1984 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1984 in the United Kingdom. The year was dominated by the miners' strike.

Incumbents

Monarch – Elizabeth II
Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher

Events

January

January – General Motors ends production of the Vauxhall Chevette after nine years.
1 January – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
3 January – The FTSE 100 Index starts.
6 January – The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders announces that a record of nearly 1.8 million cars were sold in Britain last year. The best-selling car for the second year running was the Ford Escort with more than 174,000 sales.
9 January – Sarah Tisdall, a 23-year-old Foreign Office clerk, is charged under the Official Secrets Act.
13 January – Six people die when Britain is battered by hurricane-force winds.
14 January – Six people die during a fire at the Maysfield Leisure Centre in Belfast.
15 January – Left-wing MP Tony Benn wins the Labour Party's nomination for the Chesterfield by-election, eight months after losing his seat as Member of parliament for Bristol in the General Election.
25 January – The government prohibits GCHQ staff from belonging to any trade union.

February

1 February
*Japanese car maker Nissan signs an agreement with the British government to build a car factory in Britain. This landmark deal means that foreign cars will be built in Britain for the first time, with the factory set to open during 1986.
*Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson announces that after 13 years, the halfpenny will be demonetised and withdrawn from circulation.
7–19 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and win one gold medal.
12 February – Austin Rover announces that the Triumph marque will be discontinued this Summer after 63 years, as the Triumph Acclaim's successor will be sold as a Rover.
14 February – Torvill and Dean win a gold medal for ice skating at the Winter Olympics.

March

1 March – Labour MP Tony Benn is returned to parliament after winning the Chesterfield by-election, having lost his previous seat at the general election last year.
2 March – Just five months after becoming Labour Party leader, Neil Kinnock's ambition of becoming prime minister at the next election are given a boost when Labour come top of a MORI poll with 41% of the vote. Just over six months ago, the Conservatives had a 16-point lead over Labour in the opinion polls. However, Kinnock is still faced with the task of overhauling a triple-digit Conservative majority.
12 March – Miners' strike begins and pits the National Union of Mineworkers against Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government intent on free market reform of the nationalised industries, which includes plans for the closure of most of Britain's remaining coal pits.
14 March – Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams and three others are seriously injured in a gun attack by the Ulster Volunteer Force.
21 March – European Economic Community summit breaks down over disagreement over Britain's budget rebate with Margaret Thatcher threatening to veto any expansion of spending plans.
23 March – Hilda Murrell, 78-year-old rose grower and anti-nuclear campaigner, is found dead near her home in Shropshire, five days after being reported missing. West Mercia Police launch a murder investigation.
27 March – Starlight Express opens at Apollo Victoria Theatre in London.
28 March – A greenfield site at Washington, near Sunderland, is confirmed as the location for the new Nissan car factory.
31 March – Chatham Dockyard in Medway is closed after being used a shipbuilding yard for over 400 years since the reign of Henry VIII.

April

2 April – Youth gangs run riot in Wolverhampton, looting from shops.
4 April – Peace protesters evicted from the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.
9 April – More than 100 pickets are arrested in violent clashes at the colliery at Creswell, Derbyshire, and the Babbington Colliery in Nottinghamshire. It is estimated that 46 out of 176 British coal mines are currently active as miners fight government plans to close 20 coal mines across Britain.
12 April
* Arthur Scargill, the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, rules out a national ballot of miners on whether to continue their strike, which has already lasted five weeks.
* Telecommunications Act 1984 provides for the privatisation of British Telecom.
15 April – Comedian Tommy Cooper, 63, collapses and dies on stage from a heart attack during a live televised show, Live from Her Majesty's.
17 April – WPC Yvonne Fletcher is shot and killed by a secluded gunman during a siege outside the Libyan Embassy in London in the event known as the 1984 Libyan Embassy Siege. 11 other people are also shot but survive.
22 April – In the wake of WPC Yvonne Fletcher's death, Britain severs diplomatic relations with Libya and serves warning on its seven remaining Libyan diplomats to return to their homeland.
25 April – Austin Rover launches its new Montego four-door saloon which replaces the Austin Ambassador and Morris Ital and is derived from the Maestro hatchback. A five-door estate version of the Montego is due later this year.
27 April – 30 Libyan diplomats leave Britain.

