1938 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1938 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Monarch – George VI
Prime Minister – Neville Chamberlain

Events

1 January – Sir Alexander Cadogan succeeds Sir Robert Vansittart as permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office.
17 January – Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., is appointed United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
14 February – The British naval base at Singapore begins operations.
20 February – Anthony Eden resigns as Foreign Secretary over the foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry towards Fascist Italy. Lord Halifax takes over.
14 March – Chamberlain makes a speech in the House of Commons saying the government "emphatically" disapproves of the Nazi German Anschluss in Austria two days previously but that "nothing could have prevented this action by Germany unless we and others with us had been prepared to use force to prevent it."
16 April – Anglo-Italian Treaty: Britain recognises Italian government over Ethiopia, in return for Italian troops withdrawing from Spain.
23 April – York Castle Museum opened.
25 April – Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement with the Republic of Ireland settles the Anglo-Irish Trade War and agrees to the Royal Navy abandoning the British sovereign bases at the Treaty ports in Ireland.
3 May – Empire Exhibition opens in Glasgow.
10 May – An underground explosion at Markham Colliery, near Staveley, Derbyshire, kills 79.
1 June – The Bren light machine gun comes into service with the British Army.
2 June – The children's zoo at London Zoo is opened by Robert and Ted Kennedy, two of the sons of United States ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy.
18 June – Women's Voluntary Service founded to assist the Civil Defence Service.
24 June – Test cricket is televised for the first time.
3 July – The London and North Eastern Railway's streamlined Class A4 4468 Mallard reaches a speed of 126 mph, the highest certified speed for a steam locomotive.
9 July – Gas masks are issued to the civilian population.
11 July–3 October – Military installations at the Treaty Ports in the Republic of Ireland are handed over from British control to the Government of Ireland, under terms of the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement ratified by the Eire (Confirmation of Agreements) Act earlier in the year.
22 July – Britain rejects a proposal from its ambassador in Berlin, Nevile Henderson, for a four power summit on Czechoslovakia consisting of Britain, France, Germany and the U.S.S.R. as London will under no circumstances accept the Soviet Union as a diplomatic partner.
29 July – Holidays with Pay Act provides for paid annual leave in wage-regulated industries and for similar voluntary schemes in other employment.
30 July – The Beano comic first goes on sale, featuring the character Lord Snooty.
August – Muslims protest in London about passages they consider disrespectful of their religion in H. G. Wells' A Short History of the World.
3 August – Lord Runciman, sent by Neville Chamberlain, arrives in Prague on his mission of mediation in the Sudetenland dispute.
4 August – Major thunderstorm over Devon.
13–20 August – Great Britain and the United States contest the inaugural Amateur World Series in baseball, played in the north of England. Britain wins every match.
18 August – Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin arrives in London looking for British support for an anti-Nazi putsch, using the looming crisis over the Sudetenland as a pretext. His private mission is dismissed by Neville Chamberlain as unimportant, but he finds a sympathetic if powerless audience in Winston Churchill.
23 August – English cricketer Len Hutton scores a record Test score of 364 runs in a match against Australia.
28 August – Lord Runciman's mission to mitigate the Sudetenland crisis begins to break down. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain recalls Ambassador Nevile Henderson from Berlin to instruct Henderson to set up a personal meeting between Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler.
31 August – Winston Churchill, still believing France and Britain mean to honour their promises to defend Czechoslovakia against Nazi aggression, suggests in a personal note to Neville Chamberlain that His Majesty's Government may want to set up a broad international alliance, including the United States and the Soviet Union.
7 September – The Times publishes a lead article which calls on Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany.
9 September – Auxiliary Territorial Service, as a women's voluntary service, established.
15 September – Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain meets German Chancellor Adolf Hitler in Berchtesgaden in an attempt to negotiate an end to German expansionist policies.
21 September – Representatives of the British and French governments call on Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš to tell him Britain and France will not fight Hitler if he decides to annex the Sudetenland by force. At home, Winston Churchill warns of grave consequences to European security if Czechoslovakia is partitioned.
25 September – The Royal Navy ordered to sea.
27 September – is launched at Clydebank; she is the largest ship in the world at this time.
29 September – Chamberlain signs the Munich Agreement and a resolution with Germany determining to resolve all future disputes between the two countries through peaceful means.
30 September – Neville Chamberlain returns to the UK from Munich, at Heston Aerodrome memorably waving the resolution signed the day earlier with Germany, and later in Downing Street giving his famous Peace for our time speech. George VI and Queen Elizabeth appear with Chamberlain on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to celebrate the agreement, a key moment in the European foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry.
1 October – Picture Post magazine first published.
29 October – City Hall, Norwich, designed in the Art Deco style by C. H. James and S. R. Pierce, is opened.
4 November – At a public meeting in his parliamentary constituency of Epping, Winston Churchill narrowly survives an attempt by fellow Conservative and constituent Sir Colin Thornton-Kemsley to remove him from Parliament.
16 November – First reported "attack" of the Halifax Slasher mass hysteria incident.
20 November – Queen consort Maud of Norway dies in a nursing home in London aged 68.
21 November – Apostolic Delegation to Great Britain appointed.
1–2 December – First Kindertransport from Berlin to London Liverpool Street station via Harwich.
16 December – Aircraft carrier is commissioned into the Royal Navy.

