1990 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1990 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Monarch – Elizabeth II
Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher, John Major

Events

January

1 January
* Glasgow begins its year as European Capital of Culture, the first designated in the British Isles.
* Television debut of Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean in a Thames Television special.
4 January – Premiere of the BBC One television comedy One Foot in the Grave, which stars Richard Wilson and Annette Crosbie.
13 January – Some 50,000 people demonstrate on the streets of London in support of Britain's ambulance workers, as the ongoing ambulance crew strike continues four months after it began.
18 January – The first MORI poll of the decade shows that Labour have a 12-point lead over the Conservatives with 48% of the vote. Liberal support is at its lowest for more than a decade as the Liberal Democrats gain just 5% of the vote.
19 January – Police in Johannesburg, South Africa, break up a demonstration against the cricket match played by rebel English cricketers led by Mike Gatting.
25 January – Burns' Day Storm: hurricane-force winds are reported to have killed 39 people in England and Wales.
29 January – Lord Justice Taylor publishes his report in the Hillsborough disaster, which claimed the lives of 95 Liverpool F.C. supporters on 15 April last year. He recommends that all top division stadiums are all-seater by 1994 and that the rest of the Football League follows suit by 1999, but rules out the government's proposed ID card scheme to combat football hooliganism as "unworkable".

February

9 February – Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran renews his predecessors' fatwa on British author Salman Rushdie, which was imposed last year following controversy over the author's book: The Satanic Verses.
15 February
* The UK and Argentina restore diplomatic relations after eight years. Diplomatic ties were broken off in response to Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982.
* Neil Kinnock's dream of being prime minister appears closer to becoming reality as the latest MORI poll shows Labour on 51% with a 17-point lead over the Conservatives.
20 February – Three people are injured in Leicester city centre by a bomb explosion.
26 February – Fourteen people are killed as storms hit Britain. One of the worst-hit areas is Towyn in North Wales, where approximately 2,000 people are evacuated from their homes after huge waves smash a 200-yard hole in the sea wall and cause a major flood.
27 February – Economists warn that house prices could fall by up to 10% this year.

March

1 March – The Official Secrets Act 1989 comes into force.
7 March – Halifax Building Society reveals that house prices rose by 0.3% last month – the first monthly rise since July last year.
9 March – 37 people are arrested and 10 police officers injured in Brixton, London, during rioting against the new Community Charge.
13 March – The ambulance crew dispute ends after six months when workers agree to a 17.6% pay rise.
15 March
* Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying. Daphne Parish, a British nurse, is sentenced to fifteen years in prison for being an accomplice to Mr Bazoft.
* Britain's unemployment is now down to 1,610,000 – the lowest since 1978. However, it is a drop of just 2,000 on January's total and economists fear that a sharp rise in unemployment could soon begin as there are widespread fears of a recession.
20 March – Chancellor John Major delivers the first budget to be broadcast on television.
23 March – The [Prince Andrew, Prince Andrew, Duke of York|Duke of York|Duke] and Duchess of York's second daughter, Princess Eugenie of York, is born.
31 March – Poll tax riots in London as 200,000 people protest in the week preceding official introduction of the Community Charge.

April

1–25 April – 1990 Strangeways Prison riot in Manchester.
2 April – An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale and centred on the Shropshire town of Bishop's Castle is felt throughout much of England and Wales.
4 April – Dr Raymond Crockett is struck off the medical register for using kidneys from Turkish immigrants who had been paid to donate them.
5 April – Aldi, a German discount food supermarket chain, opens its first store in Britain, in Stechford, Birmingham.
9 April – Four Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers are killed by an IRA bomb in County Down.
10 April – With nineteen inmates at Strangeways Prison in Manchester still staging a rooftop protest against prison conditions, rioting has broken out at prisons in Cardiff and Bristol.
11 April – Customs and Excise officers seize parts of an Iraqi supergun in Middlesbrough.
19 April – Labour have a 23-point lead over the Conservatives in the latest MORI poll.
29 April – Stephen Hendry, 21, becomes the youngest ever world snooker champion.

