1945 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1945 in the United Kingdom. This year sees the end of World War II and a landslide general election victory for the Labour Party.

Incumbents

Monarch – George VI
Prime Minister – Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee

Events

2 January – General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference at Zonhoven describing his contribution to the Battle of the Bulge.
23 January – announcement of the establishment of the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation by the Bank of England and the major commercial banks to provide long-term investment funding for small and medium-sized enterprises.
4 February – Prime Minister Winston Churchill attends the Yalta Conference.
13 February – the RAF Bomber Command begins the strategic bombing of Dresden in Saxony, Germany, resulting in a lethal firestorm which kills tens of thousands of civilians.
10 March – sixty-seven German prisoners of war tunnel their way out of Island Farm Camp 198 at Bridgend, the biggest escape attempt by German POWs in the UK during the War.
14 March – the RAF uses the Grand Slam bomb for the first time on the Bielefeld railway viaduct.
17 March – 13 people are killed and 22 injured when a lone Heinkel 111 bomber opens fire and drops bombs on people leaving a cinema in Kingston upon Hull.
19 March – Dennis O'Neill case: the foster father and foster mother of 12-year-old Dennis O'Neill, who died in their care on 9 January in Shropshire, are convicted of manslaughter and neglect respectively, leading to changes in provision of foster care in the UK.
27 March – last day of V-2 rocket attacks aimed at the UK. One hits Hughes Mansions, Stepney in East London, killing 134 and the last falls in Orpington with one fatality.
29 March – the last V-1 flying bomb attack on the UK takes place. The last enemy action of any kind on British soil occurs when one strikes Datchworth in Hertfordshire without any fatalities or injuries.
13 April – the first Scottish National Party Member of Parliament, Robert McIntyre, is elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom following his victory at the Motherwell by-election.
15 April – British troops liberate the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; Richard Dimbleby reports on it for the BBC.
19 April – Geoffrey Fisher enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.
April – Sybil Campbell is appointed a stipendiary magistrate in London, the first woman to become a professional judge in the UK.
7 May – at 23:00 the is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-2336 off the Firth of Forth with two killed, the last British-flagged merchant ship lost to German action.
8 May – eight days after the suicide of Adolf Hitler in Berlin and the collapse of Nazi rule in Europe, V-E Day is celebrated throughout the UK. Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes a victory speech and appears on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Street parties take place throughout the country.
9 May – German forces in the Channel Islands, the only occupied part of the British Isles, surrender.
18 May – Operation Unthinkable: Churchill secretly requests his military chiefs of staff to consider a plan for British, American and reactivated German forces to attack the Soviet Red Army on July 1 to preserve the independence of Poland. The operation is ruled militarily unfeasible.
23 May – Churchill forms a "caretaker" Conservative Party administration, pending an election, officially ending the wartime Coalition government.
27 May – basic food ration reduced.
28 May – American-born Irish-raised William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw" is captured on the German border. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime propaganda broadcasts on German radio. He is hanged in January 1946.
1 June – the UK takes over administration of Lebanon and Syria.
4 June – Churchill, in a broadcast election speech, claims that a future socialist government "would have to fall back on some form of Gestapo".
7 June – Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes is first performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London with Peter Pears in the title role.
13 June – Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts renamed Arts Council of Great Britain.
15 June – Parliament passes:
* The Family Allowances Act to provide payments to families with children with effect from 1946.
* The Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act, allowing an injured person to claim damages even though they were partly at fault, which was previously a complete bar to a claim. The damages may be reduced to reflect the share of responsibility.
18 June – demobilisation of the wartime armed forces begins.
