1949 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1949 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Monarch – George VI
Prime Minister – Clement Attlee

Events

January – Mass Observation carries out a national survey into the sexual behaviour and attitudes of 4,000 British people, "Little Kinsey". The results remain largely unpublished for over fifty years.
1 January
* Peacetime conscription in the United Kingdom is regularised under the National Service Act 1947. Men aged 18–26 years in England, Scotland and Wales are obliged to serve full-time in the armed forces for 18 months.
* The British Nationality Act 1948 comes into effect, creating the status of "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies", superseding the shared status of "Commonwealth citizen".
4 January – of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage.
28 January – Lynskey tribunal on corruption in public life reports, leading to the resignation of John Belcher as an MP.
31 January – Book at Bedtime makes its debut on the BBC Light Programme.
1 February – Women's Auxiliary Air Force renamed as the Women's Royal Air Force.
15 March – Post-war rationing of clothes ends.
25 March – Laurence Olivier's film Hamlet becomes the first British film to win a 'Best Picture' Oscar.
28 March – Astronomer Fred Hoyle coins the term Big Bang during a BBC Third Programme radio broadcast.
1 April – The Marquess of Bath opens Longleat House to paying visitors, the first privately owned stately home to be opened.
4 April – Britain signs the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO.
12 April – The first women appointed King's Counsel in England: Rose Heilbron and Helena Normanton.
20 April
* Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst goes up the Yangtze River to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of the Mao's Communist forces. Under heavy fire, it runs aground off Rose Island. After an aborted rescue attempt on 26 April, it anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the Communist forces to let the ship leave drag on for weeks, during which time its cat, Simon, raises the crew's morale.
* The first Badminton Horse Trials are held at Badminton House in Gloucestershire.
24 April – Wartime rationing of confectionery ends, but is reinstituted shortly thereafter as shortages return.
26 April – Ealing comedy film Passport to Pimlico makes its premiere in London.
28 April – The Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference issues the London Declaration, enabling India to remain in the Commonwealth despite becoming a republic, creating the position of 'Head of the Commonwealth', and renaming the organisation from 'British Commonwealth' to 'Commonwealth of Nations'.
29 April – The News Review reveals that neither the English public school Selhurst College nor its headmaster H. Rochester Sneath exist, but are a hoax created by Humphry Berkeley the previous year.
30 April – 1949 FA Cup Final: Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. win the FA Cup for the first time in 41 years, and the third time in their history, with a 3–1 win over Leicester City at Wembley Stadium.
April – Manchester Mark 1 computer operable at the University of Manchester.
May – Wales and Monmouthshire, set up as a government advisory body, first meets.
1 May – The gas industry is nationalised.
3 May – Parliament passes the Ireland Act guaranteeing the position of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom as long as a majority of its citizens want it to be. The UK Government also formally recognises the existence of the Republic of Ireland.
6 May – EDSAC, the first practicable stored-programme computer, runs its first programme at Cambridge University.
7 May – The [1949 England national netball team|England Scotland national netball team|Scotland Wales Netball Series] sees England, Scotland and Wales all play their debut netball test matches.
10 May – First self-service launderette opens, in Queensway (London).
11 May – Christopher Fry's verse drama The Lady's Not for Burning premieres in London.
7–25 June – Dock strike forces the government to use troops to unload goods.
8 June – George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is published in London by Secker & Warburg.
16 June – Ealing comedy film Whisky Galore! released.
21 June – Ealing comedy film Kind Hearts and Coronets released.
14 July – Church Dignitaries Measure of the Church of England provides for the retirement of certain diocesan office-holders on the grounds of incapacity, unbecoming conduct or neglect of duty.
27 July – Maiden flight of the British-built de Havilland Comet, the world's first passenger jet, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.
30 July – Legal Aid and Advice Act establishes a much-extended system of legal aid in England and Wales.
31 July – Captain Kerans of HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army both sides of the Yangtze River and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day.
22 August – T. S. Eliot's verse comedy The Cocktail Party premieres at the Edinburgh Festival.
24 August – Old Trafford football stadium, home of Manchester United F.C., is reopened following a comprehensive rebuild due to bomb damage by the Luftwaffe eight years earlier.
2 September – Film The Third Man, with screenplay by Graham Greene, released. It wins the 1949 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.
19 September – The pound is devalued by 30% against the United States dollar.
21 September – The first comprehensive school in Wales is opened in Holyhead, Anglesey.
30 September – The Berlin Airlift comes to an end, during which 17 American and 7 British planes have crashed delivering supplies to Soviet blockaded Berlin.
October – Valerie Hunter Gordon is granted a UK patent for the disposable nappy.
12 October – John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
26 October – How Do You View?, the first comedy series on British television, starring Terry-Thomas, is first broadcast on the BBC.
4 November – Cwmbran designated as the first New Town in Wales under powers of the New Towns Act 1946.
24 November – Representation of the People Act 1949 provides for reviews of parliamentary boundaries by the permanent Boundary Commissions; abolishes the terms 'parliamentary borough' and 'parliamentary county', renaming them 'borough constituency' and 'county constituency'; abolishes the university constituencies; and removes remaining provisions allowing plural voting in parliamentary elections by owners of business premises.
28 November – Former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes a landmark speech in support of the idea of a European Union at Kingsway Hall, London, but without commitment to early UK membership.
16 December – Parliament Act given royal assent, cuts the House of Lords veto to one year.
17 December – Sutton Coldfield transmitting station begins transmitting BBC Television to the English Midlands, the first broadcasts to be seen outside the London area.