May

May – Rover Group launches a new version of its popular Metro supermini, now branded as a Rover which has been the best-selling BL/Austin Rover car since its 1980 launch. At the same time, Vauxhall launches the Calibra, built by Opel in Germany, onto the UK market.
3 May – The end of house price inflation is declared by Halifax Building Society, two years after the housing market peaked.
4 May – Local council elections see Labour win more local council seats than the Conservatives. Neil Kinnock's hopes of victory in the next general election are further boosted by the fact that Labour have finished ahead in most of opinion polls for the last 12 months.
7 May – The Prince and Princess of Wales travel to Budapest for the first postwar British royal visit there.
8 May – Billy Cartman, a 33-year-old grouter, becomes the sixth Briton to die in the construction of the Channel Tunnel when he is crushed by heavy machinery.
11 May – Inflation now stands at 9.4% – the highest level for eight years.
12 May – The final of the FA Cup ends in a 3–3 draw between Manchester United and Crystal Palace at Wembley Stadium.
17 May – Manchester United win the FA Cup final replay 1–0 at Wembley Stadium, with the only goal of the game being scored by defender Lee Martin. Manchester United have now won the FA Cup seven times, equalling the record already held by Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur.
19 May
* British agriculture Minister John Gummer publicly feeds a hamburger to his five-year-old daughter to counter rumours about the spread of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy and its transmission to humans.
* Unemployment is reported to have risen for the first time in nearly four years.
24 May
*Bobby Robson announces that he will not be renewing his contract as manager of the England national football team after the World Cup in Italy this summer.
*[1990 Bootle (UK Parliament constituency)|Bootle by-elections|A by-election] in Bootle is held, caused by the death of the sitting Labour MP Allan Roberts of cancer aged 46 on 21 March. The seat is retained for Labour by 43-year-old Michael Carr, but, unbeknownst to the people, he is in poor health and will die on 20 July. The "rump" Social Democratic Party finishes behind the Monster Raving Loony Party in the by-election.
30 May – France prohibits British beef and live cattle imports as a precaution against fears of BSE being spread.

June

1 June – An army recruit is shot dead and two others are wounded by two suspected IRA gunmen in Lichfield, Staffordshire.
2 June – The long-serving actor Sir Rex Harrison dies of cancer aged 82 at his home in Manhattan, New York City.
3 June – The "rump" Social Democratic Party is wound up, two years after a splinter group refused to join up in the merger with the Liberal Democrats.
7 June – France, Italy and West Germany lift bans on British beef imposed during the BSE outbreak.
14 June
* The proposed high-speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel is shelved.
* Unemployment rises for the second month running, though by just over 4,000 to a total of 1,611,000 in May.
20 June – Chancellor of the Exchequer John Major proposes the "hard ecu", a currency which would circulate into parallel with national currencies as an alternative to full monetary union.
26 June – The Carlton Club in central London is bombed by the IRA, killing one and injuring 20.

July

2 July – Girobank is privatised by sale to the Alliance & Leicester Group.
4 July – England's hopes of World Cup glory are ended by a penalty shootout defeat in the semi-final against West Germany after a 1–1 draw in Turin.
10 July
* The first Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is opened by Princess Anne.
* UEFA lifts the ban on English football clubs in European competitions, five years after all teams were excluded due to the Heysel disaster.
11 July – Labour MP's accuse the Conservative government of "fraud" amid allegations that the 1,600,000 fall in unemployment since 1986 includes a million people leaving the list without finding work.
14 July – Trade and Industry Secretary Nicholas Ridley resigns following an interview in The Spectator in which he likened the European Community to Hitler's Germany.
16 July
* An official report reveals that High Street sales are at their lowest since 1980, sparking further fears of a recession.
* Nigel Mansell, Britain's most successful racing driver of the last 10 years, announces that he is to retire from Grand Prix races at the end of the 1990 season.
* Graham Taylor, the manager of Aston Villa F.C., is appointed as the England team's new manager.
17 July – German food superstore chain Aldi opens its first British store in Birmingham and plans to have up to 200 stores across the country by 1993.
19 July – Saddam Hussein, dictator of Iraq, frees Daphne Parish from prison for "humanitarian reasons" and she returns to Britain.
20 July
* An IRA bomb explodes at Stock Exchange Tower, the base of the London Stock Exchange.
* Michael Carr, the newly-elected Labour MP for Bootle, dies after just 57 days in parliament from a heart attack at the age of 43.
24 July – A Roman Catholic nun and three police officers are killed by an IRA landmine in County Armagh.
30 July – An IRA car bomb kills British MP Ian Gow, a staunch unionist, six days after he assured the IRA that the British government would never surrender to them.
31 July – The England cricket team defeats the India national cricket team in a high-scoring Lord's test match totalling 1,603 runs.