5 July – polling day for the first general election to be held since 1935; a few constituencies delay polling due to local Wakes weeks and the vote count is not made for another three weeks so that votes from service personnel overseas can be added to the total.
17 July – Potsdam Conference – the three main Allied leaders begin their final summit of the war. The meeting will end on 2 August.
26 July – general election results are announced; Winston Churchill resigns as prime minister after his Conservative Party is soundly defeated by the Labour Party, who have a majority of 146 seats, and Clement Attlee becomes the new prime minister. However, Churchill will remain as Leader of the Conservative Party, in opposition. It will be the first time that a Labour government with a majority in the House of Commons has governed Britain. Among the new Labour members of parliament is 29-year-old Harold Wilson, MP for Ormskirk in Lancashire, who will become the next Labour Prime Minister in 1964. A notable casualty of the election is Harold Macmillan, who has now lost the Stockton-on-Tees seat twice for the Conservative Party. Ernest Brown, leader of the [National Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|National Liberal Party], loses his seat at Leith to Labour and Sir Archibald Sinclair, leader of the Liberal Party, comes third in the poll at Caithness and Sutherland, while their parties are reduced to 11 and 12 seats respectively; Liberal William Beveridge loses his seat. Robert McIntyre loses his newly won Scottish National Party seat. The largest number of women MPs to date is elected. On 27 July, Alfred Dobbs, newly elected as Labour MP for Smethwick, near Birmingham, is killed in a car crash.
29 July – the BBC Light Programme radio station is launched, concentrating on the broadcasting of mainstream light music and entertainment, superseding the BBC General Forces Programme within the UK using its longwave frequency from the Droitwich Transmitting Station.
2 August – Clement Davies replaces Sir Archibald Sinclair as leader of the Liberal Party.
5 August – the Giles family cartoon first appears in the Sunday Express.
13 August – Zionist World Congress approaches the British government to talk about the establishment of the state of Israel.
14 August
* The 1945 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours are announced, to mark the resignation of Winston Churchill.
* Polish-Jewish orphans liberated from Theresienstadt concentration camp arrive in England for rehabilitation.
* Late this evening, the new prime minister, Clement Attlee, and his foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, broadcast news of the surrender of Japan to the nation and Empire, speaking from 10 Downing Street.
15 August – V-J Day is celebrated in the UK as the first of two days of national holiday, marking the end of World War II.
16 August – in the House of Commons, Leader of the Opposition Winston Churchill speaks of an "Iron Curtain" descending across Europe.
17 August – George Orwell's political allegory Animal Farm is published.
30 August – British sovereignty of Hong Kong restored following the end of the Japanese occupation of the territory.
1 September – clothes ration reduced.
2 September
* Press censorship ends.
* Lend-Lease from the United States terminates.
September – J. B. Priestley's drama An Inspector Calls is premièred in Leningrad.
2 October – Piccadilly Circus tube station becomes the first to be lit by fluorescent light.
24 October – the British government signs the United Nations Charter.
14 November – Harold Macmillan begins his third term as a Conservative MP, after winning the by-election in Bromley, Kent.
15 November – Gainsborough Pictures releases the period melodrama The Wicked Lady starring Margaret Lockwood, Patricia Roc and James Mason.
26 November – J. Arthur Rank releases David Lean's film of Noël Coward's Brief Encounter starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.
28 November – British fascist John Amery pleads guilty to treason and is immediately sentenced to hang.
December
* Alexander Fleming and Ernst Boris Chain win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Howard Florey "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases".
* John Maynard Keynes secures a fifty-year $3,750,000,000 Anglo-American loan for the Government from the United States at 2%, effective from 1946.
* Bernard Lovell establishes the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire.
10 December – forced repatriation of Liverpool Chinese seamen begins.
31 December – Britain receives its first shipment of bananas since the beginning of the war.
Undated – the grammar school at Windermere reorganises itself to become Britain's first comprehensive school.