Undated

J. Arthur Rank purchases a share in Odeon Cinemas.
First green belts begin to be established in the UK, around Sheffield and London, the latter under terms of the Green Belt Act.
Little ringed plover first breeds in England.

Publications

Elizabeth Bowen's novel The Death of the Heart.
Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels Appointment with Death and Hercule Poirot's Christmas.
Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca.
Graham Greene's novel Brighton Rock.
Kathleen Hale's children's book Orlando (The Marmalade Cat): A Camping Holiday, first in the series featuring the eponymous character.
C. S. Lewis' science fiction novel Out of the Silent Planet.
George Orwell's memoir Homage to Catalonia.
Evelyn Waugh's satirical novel Scoop.
T. H. White's novel The Sword in the Stone, first in the multi-volume The Once and Future King.
P. G. Wodehouse's comic novel The Code of the Woosters.

Births

1 January – Robert Jankel, businessman, founder of carmaker Panther
2 January
* David Bailey, photographer
* Ian Brady, serial killer
3 January – Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell, civil servant
6 January – Michael Graham Cox, actor
11 January
* Alastair Morton, railway executive
* Arthur Scargill, trade union leader
20 January
* Liz Calder, publisher and editor
* Derek Dougan, footballer
* Bob Friend, newscaster
21 January – Nicholas Phillips, Baron Phillips of Worth Matravers, English lawyer and judge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
26 January – Henry Jaglom, English-born director
3 February – Geoff Clayton, English cricketer
8 February – Margo McLennan, actress
17 February – Yvonne Romain, actress
26 February – Brian Kilby, marathon runner
27 February – Jake Thackray, singer-songwriter
28 February – John Bulmer, documentary photographer and filmmaker
6 March – Pauline Boty, pop art painter
14 March – Eleanor Bron, actress and author
18 March – Kenny Lynch, entertainer
24 March – Ian Hamilton, poet and critic
31 March – David Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, politician.
6 April – Paul Daniels, magician
19 April – Hugh Pennington, bacteriologist
22 April
* Alan Bond, English-born Australian businessman
* Adam Raphael, English journalist and editor
28 April – Fred Dibnah, steeplejack and television personality
3 May – Lindsay Kemp, dance and mime artist
9 May – Geoffrey Holland, English civil servant and academic
11 May – Bob Scott, ornithologist
12 May – Terry Farrell, architect
19 May – Herbie Flowers, musician
23 May – Peter Preston, newspaper editor
25 May – Margaret Forster, writer
26 May
* May Blood, Baroness Blood, politician
* Andrew Clennel Palmer, engineer
27 May – Elizabeth Harwood, operatic soprano
31 May – John Prescott, Welsh-born Deputy Prime Minister
2 June – Helen Oxenbury, illustrator and children's book writer
5 June – Allan Ahlberg, children's book writer
7 June
* Graham Percy, illustrator
* Ian St John, Scottish footballer
14 June – Angela Browne, actress
18 June – Michael Sheard, actor
21 June – Don Black, lyricist
25 June – Jim Feast, chemical scientist
26 June – Ted Wragg, professor of education
27 June – David Hope, Baron Hope of Craighead, judge
28 June – Simon Douglas-Pennant, 7th Baron Penrhyn
29 June – Peter Wollen, film theorist and filmmaker
30 June – Mike Hellawell, footballer
1 July – Susan Maughan, singer
2 July – David Owen, politician
3 July – Ron Fogg, footballer
5 July – James Bond, motorcycle speedway rider
6 July
* Tony Lewis, cricketer
* Stuart Young, cricketer
8 July – John Ridgway, sailor
9 July – Faanya Rose, British-American businesswoman, conservationist, philanthropist and explorer
10 July – Hugh Mellor, philosopher