Undated

The number of workforce deaths in the coal industry is reported to have fallen to a record low since nationalisation two years ago.
With an average Central England temperature of, the record for the hottest year in that series set in 1834 and equalled in 1921 is broken. The record set this year stands until 1990 by when anthropogenic global warming has come largely to control temperatures.

Publications

Enid Blyton's children's books Little Noddy Goes to Toyland, the first to introduce the title character; and The Secret Seven, first in the eponymous series.
Agatha Christie's novel Crooked House.
H. F. Ellis' humorous collection The Papers of A. J. Wentworth B.A.
Graham Greene's novella The Third Man.
Nancy Mitford's novel Love in a Cold Climate.
George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Births

7 January – Brian Haw, protester and peace campaigner
16 January – Caroline Munro, actress and model
17 January – Mick Taylor, rock guitarist
19 January
* Robert Palmer, singer
* Andrew Samuels, psychologist and academic
* Dennis Taylor, snooker player
23 January – Joan Walley, politician
25 January
* John Cooper Clarke, performance poet
* Paul Nurse, biologist and Nobel Prize winner
29 January – Andy Carter, middle-distance runner
2 February – Duncan Bannatyne, entrepreneur
4 February – Richard Ryder, Baron Ryder of Wensum, broadcaster and politician, Paymaster General
16 February – Lyn Paul, pop singer
18 February – Charlie Waite, landscape photographer
2 March – J. P. R. Williams, Welsh rugby player
6 March – Martin Buchan, footballer
9 March – Neil Hamilton, politician.
12 March – David Mellor, politician and broadcaster
13 March – Trevor Sorbie, celebrity hairdresser
17 March
* Alex Higgins, snooker player
* Stuart Rose, businessman and life peer
24 March – Nick Lowe, pop singer
26 March – Jon English, English-born Australian singer, songwriter and actor
28 March – Kevin Lloyd, actor
1 April – Sammy Nelson, footballer
3 April – Richard Thompson, rock guitarist and songwriter
8 April – Alex Fergusson, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament 2007–2011
14 April – John Wallace, trumpeter
23 April – John Miles, rock music vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist
24 April
* Betty Jackson, fashion designer
* James Paice, farmer and politician
25 April – James Fenton, poet
29 April – Anita Dobson, actress
2 May – Alan Titchmarsh, gardener and television presenter
3 May – Phil Scraton, criminologist
4 May – Lindsey Hughes, historian
13 May
* Jane Glover, conductor and musicologist
* Zoë Wanamaker, actress
18 May – Rick Wakeman, rock keyboard player and songwriter
21 May
* Andrew Neil, Scottish journalist and broadcaster
* Rosalind Plowright, opera singer
24 May – Jim Broadbent, actor
26 May – Jeremy Corbyn, [Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party (UK)|Leader of the Labour Party]
28 May – Susan Fitzgerald, British-born Irish actress
29 May – Francis Rossi, rock musician
30 May – Bob Willis, cricketer
2 June – Heather Couper, astronomer
5 June – Ken Follett, novelist
10 June – Phil Redmond, screenwriter and television producer
13 June – Red Symons, English-born Australian musician and television personality
14 June
* Jim Lea, rock musician
* Alan White, drummer
15 June – Simon Callow, actor
21 June
* John Agard, writer
* Stuart Pearson, footballer
22 June – Brian Leveson, judge
7 July
* John Lippiett, senior Royal Navy officer
* Bob Stewart, colonel and politician
8 July – Carmel Cryan, actress
9 July – Nigel Lythgoe, television producer