May

2 May – The Liverpool International Garden Festival opens in Liverpool.
3 May – By-elections are held in Cynon Valley in Wales, and Stafford and South West Surrey in England, caused by the deaths of their MPs. All three seats are held by the incumbent parties. The new MPs are Ann Clwyd, Bill Cash and Virginia Bottomley.
8 May – The Thames Barrier, designed to protect London from floods, is opened by The Queen.
12 May – Liverpool F.C. secure a third consecutive league title and the 15th in the club's history, despite being held to a 0–0 draw away at Notts County.
19 May
* Everton win the FA Cup, their first major trophy for 14 years, with a 2–0 win over Watford in the final at Wembley Stadium. The goals are scored by Andy Gray and Graeme Sharp. Everton's last FA Cup triumph came in 1966, and they have now won the trophy four times.
* The Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman dies aged 77 at his home in Trebetherick, Cornwall.
23 May – 16 people are killed in the Abbeystead disaster, caused by exploding methane gas.
26 May – The football British Home Championship, which has been contested by the four home nations since 1884, witnesses its last game. Northern Ireland win the trophy.
28 May – Comedian Eric Morecambe dies of a heart attack aged 58 after collapsing on stage at the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury the previous day.
29 May – Fighting at Orgreave colliery between police and striking miners leaves 64 injured.
30 May
* The Queen officially opens a new terminal at Birmingham Airport. The terminal has been in use since the start of last month, replacing the original terminal that opened in 1939.
* Liverpool win the European Cup for the fourth time with a penalty shoot-out victory over AS Roma of Italy after a 1–1 draw in the final at Olympic Stadium in Rome. Liverpool, who have also won the Football League First Division and Football League Cup this season, are the first English club to win three major trophies in the same season.
* Arthur Scargill is arrested and charged with obstruction at Orgreave.

June

1 June – Murder of Mark Tildesley: A 7-year-old boy from Wokingham in Berkshire disappears after visiting a local fairground and being abducted and killed by a paedophile group led by Sidney Cooke; only one named member of the gang is convicted of the crime and the victim's body will not be found.
7 June – 120 people are arrested when fighting breaks out outside the Houses of Parliament during a mass lobby by striking miners.
14 June
* The European Parliament Election is held. The Tories lead the way with 45 MEPs, with Labour in second place with 32. The SDP–Liberal Alliance gains 18.5% of the vote but fails to elect a single MEP.
* The Portsmouth South by-election is held, caused by the death of Conservative MP Bonner Pink on 6 May; the SDP under Mike Hancock wins the seat.
15 June – A miner picketing a Yorkshire power station is killed by a lorry.
18 June – Battle of Orgreave confrontation between picketing miners and police.
19 June – Austin Rover launches the Rover 200 saloon, the replacement for the Triumph Acclaim which marks the end of the Triumph brand after 63 years. Like its predecessor, the new car is the result of a venture with Honda.
20 June – The biggest school examination shake-up in over 10 years is announced with O-level and CSE examinations to be replaced by a new examination, the GCSE. The first GCSE courses will begin in September 1986 and will be completed in the Summer of 1988.
22 June – The inaugural Virgin Atlantic flight takes place.
29 June – Control of London Transport is removed from the Greater London Council and transferred to London Regional Transport under terms of the London Regional Transport Act 1984.
30 June – Elton John plays the famous Night and Day Concert at Wembley Stadium.
June – British unemployment is at a record high of around 3.26 million – though a higher percentage of the nation's workforce were unemployed during the Great Depression some 50 years ago.

July

4 July – The government announces the abolition of dog licences, which took place in the Local Government Act 1988.
6 July
*David Jenkins consecrated as Bishop of Durham, despite strong objections from conservative Christians.
*Murder of Isabel Schwarz, a psychiatric social worker, in South London.
7 July
* The 10th G7 summit held in London.
* Actress Dame Flora Robson dies of cancer aged 82 at her home in Brighton.
9 July – A fire in the roof of York Minster, probably caused by an electrical storm, causes extensive damage which is expected to cost millions of pounds to repair.
12 July – Robert Maxwell buys the Daily Mirror for £113.4 million.
18 July – The general-interest magazine Tit-Bits closes after 104 years.
19 July
* A magnitude 5.4 earthquake with an epicentre in the Llŷn Peninsula of North Wales is felt throughout the United Kingdom.
* Neil Kinnock's hopes of becoming prime minister are given a boost by the latest MORI poll which puts Labour three points ahead of the Conservatives on 40%,
26 July – Trade Union Act prohibits unions from striking without a ballot.
28 July–12 August – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Los Angeles, California, and win 5 gold, 11 silver and 21 bronze medals.
30 July – A train collides with a cow in the Polmont rail accident near Falkirk in Scotland; thirteen people are killed.

