1939 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1939 in the United Kingdom. This year sees the start of the Second World War, ending the Interwar period.

Incumbents

Monarch – George VI
Prime Minister – Neville Chamberlain

Events

January–June

2 January – the all-time highest attendance for a British association football league game is set as 118,567 people watch Rangers beat Celtic in an "Old Firm derby" played at Ibrox Park in Glasgow.
23 January – "Dutch War Scare": Admiral Wilhelm Canaris of the Abwehr leaks misinformation to the effect that Germany plans to invade the Netherlands in February, with the aim of using Dutch airfields to launch a strategic bombing offensive against Britain. The "Dutch War Scare" leads to a major change in British policies towards Europe.
4 February – the Irish Republican Army plants bombs at two London Underground stations, Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square, injuring seven, two seriously.
25 February – the first Anderson shelter is built in London.
27 February – Borley Rectory, a reputed haunted house in Essex, is destroyed by fire.
31 March – Britain pledges support to Poland in the event of an invasion.
4 April – the Royal Armoured Corps is formed.
11 April – the Women's Royal Naval Service is re-established.
27 April – the Military Training Act introduces conscription; men aged 20 and 21 must undertake six months military training.
May–September – the Sutton Hoo treasure – an Anglo-Saxon ship burial – is excavated. On 28 July the Sutton Hoo helmet is uncovered. The principal treasures are presented to the British Museum by the landowner, Edith Pretty, at this time its largest ever gift from a living donor.
6 May
* Dorothy Garrod is elected to the Disney Professorship of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge, the first woman to hold an Oxbridge chair.
* German anti-Nazi Carl Friedrich Goerdeler tells the British government that the German and Soviet governments are secretly beginning a rapprochement, with the aim of dividing Eastern Europe between them. Goerdeler also informs the British of German economic problems which he states threaten the survival of the Nazi regime, and advises that if a firm stand is made for Poland, then Hitler will be deterred from war.
15 May – the film Goodbye, Mr. Chips is released, for which actor Robert Donat will win the Academy Award for Best Actor.
17 May – George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive in Quebec City to begin the first-ever visit to Canada by a reigning British sovereign.
1 June – submarine HMS Thetis sinks during trials in Liverpool Bay. 99 men are lost.
7 June – George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit New York City on the first visit to the United States by a reigning British sovereign.
14 June–20 August – Tientsin Incident: the Imperial Japanese Army blockades British trading settlements in the north China treaty port of Tientsin.
28 June – the Women's Auxiliary Air Force is created, absorbing the forty-eight RAF companies of the Auxiliary Territorial Service which have been formed since 1938.
30 June – the Mersey Ferry stops running to Rock Ferry.