Publications

Rev. W. V. Awdry's children's book The Three Railway Engines, first of The Railway Series.
Agatha Christie's detective novel Sparkling Cyanide.
E. B. Ford's book Butterflies, first of the New Naturalist series.
Winston Graham's novel Ross Poldark, first of the Poldark Novels.
Henry Green's novel Loving.
C. S. Lewis' novel That Hideous Strength.
Nancy Mitford's novel The Pursuit of Love.
George Orwell's novel Animal Farm.
Karl Popper's book The Open Society and its Enemies.
Bertrand Russell's book History of Western Philosophy.
Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited.

Births

3 January – David Starkey, English historian
6 January – Barry John, Welsh rugby union footballer
10 January
* Jennifer Moss, actress
* Rod Stewart, rock singer
15 January – Princess Michael of Kent, German-born wife of Prince Michael of Kent
18 January – Rocco Forte, hotelier
21 January – Martin Shaw, English actor
23 January – Richard Dearlove, English intelligence officer
25 January – Dave Walker, rock musician
26 January
* Jacqueline du Pré, English cellist
* Marti Caine, actress and musician
* Ashley Hutchings, folk rock musician
29 January – Jim Nicholson, Northern Irish Unionist politician and MEP for Northern Ireland
30 January – Mike Kenny, paralympian swimmer
31 January – Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
3 February – Roy 'Chubby' Brown, born Royston Vasey, stand-up comedian
5 February – Charlotte Rampling, English actress
7 February – Gerald Davies, Welsh rugby player
13 February
* Keith Nichols, jazz musician and manager
* Simon Schama, historian
14 February – Martin Sorrell, businessman
15 February – John Helliwell, English saxophonist and keyboard player
16 February – Jeremy Bulloch, actor
20 February – Alan Hull, English folk rock singer-songwriter
25 February – Elkie Brooks, English singer
26 February – Michael Marmot, English epidemiologist
22 March – Peter Williams, English physicist and academic
30 March – Eric Clapton, English rock guitarist
2 April – Roger Bootle-Wilbraham, 7th Baron Skelmersdale, politician
6 April – Rodney Bickerstaffe, English trade union leader
7 April – Gerry Cottle, English circus owner
14 April – Ritchie Blackmore, English rock guitarist
19 April – Cleo Sylvestre, actress
20 April – Alistair Cooke, Baron Lexden, historian and author
21 April
*Ian Bruce, charity leader and academic
*Diana Darvey, actress, singer and dancer
27 April – Martin Chivers, English footballer
29 April – Hugh Hopper, English rock guitarist
6 May – Hilary Dwyer, actress, businessperson and film producer
9 May
*Nina Campbell, interior designer
*Peter J. Hammond, academic economist
*Nicholas Wilson, Lord Wilson of Culworth, lawyer and judge
12 May
* Alan Ball Jr., England footballer
* Nicky Henson, actor
14 May – George Nicholls, English rugby league footballer
16 May – Nicky Chinn, English songwriter
19 May
* Diana Maddock, Baroness Maddock, politician
* Pete Townshend, English rock guitarist and singer-songwriter
25 May - Dave Lee Travis, disc jockey and television presenter
29 May
* Gary Brooker, English rock keyboardist and singer-songwriter
* Martin Pipe, racehorse trainer
1 June – Ray Harford, footballer and manager
2 June – Lord David Dundas, musician and actor
3 June
*Brian Barnes, golfer
*John Derbyshire, English-American journalist and author
*Roger Lane-Nott, admiral
8 June
* Len Badger, footballer
* Anthony Bagnall, air chief marshal
* Derek Underwood, cricketer
10 June – Benny Gallagher, Scottish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
12 June – Pat Jennings, Northern Irish football goalkeeper
14 June – Rod Argent, singer and keyboardist
15 June – Nicola Pagett, actress
17 June – Ken Livingstone, politician
19 June – John Hind, English bishop and theologian
24 June – Carol Klein, gardener and broadcaster
28 June
* Ken Buchanan, Scottish lightweight boxer
* David Knights, English rock guitarist
3 July – Iain MacDonald-Smith, English racing yachtsman
4 July – David McWilliams, Northern Irish singer-songwriter
7 July – Michael Ancram, Conservative politician and MP for Devizes
10 July
* John Motson, football commentator
* Virginia Wade, tennis player
16 July – Barry Dudleston, English first-class cricketer and umpire
19 July – Richard Henderson, Scottish molecular biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
20 July – John Lodge, English rock singer/songwriter
21 July
* Wendy Cope, English poet
* John Lowe, English darts player
24 July – Martin Edwards, football executive
26 July
* Suzanna Leigh, actress
* Helen Mirren, actress
1 August – Laila Morse, English television actress
5 August – Martin Lambie-Nairn, production designer
6 August – Ron Jones, television director
8 August – Tom O'Carroll, paedophilia advocate
9 August – Posy Simmonds, English cartoonist and illustrator
13 August
* Robin Jackman, cricketer
* Howard Marks, Welsh cannabis smuggler, writer and campaigner
14 August – Jennifer d'Abo, entrepreneur
19 August – Ian Gillan, English hard rock singer
24 August – Ken Hensley, singer-songwriter
31 August – Van Morrison, Northern Irish singer-songwriter
4 September – Bill Kenwright, English theatre producer
8 September – Kelly Groucutt, English rock guitarist
14 September – Martin Tyler, sports broadcaster
18 September – John McAfee, British-American computer programmer and businessman
19 September – Kate Adie, journalist
21 September – Shaw Clifton, General of The Salvation Army
24 September
* John Rutter, choral composer
* Ian Stewart, mathematician and popular science writer
26 September – Bryan Ferry, pop rock singer and musician
27 September – Bob Spiers, television director
5 October
* Brian Connolly, Scottish musician
* Geoff Leigh, English saxophonist and flute player
15 October – Dave Hill, actor
19 October – Angus Deaton, Scottish-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate
23 October
* Hugh Fraser, actor
* Maggi Hambling, painter and sculptor
31 October – Al Jones, folk singer
10 November – Terence Davies, English film director and screenwriter
14 November – Louise Ellman, academic and politician
17 November – Gordon Phillips, English football player and manager
25 November – Bobby Knutt, English actor and comedian
26 November – John McVie, English rock bass guitarist
30 November
* Hilary Armstrong, politician
* Mary Millington, pornographic film actress
7 December – Clive Russell, English actor
16 December – Tony Hicks, guitarist and singer
17 December
* David Mallet, director
* Jacqueline Wilson, English children's writer
19 December – Ron Hunt, English footballer
24 December – Ian "Lemmy" Kilminster, bassist and singer
25 December
* Eve Pollard, newspaper editor
* Noel Redding, rock musician ]
28 December – Max Hastings, journalist and military historian
30 December – Davy Jones, English-born pop singer and actor