13 July – Richard Caddel, poet
15 July – Trevor Horn, pop singer and producer
17 July – Geezer Butler, heavy metal bassist
22 July – Geoffrey Durham, entertainer
26 July – Roger Taylor, rock drummer
28 July
* Simon Kirke, drummer
* Steve Peregrin Took, singer-songwriter and guitarist
6 August – Alan Campbell, clergyman
12 August – Mark Knopfler, rock guitarist and singer-songwriter
15 August
*Richard Deacon, sculptor
*Edward McMillan-Scott, lawyer and politician
21 August – Rosemary Lenton, para-bowler and wheelchair curler
25 August
* Martin Amis, novelist
* Ross Davidson, actor
28 August – Martin Lamble, British folk rock musician
9 September
* John Curry, figure skater
* Jolyon Brettingham Smith, composer and radio presenter
10 September – Freddy Marks, actor and musician
13 September – Linda Colley, historian
18 September
* Mo Mowlam, Labour politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
* Peter Shilton, footballer
19 September – Twiggy, born Lesley Hornby, model
23 September – John Connaughton, footballer
26 September – Minette Walters, crime writer
5 October – Peter Ackroyd, writer and historian
19 October – George Fenton, composer
20 October – Jane Tucker, actress and musician
26 October – Maurice Gran, scriptwriter
30 October – Arabella Churchill, charity founder
1 November – Gerald Ratner, businessman
6 November – John Zarnecki, space scientist
7 November – Gerald Ashby, football referee
13 November – Terry Reid, musician
24 November
* Nick Ainger, Labour politician
* Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer
27 November – Brumas, polar bear
4 December – Paul Dickenson, hammer thrower
6 December
* Janet Anderson, politician
* Peter Willey, cricketer
12 December
* Chris Baillieu, rower and lawyer
* Bill Nighy, actor
13 December – Robert Lindsay, actor
16 December
* Heather Hallett, Baroness Hallett, judge
* Stephanie Lawrence, singer and actress
17 December – Paul Rodgers, rock singer
21 December – Nicholas Penny, art historian and academic
Michael Houghton, virologist and Nobel Prize winner

Deaths

2 January – Jock McNab, footballer
9 January – Tommy Handley, radio comedian
21 January
* William Price Drury, novelist, playwright and Royal Marines officer
* J. H. Thomas, Welsh-born trade unionist and politician
22 January – Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett, industrialist and politician
10 February – Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry, politician
19 March – Sir James Somerville, admiral
2 April – George Graves, comic actor
6 April – Sir Seymour Hicks, actor
14 April – Reginald Hine, local historian and solicitor, suicide
18 April – Will Hay, comic actor
28 April
* Sir Robert Robertson, chemist
* Sir Fabian Ware, founder of the Imperial War Graves Commission
21 June – Edward Wadsworth, Vorticist painter
9 July – Fritz Hart, composer
15 July – Eva Hubback, feminist
25 July – Lilian Bowes Lyon, poet
31 July – Alfred Bashford, cricketer
9 August – G. E. M. Skues, inventor of nymph fly fishing
16 August – Tom Wintringham, soldier and politician
30 August – Arthur Fielder, cricketer
9 September – Fredegond Shove, poet
23 October – J. R. Clynes, trade unionist and Labour leader
24 October – Thomas Rowland Hughes, writer
30 October – Denis Eden, painter
27 November – Tom Walls, actor and director
30 November – Dame Irene Vanbrugh, actress
5 December – Arthur Bedford, navy officer
13 December – John Hope, Liberal politician
16 December – George Maitland Lloyd Davies, pacifist politician
24 December – Gertrude Bacon, aeronautical pioneer