11 July – Brian Scarlett, physicist
15 July – Josephine Cox, novelist
18 July – Ian Stewart, Scottish rock keyboardist
19 July – Nicholas Bethell, 4th Baron Bethell, historian and human rights campaigner
20 July
* Roger Hunt, footballer
* David Pratt, cricketer
* Diana Rigg, actress
22 July – Terence Stamp, actor
27 July – Peter Ucko, archaeologist
28 July – Ian McCaskill, weather forecaster
29 July
*Christopher Gibbs, antiques dealer
*Tom Raworth, poet
30 July – Terry O'Neill, photographer
4 August – Simon Preston, organist
6 August – Rees Davies, historian
21 August – Peter Dale, poet and translator
25 August – Frederick Forsyth, thriller writer
30 August – Alf Meakin, track and field athlete
31 August – Martin Bell, journalist and independent politician
3 September – Richard MacCormac, architect
10 September – David Hamilton, radio and TV personality
12 September
* Michael Leader, actor
* Patrick Mower, actor
13 September
* Angus Douglas-Hamilton, 15th Duke of Hamilton and 12th Duke of Brandon, Scottish peer
* John Smith, Scottish politician, leader of the Labour Party
16 September – Eddie George, financier and Governor of the Bank of England
20 September – Jane Manning, opera and concert singer
25 September – Ron Hill, distance runner and sports clothing entrepreneur
27 September – Arthur Metcalfe, racing cyclist
28 September – Tina Packer, actress and stage director
30 September – Alan Hacker, musician
9 October
* Denzil Davies, Welsh politician
* Angus Montagu, 12th Duke of Manchester, English peer
* John Sutherland, writer and academic
13 October – Hugo Young, journalist
14 October – Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, museum director and academic administrator
20 October – Iain MacMillan, photographer
22 October – Derek Jacobi, actor
24 October – Michael Graydon, air marshal
28 October
* David Dimbleby, broadcaster
* Anne Perry, born Juliet Marion Hulme, detective novelist and murderer
1 November – Malcolm Laycock, radio presenter and producer
12 November
* Terry McDonald, footballer and coach
* Richard May, judge
15 November – John MacKay, Baron MacKay of Ardbrecknish, politician
17 November – Charles Guthrie, Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank, field marshal
4 December – Richard Meade, equestrian
9 December – Robin Popplestone, computer scientist
10 December – Brian Jones, poet
12 December – Felicity Ann d'Abreu, film producer
15 December – Michael Bogdanov, theatre director
17 December – Carlo Little, drummer
21 December – John Quayle, actor
22 December – Brian Locking, bassist

Deaths

13 March – Frederick George Jackson, Arctic explorer
9 April
* Archibald Kennedy, 3rd Marquess of Ailsa, aristocrat
* Sir Thomas Callender, engineer and businessman
16 April
* Steve Bloomer, footballer and manager
* Bertram Mills, circus manager
16 May – Sir Lewis Bayly, admiral
9 June – John Broadbent, army officer and politician
23 June
* Clement Edwards, lawyer, journalist and activist
* William Gillespie, actor
4 July – Sir Archibald Berkeley Milne, admiral
16 July – Samuel Insull, British-born American businessman
18 July – Marie of Edinburgh, Queen consort of Ferdinand I of Romania, granddaughter of Queen Victoria
12 September – Prince Arthur of Connaught, grandson of Queen Victoria
3 October – Olivia Shakespear, novelist, playwright, and patron of the arts
24 October – Gilbert Greenall, 1st Baron Daresbury, businessman
27 October – Lascelles Abercrombie, poet and critic
16 November – James Barr, physician
20 November – Maud of Wales, Queen consort of Haakon VII of Norway and last surviving child of King Edward VII
24 December – William Mitchell-Thomson, 1st Baron Selsdon, politician