1941 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1941 in the United Kingdom. The year was dominated by the Second World War.

Incumbents

Monarch – George VI
Prime Minister – Winston Churchill

Events

9 January – Avro Manchester Mark III BT308, prototype of the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, first flies, from RAF Ringway.
19 January – British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
20 January – Firewatching mandatory for business premises, to limit incendiary damage.
21 January – the Daily Worker, newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain, is suppressed by the Home Secretary in the Churchill war ministry, Herbert Morrison in view of its continuing pro-Soviet stance.
21-22 January – Battle of Tobruk: Australian and British forces attack and capture Tobruk from the Italians.
31 January – German spy Josef Jakobs parachutes into the village of Ramsey, Cambridgeshire; he breaks his ankle on landing and is immediately arrested.
5 February – Air Training Corps formed.
11 February – begins her first voyage as a troopship, from Singapore.
12 February – Reserve Constable Albert Alexander, a patient at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, becomes the first person treated with penicillin intravenously, by Howard Florey’s team. He reacts positively but there is insufficient supply of the drug to reverse his terminal infection. A successful treatment is achieved during May.
19 February – "Three nights' Blitz" over Swansea, South Wales, begins. 230 are killed and 409 injured.
February – white flour is replaced by "National flour", a wholemeal flour.
2 March – John Gilbert Winant takes up post as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom in succession to Joseph P. Kennedy; he will serve for 5 years.
11 March
* President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into United States law, allowing the country to supply military equipment to Britain.
* Luftwaffe air raids on Manchester cause extensive damage to the city, a notable casualty being Old Trafford football stadium, home of Manchester United, which is severely damaged.
13 March – Clydebank Blitz: bombing of Clydebank. 528 people die, 617 more are seriously injured, and hundreds more are injured by blast debris. Another 35,000 people are made homeless.
15 March – Plymouth Blitz: bombing of Plymouth. 336 people lose their lives.
27-29 March – Battle of Cape Matapan: Off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy sinking five warships.
15 April – Belfast Blitz: Belfast is heavily bombed, killing 900 and injuring 1,500.
7 April – Budget Day: Chancellor of the Exchequer Kingsley Wood presents a Keynesian budget that increases taxes; for the first time in British history, a majority of the population is liable to income tax.
18 April – heaviest air-raid of the year on London.
21 April – Greece capitulates. British troops withdraw to Crete.
May
* The Ministry of Information issues more than 14 million copies of a leaflet Beating the Invader, with a preface from Churchill, giving advice on what to do "if invasion comes".
* Meatless Woolton pie introduced.
2–8 May – 'May Week Raids', sustained heavy bombing on Merseyside, result in over 1,700 deaths and well over 1,000 injuries.
6–7 May – Greenock Blitz: Greenock in Scotland is intensively bombed. 280 people are killed, and 1,200 more injured.
9 May – is captured by the Royal Navy in the North Atlantic with its Enigma cryptography machine and codebooks intact.
10 May
* The House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
* Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland claiming to be on a peace mission.
15 May – first British jet aircraft, the Gloster E.28/39, is flown at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.
17 May – Tipton, near Dudley in the midlands, is bombed by the Luftwaffe for the second time in six months, with a further six civilian deaths.
24 May – in the North Atlantic, the German battleship Bismarck sinks killing all but three crewmen on what was the pride of the Royal Navy.
26 May – in the North Atlantic, Fairey Swordfish biplanes from the carrier HMS Ark Royal fatally cripple the German battleship Bismarck in torpedo attack.
May – Emergency Work Order requires merchant seamen to serve for the duration, establishes a Merchant Navy Reserve Pool of labour, and guarantees a wage.
1 June – clothes rationing introduced.
4 June – Britain invades Iraq; the pro-Axis government there is overthrown.