August

2 August – A Surrey businessman wins a case in the European Court of Human Rights over illegal phone tapping by the police.
11 August – Barefoot South African runner Zola Budd, controversially granted British citizenship earlier in the year, collides with Mary Decker in the 3000 meters final at the Olympics, neither finishing as medallists.
24 August – Vauxhall unveils the Mk2 Astra which will go on sale in October.

September

6 September – A MORI poll shows that the Conservatives now have a slim lead over Labour for the first time this year.
7 September – An outbreak of food poisoning in two Yorkshire hospitals has so far claimed 22 lives in the space of two weeks.
10 September – Geneticist Alec Jeffreys discovers DNA fingerprinting.
11 September – Police arrest Malcolm Fairley at an address in Kentish Town, London, following a nationwide manhunt for the sex attacker known as The Fox.
15–16 September – Bones believed to be those of St Edward the Martyr are enshrined in the Church of St. Edward the Martyr, Brookwood, Surrey.
15 September – The Princess of Wales (Diana) gives birth to her second son.
16 September – The one-day-old son of the Prince and Princess of Wales is named as Henry Charles Albert David.
24 September – Four pupils and their teacher die and a further six pupils are injured when a roll of steel from a lorry crushes their minibus near Stuart Bathurst RC High School in Wednesbury, West Midlands.
26 September – The United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China sign the initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.
28 September – The High Court rules that the miner's strike is unlawful.

October

1 October – David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham, launches an attack on Margaret Thatcher's social policies. The Durham area has been particularly hard hit by factory and mine closures since her election as prime minister five years ago.
3 October – Plans to expand the Urban Enterprise Zone in Dudley, West Midlands, are approved; developers Don and Roy Richardson get the go-ahead to build a retail park and shopping mall on the main part of the site. The first tenants will move to the site next year and the development is expected in the next 18 months, with scope for further service sector developments in the future.
5 October – Police in Essex make the largest cannabis seizure in British criminal history when a multimillion-pound stash of the drug is found on a schooner moored on the River Crouch near North Fambridge village.
9 October – Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends is first broadcast on ITV, becoming one of the most successful children's TV programmes of all time since Postman Pat on the BBC three years prior.
10 October – The High Court fines the NUM £200,000 and Arthur Scargill £1,000 for contempt of court.
11 October – Three people are killed in the Wembley Central rail crash in London.
12 October – The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempts to assassinate the Conservative cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing with an explosive device planted at a conference hotel nearly a month previously. Margaret Thatcher escapes unharmed, but MP Anthony Berry and four other people are killed, whilst Norman Tebbit is trapped among the rubble and his wife Margaret is seriously injured.
13 October – Darts player John Lowe achieves the first televised nine dart finish.
16 October
* There is good news for the state-owned car maker Austin Rover. On the day that a facelifted version of its top-selling Austin Metro, now available as a five-door as well as a three-door is launched, it is announced that sales for September have increased by 39% over the same period last year. The pre-facelift Metro was Britain's best selling car last month, while the Maestro was the second best seller ahead of its key rival the Ford Escort and the six-month-old Austin Montego was the fifth best seller ahead of the Ford Sierra as an estate version of it launches which also marked the end of the Morris marque.
* Police drama The Bill airs for the first time on ITV. It debuted last year as a pilot show Wooden Top. When the last episode is shown in 2010, it will be the longest-running police procedural in British television history.
18 October – Support for the Conservative government is reported to be improving after several months of dismal poll showings, with the latest MORI poll putting them nine points ahead of Labour on 44%.
19 October – The developing regional accent continuum 'Estuary English' is first so named.
23 October – BBC News presenter Michael Buerk gives a powerful commentary of the famine in Ethiopia which has already claimed thousands of lives and reportedly has the potential to claim the lives of as many as 7 million more people. Numerous British charities including Oxfam and Save the Children begin collection work to aid the famine victims who are mostly encamped near the town of Korem.
31 October – Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 passed, codifying police powers in investigating suspects.

