1953 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1953 in the United Kingdom. This is the year of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the North Sea flood.

Incumbents

Monarch – Elizabeth II
Prime Minister – Winston Churchill

Events

28 January – Nineteen-year old Derek Bentley is hanged at Wandsworth Prison in London for his part in the murder of PC Sidney Miles.
31 January – Car ferry, sailing from Stranraer, Scotland, to Larne, Northern Ireland, sinks in the Irish Sea killing 133 people on board. Among the dead are: Northern Ireland Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Major Maynard Sinclair, and Sir Walter Smiles, the Ulster Unionist MP for North Down.
31 January–1 February – The North Sea flood of 1953 kills 307 people on the east coast of Britain, with more at sea. A corvette and a submarine sink at their moorings in HM Dockyard Sheerness.
1 February – Pool petrol, introduced during World War II, is replaced by individual brands.
3 February – Contralto Kathleen Ferrier premieres a critically acclaimed production of Gluck's Orfeo at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, but a repeat 3 days later will be her last public performance as terminal cancer cuts her career short at age 40.
5 February – Rationing of sweets, introduced during World War II, ends.
28 February – James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have discovered the structure of the DNA molecule.
4 March – Tommy Taylor, 21-year-old centre forward, becomes Britain's most expensive footballer in a £29,999 transfer from Barnsley to Manchester United.
16 March – Josip Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia visits the UK, the first Communist leader to do so.
24 March
* Queen Mary, consort of the late King George V, dies in her sleep at Marlborough House in London.
* The 10 Rillington Place murders are uncovered in London.
31 March – The funeral of Queen Mary takes place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
1 April – First record by any UK act to reach number one in the UK Singles Chart, The Stargazers' recording of "Broken Wings".
13 April – Ian Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.
15 April – Britain awards the George Medal to 22-year-old American airman Reis Leming who rescued 27 people in last winter's floods in East Anglia.
16 April – The Queen launches the Royal Yacht Britannia at John Brown & Company shipbuilders on the Clyde.
24 April – Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives a knighthood from the Queen.
25 April – Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish their description of the double helix structure of DNA in the paper "Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids".
2 May – Blackpool F.C. win the FA Cup final with a 4–3 victory over Bolton Wanderers, who have been 3–1 ahead until the final quarter of the game. Stan Mortensen scores a hat-trick, but the 38-year-old winger Stanley Matthews is instrumental in winning the game for Blackpool, who have never won a major trophy before.
25 May – Whitsun bank holiday; many businesses postpone the holiday for a week.
2 June
* The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II takes place at Westminster Abbey, celebrated as a public holiday.
* The Times exclusively carries James Morris's scoop of the conquest of Mount Everest by a British expedition on 29 May.
6 June
* The Prevention of Crime Act comes into effect, making the carrying of an offensive weapon in a public place a criminal offence.
* The Epsom Derby is won by Pinza, the only Derby victory for Gordon Richards at his 28th attempt, days after becoming the only jockey to be made a knight. The Queen's horse, Aureole, finishes second.
23 June – Prime Minister Winston Churchill, 78, suffers a stroke at a dinner for the Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi. On 27 June the public are told that he is suffering from fatigue.
25 June – John Christie, a 54-year-old Londoner, is sentenced to death for the murder of his wife Ethel Christie. A total of eight bodies have been found at Christie's home, 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, including those of the wife and daughter of Timothy Evans who had been hanged in 1950 for his daughter's murder.
26 June – Eskdalemuir enters the UK Weather Records for the highest rainfall in a 30-minute period with 80mm, a record that will remain for at least sixty years.
30 June – First roll-on/roll-off ferry crossing of the English Channel, Dover–Boulogne.
15 July – John Christie is hanged at Pentonville Prison, where a crowd of some two hundred people stand to wait for the notice of execution to be posted.
18 July – The Quatermass Experiment, first of the Quatermass science-fiction serials by Nigel Kneale, begins its run on BBC Television.
20 July – The Good Old Days, filmed at the Leeds City Varieties, begins its 30-year run on BBC Television.
19 August
* The England cricket team under Len Hutton defeat Australia to win The Ashes for the first time in nineteen years.
* Iranian coup d'état : Overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran by Iranian military in favour of strengthening the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with the support of the United States and UK.
Autumn – Myxomatosis reaches the UK, first being illegally introduced onto an estate in West Sussex.
19 September – Sir Hubert Parry's 1916 setting of William Blake's "Jerusalem" first appears as a permanent feature of the Last Night of the Proms.
26 September – End of post-war sugar rationing.
6 October – The government sends troops to the colony of British Guiana, blaming Communists for causing unrest.
10 October – RAF officers Monty Burton with Don Gannon win the speed section of the 1953 London to Christchurch air race in an English Electric Canberra, with under 23 hours flying time.
27 October – Arbroath life-boat Robert Lindsay capsizes on service: six crew killed.
November – The first production Blue Danube atomic bomb, the first British-developed and -built nuclear weapon, is delivered to the Bomber Command stockpile at RAF Wittering, concluding the High Explosive Research project to develop it.
2 November – The Samaritans telephone counselling service for the suicidal is started by Rev. Chad Varah in London.
11 November – Current affairs series Panorama first airs on BBC Television, it will still be running more than seventy years later.
17 November – Italian cargo steamer Vittoria Claudia sinks after collision with French motor vessel Perou in the English Channel, killing twenty Italian sailors.
20 November – The Piltdown Man skull, which was discovered in 1912 and thought to be the fossilised remains of a hitherto unknown form of early human, is exposed as a hoax.
25 November – football match)|Match of the Century: England v Hungary] football match at Wembley Stadium results in a 6–3 defeat suffered by the England national football team against Hungary, ending a 90-year unbeaten home run against sides from outside the British Isles.
26 November – The House of Lords votes in favour of the government's proposals for commercial television.
30 November – Kabaka crisis: Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka of Buganda, is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Benjamin Cohen, Governor of Uganda.
c. December – Matchbox toy vehicles are introduced by Lesney Products of London.
10 December
* Winston Churchill wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values".
* Hans Adolf Krebs wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of the citric acid cycle".
* Pilkington Brothers take out their first patent for the float glass process developed by Alastair Pilkington.