June – Noël Coward's comedy Blithe Spirit is premiered at Manchester Opera House. Opening in London on 2 July, its run of 1,997 consecutive performances sets a record for non-musical plays in the West End theatre which will not be surpassed for more than twenty years.
12 July – Anglo-Soviet Agreement signed for mutual co-operation following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.
August – Political Warfare Executive is formed to disseminate information to Germany and its Occupied countries.
9 August
* Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet on board ship at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland. The Atlantic Charter, setting goals for postwar international cooperation, is agreed as a result.
* RAF pilot Douglas Bader taken prisoner by the Germans after a mid-air collision over France.
12 August – Dudley, which suffered 10 fatalities in a landmine attack in November last year, suffers five more fatalities when a second landmine is dropped in the town.
15 August – Josef Jakobs becomes the last person executed at the Tower of London when he faces execution by firing squad following conviction for an offence under the Treachery Act 1940.
16 August – HMS Mercury Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals School opens at Leydene, near Petersfield, Hampshire.
18 August – National Fire Service established.
30 August – first official 'Shetland bus' clandestine mission using Norwegian fishing boats between Shetland and German-occupied Norway.
September
* Air Raid Precautions is renamed the Civil Defence Service.
* Local authorities are ordered to survey iron railings with the intention of their removal as scrap for munitions.
* The Royal Scots Greys, stationed in the Middle East, receive their first tanks, being the last of the cavalry regiments of the British Army to have abandoned horses for combat operations.
October – the first Ronald Searle cartoon to feature St Trinian's School is published, in the magazine Lilliput.
30 October – J. Arthur Rank purchases the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation, with its 251 cinemas and its subsidiary operations, Gainsborough Pictures and Lime Grove Studios.
31 October – a Huddersfield factory fire kills 49, many of them young women.
End October – President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt approves US$1bn in Lend-Lease aid to Britain.
1 November – announcement that radical politician Sir Charles Trevelyan is donating his family home, Wallington Hall, Northumberland, to the National Trust, its first such stately home acquisition.
13 November – the aircraft carrier is hit by the off Gibraltar; she capsizes and sinks under tow the next day.
27 November – Tobruk is relieved by the Eighth Army in Operation Crusader.
5 December – Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.
8 December – the Battle of Hong Kong begins less than eight hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor when Imperial Japanese forces invade British Hong Kong. British Malaya is also attacked and there follows the declaration of war on Japan.
10 December – sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse in the South China Sea: two Royal Navy capital ships, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, are sunk by Japanese aircraft.
13 December
* Battle of Cape Bon off Tunisia: two Italian cruisers are sunk without Allied losses.
* Britain declares war on Bulgaria.
15 December – Crofter Hand Woven Harris Tweed Co Ltd v Veitch decided in the House of Lords upholds the right of trade unionists to strike as part of collective bargaining.
18 December – National Service Act comes into effect: All men and women aged 18–60 are now liable to some form of national service, including military service for men under 51 and unmarried women between 20 and 30. The first military registration of 18½-year-olds takes place. The schedule of reserved occupations is abandoned.
25 December
* The Battle of Hong Kong ends after 17 days with surrender of the Crown colony of Hong Kong to the Japanese.
* Sir Alan Brooke succeeds John Dill as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, an office he will hold until 1946.
27 December
* Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a Joint session of the U.S. Congress.
* British Commandos raid the Norwegian port of Måløy on the island of Vågsøy, causing the Germans to reinforce the garrison and defenses.