November

5 November – 800 miners cease striking and return to work.
15 November – The General Synod of the Church of England support the ordination of women as deacons, but not as full priests.
19 November – The number of working miners increases to around 62,000 when nearly 3,000 striking miners return to work.
20 November – British Telecom shares go on sale in the biggest share issue ever. Two million people buy shares, almost doubling the number of share owners in Britain.
22 November – Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service, a leading case in UK constitutional law, is decided in the House of Lords, ruling that royal prerogative is subject to judicial review, although the government's action in preventing staff of GCHQ from joining a trade union can be justified on national security grounds.
23 November – The Oxford Circus fire traps around 1,000 passengers on the London Underground but nobody is killed.
25 November – 36 of Britain and Ireland's top pop musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio to form Band Aid and record the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
28 November – The British Telecom share offer closes.
30 November
* Tension in the miners' strike increases when two South Wales miners are charged with the murder of taxi driver David Wilkie, 35, who died when a concrete block was dropped on his car from a road bridge. The passenger in his car, who escaped with minor injuries, was a miner who had defied the strike and continued going to work.
* The UK and French governments announce their intention to seek private promoters for the construction of the Channel Tunnel in order to build and operate it without public funding. The tunnel, for which proposals were first made as far back as 1802, is expected to be open in the early-1990s. The tunnel would be formally opened in a ceremony in 1994 by Queen Elizabeth II and the president of France.

December

3 December
* British Telecom is privatised.
* The Band Aid charity single is released.
4 December – Eccles rail crash; three people are killed.
10 December
* Richard Stone wins the Nobel Prize in Economics "for having made fundamental contributions to the development of systems of national accounts and hence greatly improved the basis for empirical economic analysis".
* César Milstein wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Niels Kaj Jerne and Georges J. F. Köhler "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies".
11 December – Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" goes to the top of the UK Singles Chart.
12 December – Bucks Fizz, the highly successful pop group, are involved in a road accident near Newcastle upon Tyne when their tour bus crashes in icy road conditions after a concert. Bobby Gee, Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston escape with relatively minor injuries, but Mike Nolan is in a serious condition.
14 December
*Michael Portillo begins his political career after being elected Conservative MP for Enfield South, in the by-election sparked by Sir Anthony Berry's death in the Brighton hotel bombing.
*Arthur Scargill, president of the NUM, is fined £250 and ordered to pay £750 for his involvement in the rioting at Orgreave coking plant on 29 May this year. He decides against appealing his convictions, despite his lawyers advising him to do so.
16 December – Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union visits Britain.
18 December – The government announces the privatisation of the Trustee Savings Bank.
19 December
* The People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration which will see the whole of the British Overseas Territory of Hong Kong returning to Chinese control in 13 years.
* Ted Hughes' appointment as Poet Laureate in succession to Sir John Betjeman is announced, Philip Larkin having turned down the post.
21 December – The three-month-old son of The Prince and Princess of Wales is christened Charles Albert David..
22 December – Band Aid's charity single is this year's Christmas number one.
31 December – Rick Allen, drummer of Def Leppard, loses his left arm in a car accident on the A57 road at Snake Pass.

Undated

Non-diocesan Bishop at Lambeth first appointed within the Church of England.
Vauxhall have a successful year in the motor industry. It has reported that its market share has doubled since 1981 and the year ends on an even bigger high when its MK2 Astra range is elected European Car of the Year, alongside its European counterpart the Opel Kadett.
Despite unemployment reaching a peak of nearly 3.3million this year, inflation is still low at 5%.
Youth unemployment stands at a record 1,200,000 – more than a third of the total unemployment count.

Publications

Douglas Adams' novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.
J. G. Ballard's novel Empire of the Sun.
Iain Banks's novel The Wasp Factory.
Julian Barnes's novel Flaubert's Parrot.
Anita Brookner's novel Hotel du Lac.
Angela Carter's novel Nights at the Circus.
Alasdair Gray's novel 1982, Janine
Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn's fictitious The Complete Yes Minister: The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister
David Lodge’s novel Small World: An Academic Romance.
Mary Wesley's novel The Camomile Lawn.