July–September

1 July – Women's Land Army re-formed to work in agriculture.
8 July – Pan American Airways Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper inaugurates the world's first heavier-than-air North Atlantic air passenger service between the United States and Britain.
22 July – royal visit to Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, during which the young Princess Elizabeth first meets her future husband Prince Philip of Greece.
26 July – the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham, designed by Robert Atkinson, is officially opened by Queen Mary.
5 August – weekly transatlantic flights scheduled by Imperial Airways; suspended in September.
15 August – first personnel of the Government Code and Cypher School move to Bletchley Park.
19 August – Sir Malcolm Campbell sets the water speed record in Blue Bird K4 on Coniston Water.
23 August–2 September – most paintings from the National Gallery in London are evacuated to Wales.
24 August – as details of the previous day's Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact become public, Parliament is recalled several weeks early; the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 gives full authority to defence regulations, Army reservists are called up, Civil Defence workers are placed on alert and the government advises remaining British citizens in Germany to return home.
25 August
* 1939 Coventry bombing: An Irish Republican Army bomb explodes in Coventry, killing 5 and injuring 70. In London, police defuse two similar bombs and arrest four terrorists.
* Chamberlain gives the senior Polish military officer his "ironclad guarantee" of assistance if Poland is attacked by Germany.
30 August – Royal Navy proceeds to war stations.
1 September
* German invasion of Poland. A British ultimatum is delivered to Germany.
* "Operation Pied Piper": 4-day evacuation of children from London and other major U.K. cities begins.
* Blackout imposed across Britain.
* The Army is officially mobilised.
* The BBC Home Service begins broadcasting but BBC Television shuts down at 12:35 p.m. until 1946.
* The Administration of Justice (Emergency Provisions) Act reduces the size of juries from 12 to 7 in most cases and abolishes trial by jury in most civil cases.
2 September – British Expeditionary Force headquarters formed.
3 September – World War II:
* Declaration of war by the United Kingdom on Nazi Germany. Shortly after 11.00, Chamberlain announces this news on BBC Radio, speaking from 10 Downing Street. Twenty minutes later, air raid sirens sound in London. Chamberlain creates a small war cabinet which includes Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty.
* General mobilisation of the armed services begins. The signal "Total Germany" is sent to ships.
* National Service (Armed Forces) Act passed by Parliament introduces National Service for all men aged 18 to 41.
* British liner becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by between Rockall and Tory Island. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew are killed.
* In the week beginning today 400,000 pets are euthanised.
4 September – first bombing of Wilhelmshaven in World War II by Royal Air Force Vickers Wellingtons.
5 September – National Registration Act.
9 September – British Expeditionary Force crosses to France.
10 September – British submarine torpedoes and sinks another British submarine,, off the coast of Norway, believing her to be a German U-boat, with the loss of 52 crew.
16 September – the Duke of Windsor is appointed a major-general attached to the British Military Mission to France.
17 September – aircraft carrier is torpedoed and sunk by in the Western Approaches with the loss of 519 crew, the first British warship loss of the War.
18 September – American-born fascist politician William Joyce, at this time holding a British passport, begins broadcasting Nazi propaganda to Britain from Berlin, inheriting the nickname Lord Haw-Haw.
19 September – popular radio comedy show It's That Man Again with Tommy Handley first broadcast on the BBC Home service, following trial broadcasts from 12 July.
24 September – petrol rationing introduced.
26 September – flying from in the North Sea, Lieutenant B. S. McEwen of the Fleet Air Arm scores the first British victory over a German aircraft of the war, shooting down a flying boat. The aircraft carrier comes under air attack but survives.
27 September – first war tax is revealed by the Cabinet, including a significant rise in income taxes.
29 September – national register of citizens compiled to support the introduction of identity cards and rationing.
30 September – Identity cards introduced.

October–December

1 October – call-up proclamation: All men aged 20–21 must register with the military authorities.
7 October – cruiser departs Plymouth in convoy for Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying £2M in gold bar to be used for purchase of military materiel in North America, a predecessor of Operation Fish.
14 October – HMS Royal Oak sunk by a German U-boat in Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands with the loss of 833 crew.
16 October – first enemy aircraft shot down by RAF Fighter Command, a Junkers Ju 88 brought down into the sea by Spitfires following an attack on Rosyth Naval Dockyard in Scotland.
17 October – first bomb lands in the U.K., at Hoy in the Orkney Islands.
21 October – registration of men aged 20 to 23 for National Service begins.
28 October – "Humbie Heinkel": A Heinkel He 111 bomber is the first German aircraft to be shot down on British soil by RAF Fighter Command, near Humbie in East Lothian, Scotland.
30 October – British battleship is unsuccessfully attacked by under the command of captain Wilhelm Zahn off Orkney and is hit by three torpedoes, none of which explode; Winston Churchill, Admiral of the Fleet Dudley Pound and Admiral Charles Forbes are on board.
4 November – Stewart Menzies is appointed head of the Secret Intelligence Service.
8 November – Venlo Incident: two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.
23 November – British armed merchantman is sunk in the GIUK gap in an action against the German battleships and.
24 November – British Overseas Airways Corporation formed by merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. effective from 1 April 1940.
4 December
* strikes a mine off the coast of Scotland and is laid up for repairs until August 1940.
* German submarine U-36 is torpedoed and sunk by British submarine HMS Salmon off Stavanger, the first enemy submarine lost to a British one during the War.
9 December – first soldier of the British Expeditionary Force killed: Corporal Thomas Priday triggers a French land mine.
12 December – escorting destroyer sinks after a collision with battleship off the Mull of Kintyre in heavy fog with the loss of 124 men.
13 December – the Battle of the River Plate takes place between,, and the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, forcing the latter to scuttle herself on 17 December.
18 December – Battle of the Heligoland Bight: RAF Bomber Command, on a daylight mission to attack Kriegsmarine ships in the Heligoland Bight, is repulsed by Luftwaffe fighter aircraft.
December – the Pilgrim Trust establishes a Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, predecessor of the Arts Council.