Deaths

2 January – Sir Bertram Ramsay, admiral; killed on active service
6 January – Herbert Lumsden, general; killed in action
9 January – Dennis O'Neill, Welsh child manslaughter victim
30 January – William Goodenough, admiral
21 January – Archibald Murray, Army general
31 January – Les Adams, rugby league player
21 February – Eric Liddell, athlete and missionary; died in Weixian Internment Camp
5 March – Albert Richards, war artist; killed on active service
7 March – Daniel Everett, RAF pilot; killed in action
8 March – Frederick Bligh Bond, architect, archaeologist and psychical researcher
20 March – Lord Alfred Douglas, poet and former lover of Oscar Wilde
23 March – Sir Napier Shaw, meteorologist
26 March – David Lloyd George, former prime minister
29 March – Jack Agazarian, spy; executed
7 April – Elizabeth Bibesco, writer and socialite
11 April – Cecil Griffiths, athlete, winner of gold medal in 4 × 400 m relay at the 1920 Summer Olympics
18 April – Sir John Ambrose Fleming, electrical engineer and physicist
3 May – Herbert Farjeon, man of the theatre
15 May
*Kenneth J. Alford, composer of military marches
*Charles Williams, author
27 July – Alfred Dobbs, politician
6 September – Maximilian von Herff, Waffen-SS officer and Knight's Cross recipient
18 September – C. H. Middleton, gardening broadcaster
22 September – Thomas Burke, fiction writer
31 October
*Henry Ainley, actor
*Alfred Edward Taylor, philosopher
20 November – Francis William Aston, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
4 December – Arthur Morrison, writer
5 December – Cosmo Gordon Lang, former archbishop of Canterbury
14 December – Princess Maud, Countess of Southesk, granddaughter of Edward VII
26 December
* Roger Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes, admiral
* Charlie Trigg, jockey