Births

7 January – George Gilbey, English television personality
15 January – Natasia Demetriou, English actress
17 January – Calvin Harris, Scottish electropop singer-songwriter, musician, DJ and record producer
28 January
*Ben Clucas, English racing driver
*Anne Panter, field hockey player
12 February – Jennie McAlpine, actress
14 February – Stephanie Leonidas, actress
27 February – Catriona Forrest, Scottish field hockey player
28 March – Nikki Sanderson, actress
8 April – Michelle Donelan, politician
21 April – Bhavna Limbachia, actress
22 April
*Michelle Ryan, actress
*Phillip Magee, Northern Irish singer and The X Factor (British series 2) finalist
4 May – Little Boots, electropop singer-songwriter, musician, DJ and record producer
15 May – Alex Brooker, journalist and television presenter
22 May – Clara Amfo, radio and television presenter
10 June – Ryan Thomas, actor
25 June – Amrita Hunjan, singer
7 July – Adam Paul Harvey, actor
8 July – TotalBiscuit, internet personality
12 July
* Gareth Gates, singer
* Florence Hoath, actress
18 July – Lee Barnard, footballer
8 August – Owen Jones, journalist and political commentator
19 August – Simon Bird, actor and comedian
5 September – Annabelle Wallis, actress
15 September – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
26 September – Keisha Buchanan, singer
28 September
* Simon Clarke, politician
* Helen Oyeyemi, novelist
14 October – Alex Scott, English footballer and sports commentator
16 October – Shayne Ward, singer
18 October – Milo Yiannopoulos, alt-right commentator
25 October – Adam MacKenzie, Scottish field hockey defender
27 October – Kelly Osbourne, singer
5 November – Nick Tandy, racing driver
8 November – Steven Webb, actor
26 November – Jayde Adams, comedian
30 November – Alan Hutton, Scottish footballer
7 December – Laura Trott, politician
10 December – Mark Applegarth, English rugby player
14 December – Chris Brunt, footballer
21 December – Darren Potter, footballer
25 December – Nadiya Hussain, television chef and broadcaster
28 December
*Leroy Lita, footballer
*Alex Lloyd, racing driver

Deaths

January

1 January
* Patrick Douglas Baird, glaciologist
* A. E. Clouston, test pilot and Royal Air Force Air Commodore
* Billy Hill (gangster), gangster
* Alexis Korner, musician
* Allen Wheeler, pilot and Royal Air Force Air Commodore
3 January
* Fergus McDonell, film director
* Sir Morris Sugden, physical chemist
4 January
* Sir Wilfred Burns, town planner
* Jameson Clark, actor
* Sir Kenneth Thompson, politician and former Member of parliament for Liverpool Walton
5 January – Thomas Bloomer, Bishop of Carlisle
6 January – Ronald Lewin, military historian
7 January
* Beresford Egan, satirical draughtsman, painter, novelist and playwright
* Walter Forde, actor
8 January
* John Breck, actor
* Harry Selby, politician, Member of Parliament for Glasgow Govan
9 January
* John Brough, oriental scholar
* Sir Frederick Gibberd, architect
* Thomas Murchison, Scottish Presbyterian minister and scholar
10 January
* Lancelot Stephen Bosanquet, mathematician
* Alasdair Clayre, author, broadcaster, singer-songwriter and academic
* Binnie Hale, actress
* Sir Ernest Albert Vasey, colonial politician and former actor
*Christopher Woolner, senior army officer
13 January
* Ian Campbell, artist
* Michael Shanks, journalist
* Tommy Younger, Scottish footballer
16 January
* Joan Liversidge, archaeologist
* Enid Porter, museum curator
17 January – Geoffrey Bell, English cricketer
20 January – Charles Greville, 7th Earl of Warwick, peer
21 January – Hywel Murrell, psychologist
22 January – Noël Bowater, Lord Mayor of London
26 January
* Grahame Clifford, actor and opera singer
* Sir John William McNee, bacteriologist
28 January – Bill Radcliffe, Manx language activist
31 January – John Eric Miers Macgregor, conservation architect

February

4 February
* Alan Buchanan, bishop
* Dorothy Davison, writer and artist
* Frederick Lee, Baron Lee of Newton, politician
5 February – Henry Somerset, 10th Duke of Beaufort, peer
7 February – Gerald Palmer, author and politician
8 February – Mabel Crout, politician
9 February
* Derrick Sherwin Bailey, theologian
* Mary Skeaping, ballet teacher
10 February
* Ioan Evans, politician
* Fred Hill, activist against the wearing of crash helmets by motorcyclists
* Redvers Opie, economist
11 February
* John Comer, actor
* Theodore William Moody, historian
12 February – Tom Keating, art restorer
16 February – Lucius Thompson-McCausland, economist
18 February – Paul Gardiner, musician
22 February – Max Newman, mathematician and World War II codebreaker
26 February – Dame Elizabeth Hoyer-Millar, naval officer
28 February – Joseph Leftwich, Dutch-born critic and translator
29 February – Alexander Murray Drennan, pathologist