Undated

Michael Ventris deciphers the Minoan script Linear B.
First Italian espresso coffee bar opens in the UK, The Moka in Frith Street, Soho, London.
Jazz musician John Dankworth sets up his big band, the Johnny Dankworth Orchestra.
Laura Ashley sells her first printed fabrics.
J. C. Bamford of Rocester introduce the backhoe loader.
E. Gomme introduce the popular G-Plan furniture range.
House of Fraser take over the Sunderland-based Binns group of department stores.
Some 25% of British households now own a television set, seventeen years after the first sets became available. Many families buy a set this year to watch the Coronation of Elizabeth II.
Artist L. S. Lowry paints his football match picture Going to the Match and exhibits it at the Lefevre Gallery.

Publications

Agatha Christie's novels After the Funeral and A Pocket Full of Rye.
Gerald Durrell's first book, The Overloaded Ark.
Lawrence Durrell's book Reflections on a Marine Venus.
Islwyn Ffowc Elis's Welsh novel Cysgod y Cryman
Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.
L. P. Hartley's novel The Go-Between.
C. S. Lewis' novel The Silver Chair.
Evelyn Waugh's novel Love Among the Ruins. A Romance of the Near Future.
Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle's Molesworth book Down With Skool.
John Wyndham's novel The Kraken Wakes.