Undated

Greggs bakery is founded by John Gregg on Tyneside.

Publications

H. E. Bates' short story collection My Uncle Silas.
Joyce Carey's novel Mister Johnson.
James Hadley Chase's thriller No Orchids for Miss Blandish.
Agatha Christie's novels Murder Is Easy and And Then There Were None.
Aleister Crowley's Eight Lectures on Yoga.
Henry Green's novel Party Going.
Aldous Huxley's novel After Many a Summer.
Richard Llewellyn's novel How Green Was My Valley.
Jan Struther's short story collection Mrs. Miniver.Poetry London: a Bi-Monthly of Modern Verse and Criticism, founded by Tambimuttu, first published.

Births

8 January – Alan Wilson, mathematician and academic
11 January – Phil Williams, Welsh politician
15 January – Neil Cossons, industrial archaeologist and museum director
20 January – Chandra Wickramasinghe, Ceylonese-born British astronomer and poet
29 January – Tony Green, sportscaster
5 February – Derek Wadsworth, jazz trombonist and composer
10 February – Peter Purves, actor and television presenter
18 February – Ray Lovejoy, film editor
20 February – Frank Arundel, footballer
3 March – Bill Frindall, cricket statistician
4 March
* John Moreno, actor
* Keith Skues, radio disc jockey
5 March – Samantha Eggar, actress
9 March – John Howard Davies, child screen actor and television comedy director
10 March
* Len Ashurst, football player and manager
* Hugh Johnson, wine and gardening writer
17 March – Robin Knox-Johnston, yachtsman
18 March – Ron Atkinson, footballer and football manager
23 March
*Robin Herd, engineer and businessman
*Terry Paine, footballer
24 March – Lynda Baron, actress
4 April – Danny Thompson, musician
5 April – David Winters, English-born American actor, choreographer and director
7 April – David Frost, television personality
10 April – Penny Vincenzi, novelist
12 April – Alan Ayckbourn, playwright
13 April – Seamus Heaney, Irish poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
15 April – Marty Wilde, actor and rock 'n' roll singer
22 April
* John Chilcot, civil servant
* Mark Jones, actor
* Ann Mitchell, English actress
* Alex Murphy, rugby league footballer and coach
1 May – Lady Susan Hussey, courtier
2 May
* Peter Dean, actor
* Mairi Hedderwick, illustrator and author
4 May – Neil Fox, rugby league footballer
5 May – Terry Walsh, actor and stuntman
7 May – David Hatch, radio broadcaster and actor
10 May – Bill Cash, English lawyer and politician
19 May – James Fox, English actor
25 May – Sir Ian McKellen, English actor
27 May – Sarah Caudwell, barrister and author
30 May – Tim Waterstone, businessman
31 May
* Andrew Ray, actor
* Terry Waite, humanitarian, author and hostage
4 June – George Reid, Scottish politician
5 June – Margaret Drabble, novelist and biographer
8 June
* Francis Jacobs, English lawyer and judge
* Gordon Reid, Scottish actor
11 June
* Rachael Heyhoe Flint, England cricketer
* Jackie Stewart, Scottish racing driver
14 June
* Peter Mayle, writer
* Colin Thubron, writer
19 June – Michael Standing, actor
26 June – Arthur Sutton, cricketer
30 June
* John Fortune, actor and satirist
* Tony Hatch, musical theatre and television composer
2 July – Ferdinand Mount, journalist and novelist
7 July – Stanley Henig, academic and politician
10 July – John Dunlop, racehorse trainer
11 July – John Walters, musician and radio presenter
15 July – Reg Pridmore, motorcycle road racing national champion
16 July – Corin Redgrave, actor and political activist
17 July – Spencer Davis, Welsh beat musician, multi-instrumentalist