March

1 March
* Roland Culver, actor
* Jeffrey Rowbotham, architect
* Peter Walker, racing driver
3 March
* John Adams, physicist
* Brian Downs, literary scholar and linguist
* Harry Hudson Rodmell, artist
* Rinty Monaghan, Northern Irish boxer
* Kathleen Richards, pianist and composer
4 March
* Basil Lam, harpsichordist, musical scholar and radio presenter
* Geoffrey Lumsden, actor
6 March
* Sir Leslie Farrer, lawyer
* Hugh Fraser, politician
* Henry Wilcoxon, actor
10 March – Maurice Macmillan, Conservative Party MP and son of former prime minister Harold Macmillan
11 March
* Douglas Bliss, painter and art conservationist
* Charles Hodson, Baron Hodson, judge
12 March
* L. M. Harrod, librarian
* Peg Maltby, British-born Australian writer and illustrator
* Arnold Ridley, playwright and actor
* Leslie R. H. Willis, archaeologist
16 March
* Reginald Bonham, blind chess player
* Lucius Cary, 14th Viscount Falkland, Scottish peer
17 March
* Alastair Cram, Army major
* John Dearth, actor
24 March – Harold Shearman, politician
c. 24 March – Hilda Murrell, horticulturalist and anti-nuclear activist
26 March – Sylva Stuart Watson, theatre director
27 March
* Winifred Crossley Fair, aviator
* Derek Francis, actor
* Reg Pratt, businessman and owner of West Ham United
28 March – Ian Stephens, journalist
29 March – Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, politician, Home Secretary
31 March – Jack Howarth, actor

April

1 April
* Douglas Cooper, art historian and collector
* Vera Dart, politician
* Elizabeth Goudge, children's author
* William Kendall, actor
3 April – Arthur Pickles, architect and politician
4 April
* William Henderson, 1st Baron Henderson, politician
* Sir Otway Herbert, Army general
* Beryl Smalley, historian
5 April
* Robert Adams, sculptor
* Sir Basil Eugster, Army general
* Sir Arthur Travers Harris, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War
* Sidney Webster, RAF vice-marshal
6 April – Nan Green, Spanish Civil War nurse and statistician
9 April – Sir Basil Blackwell, publisher
10 April – Elva Blacker, artist
11 April – John Lloyd Thomas, Anglican priest
14 April – Thorold Dickinson, film director and producer
15 April
* Tommy Cooper, comedian and magician
* William Empson, poet and literary critic
* Walter Padley, politician
* Robert Russell Race, physician and geneticist
* Alexander Trocchi, writer
17 April – Clare Winnicott, social worker and teacher
20 April
* Mabel Mercer, British-born American singer
* A. R. Rawlinson, Army lieutenant-colonel
21 April – Marjorie Brierley, psychoanalyst
23 April
* Harry Hibbs, English footballer
* Sir Roland Penrose, Surrealist painter and art collector
26 April
* Barry Gray, composer and musician
* Sybil Morrison, suffragist and pacifist
28 April – Phyllis Digby Morton, fashion journalist
30 April – Marcus Dods, composer and musician

May

1 May – Muriel Herbert, composer
2 May
* Frank Forsyth, actor
* Meredith Thomas, RAF vice-marshal
4 May – Diana Dors, actress
6 May
* Bonner Pink, politician
* Ernest Shufflebotham, potter and pottery designer
7 May – James Purdon Martin, neurologist
8 May – David Williams, geologist
15 May
* Mary Adams, television producer and social researcher
* Sir Geoffrey Arthur, academic administrator and diplomat
* Sir Alec Bishop, Army major-general
* Michael Noble, Baron Glenkinglas, politician
* Lionel Robbins, economist
16 May
* Ruth Ainsworth, author of children's books
* Jean Donald, Scottish golfer
19 May
* Sir John Betjeman, writer and poet laureate
* Dorothy Hutton, painter and printmaker
20 May – Richard Coleridge, 4th Baron Coleridge, peer and Royal Navy officer
24 May – Sir Stanley Hooker, mathematician and aircraft engineer
25 May – Sir Charles James Buchanan, Army officer
26 May
* Vera Stanley Alder, artist and mystic
* Mary Taylor Slow, physicist
27 May – Reginald Bosanquet, journalist and broadcaster
28 May – Eric Morecambe, comedian
29 May – Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe, peer
30 May
* Harold Cottam, wireless operator who received the distress call from the RMS Titanic
* Michael Elliott, theatre and television director