Undated

Spring – Noël Coward composes the song London Pride.
Factory Canteen, predecessor of multinational foodservice company Compass Group, is founded in England by Jack Bateman.

Publications

Joyce Carey's memoir A House of Children, novel Herself Surprised and pamphlet The Case for African Freedom.
Lord David Cecil's The English Poets, first of the 'Britain in Pictures' series.
Agatha Christie's novels Evil Under the Sun and N or M?.
A. J. Cronin's novel The Keys of the Kingdom.
T. S. Eliot's poem The Dry Salvages, third of the Four Quartets.
Patrick Hamilton’s eve-of-war blackly comic novel Hangover Square.
James Hilton's wartime novel Random Harvest.
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.'s wartime sonnet "High Flight".The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
John Pudney's wartime poem "For Johnny".
Hilary St George Saunders' official booklet The Battle of Britain, August–October 1940.
Rebecca West's Balkan travelogue Black Lamb and Grey Falcon.

Births

1 January – Martin Evans, biologist
2 January – Celia Birtwell, textile and fashion designer
5 January – Kevin Keelan, English footballer
7 January
* Iona Brown, British violinist and conductor
* John E. Walker, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
8 January – Graham Chapman, English comedy writer-performer
10 January – Tom Clarke, Scottish politician
12 January – Long John Baldry, blues singer
19 January
* Tony Anholt, actor
* Colin Gunton, theologian
20 January – Allan Young, English footballer
27 January – Beatrice Tinsley, English-born astronomer
28 January – Ann Leslie, English journalist, born in British India
5 February – Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn, Labour politician, Leader of the House of Lords, Lord President of the Council
7 February – Kevin Crossley-Holland, English author and poet
10 February – Michael Apted, English film director
20 February – Richard Mabey, English writer and broadcaster
25 February – David Puttnam, English film producer and life peer
26 February – Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer
27 February – Paddy Ashdown, Liberal Democrat politician, born in the British Raj
28 February – Tristan Garel-Jones, Welsh-born Conservative politician
4 March – Adrian Lyne, English film director
5 March – Errol Le Cain, children's book illustrator and animator
25 March
* Lindy Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, artist, conservationist and businesswoman
* Rose Dugdale. heiress and IRA militant
26 March – Richard Dawkins, Kenyan-born British scientist
28 March – Jack Simmons, English cricketer
30 March – Graeme Edge, rock drummer and songwriter
5 April – Dave Swarbrick, folk rock fiddle player
7 April
* Peter Fluck, caricaturist
* Gorden Kaye, comic actor
8 April – Vivienne Westwood, fashion designer
10 April – John Kurila, Scottish footballer
11 April – Shirley Stelfox, English actress
12 April – Bobby Moore, English football player and World Cup winning captain
23 April – Ed Stewart, English disc jockey
26 April – Robin Jacob, English academic and judge
3 May – Paul Ferris, film composer and actor
10 May – Chris Denning, English radio presenter and convicted sex offender
11 May
* Eric Burdon, singer-songwriter
* Graham Miles, snooker player
13 May – Miles Kington, journalist and humorist
18 May – Miriam Margolyes, actress
19 May – Igor Judge, Baron Judge, lord chief justice
21 May – Martin Carthy, English folk singer and guitarist
22 May – Menzies Campbell, politician
26 May – Ron Wallwork, English race walker
27 May – Derek Robinson, physicist
29 May – Doug Scott, English mountaineer
2 June – Charlie Watts, English rock drummer
5 June – Jeff Rooker, Baron Rooker, English academic and politician, Minister of State for Immigration
7 June – Lady Elizabeth Shakerley, English party planner, socialite and first cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II
8 June – Robert Bradford, Northern Irish footballer and politician
9 June – Jon Lord, composer, pianist and organist
14 June
*Roy Harper, folk rock singer-guitarist
*Mike Yarwood, impressionist and comedian
18 June – Delia Smith, cook
20 June – Stephen Frears, film and television director
25 June – Eddie Large, born Edward McGinnis, Scottish-born comedian
27 June
* Ian Black, swimmer
* James P. Hogan, author
7 July
* Christopher Beeny, English actor
* Alan Durban, Welsh international footballer, manager
* Michael Howard, Welsh politician
* Bill Oddie, English comedy writer-performer, songwriter and birder
* Jim Rodford, English rock bassist
10 July – Jackie Lane, actress
11 July – Tommy Vance, disc jockey
18 July – Duncan Worsley, cricketer
29 July - David Warner, actor
4 August – Martin Jarvis, actor
6 August – Andrew Green, Baron Green of Deddington, diplomat
16 August – David Dickinson, British antiques expert, television presenter
21 August – Howard Lew Lewis, English comedian, actor
22 August – Barry Jackson, English track and field athlete
26 August – Chris Curtis, drummer
29 August – Robin Leach, television personality
30 August – Sue MacGregor, radio broadcaster
6 September – Roger Law, caricaturist
10 September – Christopher Hogwood, English conductor
17 September – Marit Allen, film costume designer
26 September – Martine Beswick, actress and model
27 September – Peter Bonetti, England football goalkeeper
28 September – Mike Osborne, jazz musician
29 September – Fred West, English serial killer
30 September – Angela Pleasence, actress
4 October – Jackie Collins, English-born novelist
5 October
* Stephanie Cole, English actress
* Steven Spurrier, wine merchant and writer
12 October – Michael Mansfield, barrister
19 October – Peter Thornley, English professional wrestler best known for the ring character Kendo Nagasaki
20 October – Anneke Wills, actress
21 October – Dickie Pride, rock and roll singer
23 October – Greg Ridley, rock bassist
28 October
* John Hallam, English actor
* Hank Marvin, born Brian Rankin, English guitarist
29 October – George Davies, English fashion retailer
30 October – Bob Wilson, football player and broadcaster
31 October – Joy Grieveson, British sprinter
1 November – Nigel Dempster, columnist
2 November – Bruce Welch, born Bruce Cripps, English guitarist
6 November – James Bowman, countertenor
10 November – Graham Clark, operatic tenor
18 November
* David Hemmings, English actor
* Angela Watkinson, educator and politician
24 November – Pete Best, English drummer
1 December – Nigel Rodley, English international human rights lawyer
5 December – Sheridan Morley, theatre critic
7 December – Val Wilmer, photographer and writer
8 December – Geoff Hurst, footballer
17 December – Alan Sinfield, English academic
18 December – Prince William of Gloucester
22 December – M. Stanley Whittingham, English-born solid-state chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
24 December
* Michael Billington, English actor
* John Levene, British actor
25 December – Kenneth Calman, Scottish physician and academic
31 December
* Alex Ferguson, Scottish footballer and football manager
* Sarah Miles, actress