Births

1 January – Maureen Beattie, Irish-born Scottish actress
4 January
*Jackie Ballard, journalist and politician
*Richard Boden, director and producer
*Vicki Bruce, psychologist and academic
6 January – Malcolm Young, Scottish-born Australian guitarist
11 January – John Sessions, actor
19 January – Linda Hayden, actress
20 January – John Robertson, footballer
29 January
*Ronnie Moore, footballer and manager
*Richard Younger-Ross, politician
17 February – Norman Pace, actor and comedian
18 February – Ian Jenkins, archaeologist and curator
22 February – Geoffrey Perkins, comedy producer, writer and performer
27 February – Gavin Esler, journalist and television presenter
3 March – Robyn Hitchcock, alternative rock singer-songwriter
19 March – Ian Blair, police officer
26 March – Christopher Fowler, thriller writer
4 April – Sammy Wilson, Northern Irish politician
9 April
* Howard Bernstein, civil servant
* John Howard, glam-pop singer-songwriter
11 April – Andrew Wiles, mathematician known for proving Fermat's Last Theorem
13 April – Stephen Byers, politician
18 April – Steven Pimlott, theatre director
20 April – Sebastian Faulks, novelist
24 April – Tim Woodward, screen actor
26 April – David Reddaway, Canadian-English diplomat, British High Commissioner to Canada
6 May
* Tony Blair, Prime Minister
* Graeme Souness, Scottish footballer and manager
7 May – Ian McKay, soldier, recipient of VC posthumously
10 May – John Diamond, journalist
15 May
* Athene Donald, physicist
* Mike Oldfield, musician
19 May – Victoria Wood, comic performer
21 May – Jim Devine, politician
24 May – Alfred Molina, actor
26 May – Michael Portillo, politician
31 May – Linda Riordan, politician
2 June – Dave Boy Green, boxer and businessman
3 June – John Moulder-Brown, actor
7 June – Johnny Clegg, mbaqanga and Afro-pop musician and musical anthropologist
8 June – Billy Hayes, trade union leader
18 June – Peter Donohoe, pianist
19 June – Hilary Jones, physician, television host and media personality
23 June – John Stahl, Scottish actor
26 June – Neil Record, businessman, author and economist
1 July – Alan Sunderland, footballer
4 July – Francis Maude, politician
7 July – Robert McCrum, writer and editor
15 July – John Denham, politician
21 July – David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party
24 July – Julian Brazier, politician
29 July – Willie Donald, Scottish cricket player and administrator
2 August – Anthony Seldon, educator and historian
8 August – Nigel Mansell, racing driver
9 August – Roberta Tovey, actress
15 August – Carol Thatcher, journalist, and Mark Thatcher, businessman
16 August – David Spiegelhalter, statistician
18 August – Patrick Cowdell, English boxer
23 August – Bobby G, singer
2 September
* Keith Allen, actor
* Patsy Rodenburg, voice coach
12 September – Fiona Mactaggart, educator and politician
23 September – Nicholas Witchell, broadcaster and journalist
27 September – Diane Abbott, politician
10 October – Janet Bloomfield, disarmament campaigner
12 October – Les Dennis, television presenter, actor and comedian
13 October – John Simpson, lexicographer and scholar
16 October – Brinsley Forde, actor and reggae musician
21 October – Peter Mandelson, politician
24 October
* John Barton, English footballer and manager
* Andrew Turner, academic and politician
* David Wright, composer and music producer
26 October – Roger Allam, actor
27 October
* Paul Alcock, football referee
* Peter Firth, actor
28 October – Phil Dwyer, Welsh footballer
3 November – Claire van Kampen, English theatre director
4 November – Peter Lord, British film producer and director
7 November – Lucinda Green, equestrian
11 November – Andy Partridge, rock singer-songwriter
16 November – Griff Rhys Jones, comedian, actor and writer
18 November – Alan Moore, writer and magician
21 November – Tina Brown, journalist and editor
26 November – Hilary Benn, politician
28 November – Alistair Darling, politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer
29 November – Rose West, serial killer
2 December – David Anderson, English miner and politician
6 December – Geoff Hoon, politician
13 December – Jim Davidson, comedian

Deaths

13 January – Sir Edward Marsh, polymath and civil servant
28 January – Derek Bentley, criminal
29 January
* Sir Norman MacEwen, RAF commander
* Sir Reginald Wingate, general and colonial administrator
1 February – William Sydney Marchant, colonial official
9 February – Cecil Hepworth, film director
23 February – Sir Cecil Hunter-Rodwell, colonial administrator
24 March – Queen Mary, consort of King George V, grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II
6 April – Idris Davies, Welsh poet
9 April – C. E. M. Joad, philosopher and broadcaster
3 May – John Erskine, Lord Erskine, soldier and politician
15 May – Mabel Love, dancer and actress
25 May – Edmund Dulac, French-born illustrator and designer
1 June – Alex James, Scottish footballer
16 June – Margaret Bondfield, politician and trade unionist
9 July – Annie Kenney, suffragette
15 July – John Christie, serial killer
16 July – Hilaire Belloc, writer
18 July – Lucy Booth, Salvationist, fifth daughter of William and Catherine Booth
29 July – Rosa May Billinghurst, suffragette
30 September
* Robert Mawdesley, stage and radio actor
* Lewis Fry Richardson, mathematical physicist
3 October – Sir Arnold Bax, composer
8 October
* Nigel Bruce, character actor
* Kathleen Ferrier, contralto
14 October – Arthur Wimperis, illustrator and playwright
20 October – Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, air chief marshal
21 October – Sir Muirhead Bone, etcher
27 October – Thomas Wass, cricketer
9 November – Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author
27 November – T. F. Powys, novelist
29 November – Ernest Barnes, mathematician, scientist, theologian and Bishop of Birmingham
25 December – William Haselden, cartoonist