June

1 June – Francis St David Benwell Lejeune, Army major-general
2 June
* Piers Flint-Shipman, actor
* George Silver, actor
3 June
* Sir John MacLeod, Scottish politician
* Peter Wilson, auctioneer
6 June
* Edith Sharpe, actress
* Hugh Sykes Davies, poet and novelist
7 June – Ethel Gee, Soviet spy
8 June
* John Baker, biologist
* David Boyle, 9th Earl of Glasgow, peer and Royal Navy admiral
12 June – Sydney Smith, politician
13 June
* Sir George Baker, judge
* Sir David Evans, microbiologist
14 June – Sir Noël Hutton, parliamentary draftsman
16 June – Sir John Randall, physicist
18 June
* Sir Idris Foster, Welsh scholar
* Geoffrey Hirst, politician
19 June – Sir Anthony Selway, RAF air marshal
20 June – Estelle Winwood, actress
21 June – Webster Booth, operatic tenor
22 June – Dill Jones, pianist
23 June – Cecil Parrott, diplomat and translator
24 June – Tommy Godfrey, actor
25 June – Reg Dixon, comedian
27 June – Arnold Shaw, politician
28 June – Gavin Astor, 2nd Baron Astor of Hever, peer, publisher and soldier
29 June
* W. B. Fisher, geographer
* Paul Gore-Booth, Baron Gore-Booth, diplomat
* Audrey Richards, sociologist

July

5 July – Edward Llewellyn-Thomas, scientist and science fiction writer
7 July – Dame Flora Robson, actress
8 July – Reginald Stewart, orchestral conductor
9 July – Margaret Wetherby Williams, crime writer
11 July
* Hugh Morton, actor
* Johnny Ralph, cyclist
18 July
* Lally Bowers, actress
* Flora Solomon, activist
19 July – John Vaizey, Baron Vaizey, author and economist
20 July – Gabriel Andrew Dirac, mathematician
22 July – Peter Brush, Northern Irish lieutenant-colonel and politician
23 July – Anthony Sharp, actor
27 July – James Mason, actor
28 July – Alick Buchanan-Smith, Baron Balerno, soldier and geneticist
29 July
* Elaine M. Catley, British-born Canadian poet
* Sir Campbell Hardy, Royal Marines officer
30 July
* Winifred Brown, sportswoman, aviator and author
* Peter Jones, physician to King George VI

August

2 August – Harold Emmerson, civil servant
3 August – Sir Terence McMeekin, Army general
5 August
* Richard Burton, Welsh-born actor
* Frederick Skinnard, politician
9 August – John R. Gray, Scottish Presbyterian minister
12 August
* Christine Hargreaves, actress
* Raymond Oppenheimer, golfer and dog breeder
14 August
* George Dickinson Hadley, gastroenterologist
* J. B. Priestley, writer and broadcaster
* Peter Wishart, composer
17 August
* Mostyn Thomas, operatic tenor
* Rosa Ward, pioneer of the Girl Guide movement
19 August – Edmund Roche, 5th Baron Fermoy, peer and businessman
20 August – Tom Percival, power boat racer
21 August
* William Merrilees, Scottish police officer
* Bernard Youens, actor
23 August
* Cecil Hoare, protozoologist
* Helen O'Neil, archaeologist
24 August – James Kinsley, literary scholar
25 August – Mary Esslemont, physician
26 August – Leonard Robert Palmer, philologist
27 August
* Angela Sykes, illustrator
* Amabel Williams-Ellis, author and critic
30 August – Robert Press, civil servant