Deaths

5 January – Amy Johnson, aviator
8 January – Lord Robert Baden-Powell, soldier and founder of the Boy Scouts
10 January – Frank Bridge, composer
24 January – Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll
4 February – George Lloyd, 1st Baron Lloyd, politician and diplomat
12 February – Charles Voysey, Arts and Crafts designer and domestic architect
8 March – Ken "Snakehips" Johnson, jazz musician and dancer
11 March – Sir Walford Davies, composer
13 March – Tom Mann, trade unionist
28 March – Virginia Woolf, novelist
5 April – Sir Nigel Gresley, railway steam locomotive designer
16 April – Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, economist
17 April – Al Bowlly, big band singer
23 May – Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin, car designer and manufacturer
24 May – Lancelot Holland, admiral
30 May – Prajadhipok, deposed king of Siam
1 June – Sir Hugh Walpole, New Zealand-born novelist
15 June – Evelyn Underhill, Christian mystic
30 June – Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor, lawyer and politician
11 July – Sir Arthur Evans, archaeologist
12 August – Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon, politician and colonial administrator, 22nd Viceroy of India, 13th Governor General of Canada
20 August – John Baird, 1st Viscount Stonehaven, politician, 8th Governor-General of Australia
17 September – Fred Karno, music hall impresario
13 October – David Devant, stage magician
7 November – Frank Pick, transport administrator and patron of industrial design
16 November – Sir Henry Wilson, general
27 November – Sir Charles Briggs, general
10 December – Sir Tom Phillips, admiral