18 July – Brian Auger, jazz and rock keyboardist
22 July – Robert Phelps, modern pentathlete
28 July – Richard Johns, air marshal
4 August – Jack Cunningham, politician
10 August
* Mick Ives, racing cyclist
* Kate O'Mara, English actress
11 August – Naseem Khan, journalist
15 August
* Norma Waterson, folk musician
* Bill Wratten, air chief marshal
16 August
* Sir Trevor McDonald, Trinidadian-born British journalist and broadcaster
* Carole Shelley, actress
19 August
* Alan Baker, mathematician
* Ginger Baker, rock drummer
25 August – John Bardon, actor
30 August – John Peel, disc jockey and radio presenter
12 September – John Pearse, guitarist
18 September – Maurice Colbourne, actor
19 September
* Bruce Bastin, musicologist and author
* Louise Botting, businesswoman and radio presenter
22 September
* Bette Bourne, actor, drag queen, campaigner and activist
* Jean Golding, epidemiologist
23 September – Henry Blofeld, cricket commentator
25 September – Leon Brittan, politician
26 September - Ricky Tomlinson, actor
27 September – Nicky Haslam, interior designer
29 September – Rhodri Morgan, Welsh politician
1 October – Geoffrey Whitehead, actor
6 October – Melvyn Bragg, media arts presenter, critic and novelist
7 October – Harry Kroto, organic chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
9 October – Nicholas Grimshaw, architect
19 October – David Clark, Baron Clark of Windermere, Scottish politician
21 October – Peter Vere-Jones, English-born New Zealand actor
22 October – George Cohen, English footballer
23 October – Peter Armitage, English actor
24 October – John Adye, intelligence officer
25 October – Dave Simmonds, road racer
26 October – Willie Stevenson, Scottish football player and manager
27 October – John Cleese, comic actor
31 October – Tom O'Connor, entertainer and comedian
4 November – Michael Meacher, politician.
8 November – Liz Dawn, actress
11 November – Alf Adams, physicist
12 November – Terry McDonald, footballer and coach
16 November – Michael Billington, drama critic
17 November – Auberon Waugh, journalist
18 November
*Bill Giles, weather forecaster
*Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington, née Callaghan, politician
*Ian McCulloch, actor
20 November – Geoff Foulds, snooker player
3 December – David Phillips, chemist
13 December
* Andrew Carter, composer
* Eric Flynn, singer-songwriter
16 December – Gordon Miller, Olympic high jumper
20 December
* Tony Bentley, footballer
* Jim Herriot, footballer
26 December – Carol Black, physician and academic

Deaths

9 January – Edwin Farley, mayor
2 March – Howard Carter, archaeologist
29 March – Ernest Hanbury Hankin, English bacteriologist and naturalist
18 April – Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, patron and promoter of women's interests
9 May – Sophie Williams, previously Mary, Lady Heath, aviator and athlete
25 May – Sir Frank Dyson, astronomer
25 June – Richard Seaman, racing driver
26 June – Ford Madox Ford, novelist, poet, critic and editor
20 July – Sir Dan Godfrey, conductor
6 September – Arthur Rackham, illustrator
13 September – Henry Halcro Johnston, botanist, physician, rugby union international and Deputy Lieutenant for Orkney
18 September - Gwen John, artist
19 September – Ethel M. Dell, romantic fiction writer
26 September - Leif Jones, politician
3 December – Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, daughter of Queen Victoria
15 December – Len Cundell, English racehorse trainer
19 December – Eric Fogg, composer and conductor