September

1 September – Alfred Newman, Royal Navy commander
2 September – Malcolm Craven, motorcycle racer
3 September – Francis Moncreiff, bishop
4 September – Elsie Louisa Deacon, railway draughtswoman
6 September – Donny MacLeod, television presenter
7 September
* Archibald Gordon, 5th Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair, Scottish peer
* Jennifer Kendal, actress
8 September
* Anthony Gross, painter and printmaker
* Frank Lowson, English cricketer
9 September
* Margaret Phillips, actress
* John Walker, herald
12 September – Geoffrey Lloyd, Baron Geoffrey-Lloyd, politician
13 September – Denis Shipwright, RAF pilot
15 September – Sir Richard Clayton, Royal Navy admiral
16 September
* Peter Blackmore, film screenwriter
* Meredith Frampton, painter
18 September
* Ralph Assheton, 1st Baron Clitheroe, peer and politician
* Irene Wellington, calligrapher
19 September – Frank Tomney, politician
20 September – Alfred White Franklin, paediatrician
22 September – George Oliver, lawyer and politician
23 September – Granville West, Baron Granville-West, politician
25 September
* Christopher Guest, Baron Guest, judge
* Robert H. Thouless, psychologist
27 September – Toke Townley, actor
28 September – Gerard Wallop, 9th Earl of Portsmouth, peer and politician
29 September – J. H. C. Morris, legal scholar

October

1 October – Jake Kilrain, boxer
4 October – George H. Marshall, teacher, author and activist
5 October – Leonard Rossiter, actor
9 October
* C. E. Bowden, Army officer and aeromodeller
* Guy Wolstenholme, golfer
10 October
* Alan Lake, actor
* Scott Sutherland, sculptor
11 October – Norah Smallwood, publisher
12 October
* Anthony Berry, Member of Parliament
* Ernest Gates, politician
14 October – Sir Martin Ryle, radio astronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
15 October – Helen Rushall, teacher
16 October – Constance Warren, composer
18 October
* Mickey Brantford, actor
* Lloyd Goffe, motorcycle racer
20 October – Paul Dirac, physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
22 October – Isabel Brown, communist activist
25 October – Stanford Robinson, orchestral conductor and composer
26 October
* Michael Babington Smith, soldier, banker and sportsman
* Seaborne Davies, politician and teacher
* Noel Howlett, actor
27 October – George F. Le Feuvre, Jersey-born American poet
28 October – John Davy, journalist
31 October – Peter Du Cane, boat designer

November

3 November – Harry McEvoy, industrialist
5 November
* Jessie Furze, pianist and composer
* Ivor Montagu, aristocrat, documentary film maker, table tennis player and Communist activist
7 November – Anita Gregory, psychologist
9 November – Sir William MacDonald, RAF air marshal
10 November
* Owain Richards, zoologist
* Louis Rosenhead, mathematician
13 November – Fred Hague, trade unionist
15 November – Percy Seymour, 18th Duke of Somerset, peer
16 November
* Sir George Deacon, oceanographer
* Philip Maynard Williams, political analyst
17 November – Harold Newgass, RNVR officer and George Cross recipient
18 November
* Thomas Jones, Baron Maelor, politician
* Kenneth Martin, painter
19 November
* John McQuade, Northern Irish politician
* Graham Russell Mitchell, World War II spy
20 November – Peter Welch, actor
21 November – Eric G. Forbes, physicist
22 November – Denis Rose, jazz musician
23 November
* Margaret Burton, actress
* William Spens, 2nd Baron Spens, peer
27 November – George Howard, Baron Howard of Henderskelfe, politician, soldier and BBC chairman
29 November – Dorothea Macnee, socialite
30 November – Edward Crankshaw, writer and translator

December

2 December – Edward James, poet
4 December
* Wyndham Davies, politician
* Malcolm Shaw, comics writer
5 December
* William Brown, Scottish army officer
* Ethel Mannin, novelist, travel writer and activist
8 December – Razzle, rock drummer
9 December – Ivor Moreton, singer and pianist
10 December – Brian Taylor, jockey
11 December – Will Paynter, coal miner and union leader
14 December – Sir Walter Stansfield, police officer
15 December – Lennard Pearce, actor
19 December
* Nigel Cornwall, clergyman
* Rowland Winn, 4th Baron St Oswald, peer and politician
* Hugh Seton-Watson, historian
21 December – Maurice Key, bishop
22 December – Sidney Vivian, actor
24 December
* Ian Hendry, actor
* Harry Waxman, cinematographer
25 December – Robert Stott, Army brigadier-general
26 December
* Geoffrey Barraclough, historian
* Tebbs Lloyd Johnson, speed-walker
27 December – William Black, Baron Black, coachbuilder
28 December
* Patrick Joseph Nolan, physicist
* Mary Stewart, Baroness Stewart of Alvechurch, politician and educator

Date unknown

unknown – Jean Bain of Crathie, Aberdeenshire, last speaker of Deeside Gaelic