Imagery, and what it tells us.
P. G. Wodehouse's short story collection Blandings Castle and Elsewhere.

Births

2 January
* Ray Byrom, English footballer
* David McKee, writer and illustrator
3 January – David Vine, television presenter
11 January – Melvyn Hayes, actor
18 January – Jon Stallworthy, poet
19 January
*Robin Birley, archaeologist
*Bryan Pringle, actor
21 January – Andrew Sinclair, polymath
24 January
* Eric Ashton, English rugby league footballer
* Bamber Gascoigne, broadcaster and author
25 January – J. G. Farrell, novelist
27 January
*Gillian Beer, academic and critic
*D. M. Thomas, novelist, poet and translator
28 January – David Lodge, novelist
30 January – Stuart Wheeler, financier and political activist
3 February – Jeremy Kemp, actor
5 February – Alex Harvey, Scottish rock musician
7 February – Cliff Jones, Welsh footballer
9 February
* Paul Flynn, politician
* Roger Needham, computer scientist
11 February – Delena Kidd, actress
16 February – Brian Bedford, actor
17 February – Christina Pickles, actress
21 February – Mark McManus, Scottish actor
25 February – David Wilde, pianist and composer
27 February – Anne Treisman, psychologist
3 March – George Gardiner, politician
7 March – Michael Hopkins, architect
10 March – Peter Rolfe Vaughan, engineer
13 March – David Nobbs, comic writer
21 March – Brian Clough, footballer and football manager
23 March – Barry Cryer, comedy writer and performer
24 March – Mary Berry, food writer and television presenter
25 March – Susan Engel, actress
27 March
*Sir Angus Farquharson of Finzean, aristocrat and public servant
*Julian Glover, actor
28 March
* Frank Judd, politician
* Michael Parkinson, journalist and television presenter
29 March – Ruby Murray, Northern Irish singer
5 April
* Donald Lynden-Bell, astrophysicist
* Guy Lyon Playfair, writer
10 April – Tony Zemaitis, guitar maker
14 April – Terrance Dicks, television writer
15 April – Alan Plater, playwright and screenwriter
19 April – Dudley Moore, comedian, actor and musician
20 April – Gary Raymond, actor
25 April – April Ashley, transgender model
5 May – Eddie Linden, poet
7 May – Michael Hopkins, architect
8 May – Jack Charlton, footballer
9 May – Roger Hargreaves, children's author
11 May – Chris Perrins, English biologist, ornithologist and academic
13 May – Stella Rimington, Director General of MI5
14 May – Mel Charles, Welsh footballer
17 May – Dennis Potter, writer
23 May
* Juliet Campbell, née Collings, diplomat and academic administrator
* Julian Grenfell, 3rd Baron Grenfell, politician
27 May – Roger Owen, British historian
28 May
* Anne Reid, actress
* Richard Van Allen, opera singer
1 June – Norman Foster, architect and designer
2 June – Roger Brierley, actor
3 June – Raoul Franklin, physicist and academic
5 June – Anne Pashley, track and field sprinter and operatic soprano
12 June – Jane Freeman, actress
16 June – James Bolam, actor
17 June – Antony Maitland, children's author and illustrator
18 June – John Spencer, snooker player
19 June – Derren Nesbitt, actor
23 June – Keith Burkinshaw, footballer and manager
25 June
* Tony Lanfranchi, racing driver
* Charles Sheffield, science fiction author and physicist
27 June – Colin Bazley, bishop
28 June
* Roy Faulkner, footballer
* John Inman, comic actor
* Tremayne Rodd, 3rd Baron Rennell, rugby union player
29 June
*Jill Briscoe, British American author, editor and speaker
*Derek Partridge, actor, television presenter, spokesman and voice-over artist
30 June
*Shane Alexander, 2nd Earl Alexander of Tunis
*Les Savill, cricketer
1 July – David Prowse, weightlifter and film performer
5 July – Shirley Collins, folk singer
7 July – Billy Russell, footballer
9 July – Michael Williams, actor
11 July – Oliver Napier, politician
15 July – William G. Stewart, television producer and presenter
19 July – David Parry-Evans, Royal Air Force commander
20 July
*Peter Palumbo, Baron Palumbo, real estate developer, art collector and connoisseur of architecture
*Ted Rogers, comedian
24 July – Les Reed, songwriter
27 July – Billy McCullough, footballer
28 July – Simon Dee, television presenter
5 August – Wanda Ventham, actress
10 August – Ian Stewart, Baron Stewartby, politician and numismatist
13 August – Rod Hull, entertainer
15 August – Jim Dale, actor and singer
27 August – Michael Holroyd, biographer
5 September – Johnny Briggs, actor
6 September – Jock Wallace Jr., Scottish football player and manager
18 September – John Spencer, English snooker player
20 September – Keith Roberts, science fiction writer
21 September – Jimmy Armfield, footballer
28 September
*Ronald Lacey, English actor
*Alan Shepherd, motorcycle racer
29 September
*David Daker, actor
*Bruce Tulloh, long-distance runner
30 September – Janet Reger, née Chabinsky, lingerie designer
1 October – Julie Andrews, born Julia Wells, singer and actress
9 October
* Prince Edward, Duke of Kent
* Don McCullin, photojournalist
10 October – Judith Chalmers, television presenter
13 October – Michael Heath, cartoonist
17 October – Michael Eavis, founder of Glastonbury Festival
20 October – Roy Bailey, folk singer
30 October – Michael Winner, film director
31 October – David Harvey, economic geographer
2 November
* Lucy Barfield, godchild of C. S. Lewis and inspiration for Lucy Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia
* Peter Seabrook, gardening writer and broadcaster
4 November – Elgar Howarth, conductor and composer
5 November
* David Battley, actor
* Nicholas Maw, composer
* Lester Piggott, jockey
12 November – William Tallon, Steward and Page of the Backstairs
13 November – George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury
14 November – Michael Busselle, photographer and author
15 November – Gillian Reynolds, radio critic
18 November – Rodney Hall, English-born Australian author and poet
20 November – Bridget Jones, literary academic
27 November – Verity Lambert, television producer
29 November – Amanda Walker, actress
10 December – Terry Allcock, footballer and cricketer
14 December – Anthony Wilden, author and social theorist, translator of Jaques Lacan
15 December – Jim Iley, football player and manager
18 December
* Brian Bamford, golfer
* Caroline, Countess of Cranbrook, aristocrat and food quality campaigner
* Rosemary Leach, actress
23 December – Johnny Kidd, English rock and roll singer-songwriter
29 December – Jean Denton, politician and racing driver

Deaths

7 February – Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Scottish-born writer; peritonitis
15 February – Basil Hall Chamberlain, Japanologist
28 February – Sir Arthur Lowes Dickinson, accountant
12 March – Sir Malcolm Smith, politician
16 March – John Macleod, Scottish physician and physiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
27 March – Francis Rattenbury, architect; murdered
5 April – Basil Champneys, architect
20 April – Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, fashion designer
18 May – T. E. Lawrence, soldier; motorcycle accident
6 June – George Grossmith, Jr., musical comedy performer and producer
21 August – John Hartley, tennis player, double winner of Wimbledon
28 September – William Kennedy Dickson, cinematographic pioneer
29 September – Winifred Holtby, novelist and journalist
20 October – Arthur Henderson, Scottish-born politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
20 November – John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, admiral
3 December – Princess Victoria, daughter of King Edward VII
10 December
*Sir John Carden, 6th Baronet, tank and vehicle designer
*Sir Alfred Sharpe, colonial governor
16 December – Percy Gilchrist, industrialist
30 December – Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, politician and judge