August

1 August – British Airways Flight 149 is seized by the Iraqi Army at Kuwait International Airport following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
3 August – The 1990 heat wave peaks with a temperature of 37.1 °C recorded at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
5 August – Margaret Thatcher announces her desire for a new Magna Carta to guarantee basic rights for all European citizens.
14 August – A survey carried out by the BBC reveals that 20% of taxpayers in England and Wales had not paid their Community Charge by 30 June this year.
16 August – A MORI poll shows that Labour now has a 15-point lead over the Conservatives with 50% of the vote, while support for the Liberal Democrats has doubled to 10% over the last seven months.
22 August – James MacMillan's symphonic piece The Confession of Isobel Gowdie premieres at The Proms in London.
23 August
* British hostages in Iraq are paraded on TV.
* Ford launches the fifth generation of its [Ford Ford Escort (Europe)|Escort (Europe)|Escort] hatchback, estate and cabriolet and Orion saloon. The two models have combined sales figures which account more than 10% of new cars sold in Britain. Sales of the two new models begin in Britain and the rest of Europe next month. However, the new generation models are widely panned by the motoring press due to their bland styling and driving experience as well as an old engine range from their predecessors.
24 August – Irish hostage Brian Keenan is released in Beirut, Lebanon, after being held a hostage there for more than four years.
27 August
* Four investors are found guilty in the Guinness share-trading fraud trial.
* The BBC begins broadcasting on Radio 5, its first new station for 23 years.

September

September – The new Ford Escort and Orion go on sale, as does a new model from Nissan, the Primera which replaces the Bluebird and is produced in Sunderland.
3 September – The children's series Rosie and Jim debuts on Children's ITV.
8 September – Historian, author and broadcaster A. J. P. Taylor, 84, dies from Parkinson's disease in a London nursing home.
8 September – York City footballer David Longhurst, 25, collapses and dies during a Football League Fourth Division match.
10 September – Pegasus, a leading British travel operator, goes bankrupt.
18 September – Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Terry survives a murder attempt by IRA terrorists at his home near Stafford.
22 September – John Banham, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, warns that most of Britain is now affected by a recession and that there is worse to come. The latest CBI prediction is also the gloomiest since 1980, the last time Britain was in recession. Fears of a recession have been growing across most of the world since the autumn of last year. However, chancellor John Major denies that Britain is on the verge of a recession.
26 September – Margaret Thatcher joins in with the politicians who are denying that the British economy is slumping into recession, despite manufacturers reporting their biggest drop in output since 1982, as well as a growing number of bankruptcies.
27 September – The Knowsley South by-election, caused by the death of sitting Labour MP Sean Hughes on 25 June, takes place; Edward O'Hara holds the seat for Labour.

October

2 October – Neil Kinnock cites education and training as key areas needing an improvement in standards when he addresses his party's conference in Blackpool.
8 October
* Pound sterling joins the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
* First members of the Women's Royal Naval Service to serve officially on an operational warship board Type 22 frigate HMS Brilliant.
18 October – The Eastbourne by-election in East Sussex takes place, sparked by Conservative MP Ian Gow's murder by the IRA on 30 July. David Bellotti of the Liberal Democrats wins the "safe" Conservative seat.
23 October
* Treasury officials state that a "brief, technical" recession in the British economy is now inevitable.
* Edward Heath, the former British prime minister, leaves Baghdad on a plane bound for Heathrow Airport with 33 freed hostages. Saddam Hussein has promised to release a further 30 hostages in the near future.
27 October – Economists predict that the current economic downturn will be confined to the second half of this year.
29 October – Premiere of the BBC One television comedy Keeping Up Appearances, which stars Patricia Routledge, Clive Swift and Geoffrey Hughes.
30 October – Fashion-based business Polly Peck enters administration following an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. The CEO, Asil Nadir, is much later sentenced to imprisonment for theft in connection with the company's affairs.

November

November
* Government produces Planning Policy Guidance 16: Archaeology and Planning to advise local authorities on the treatment of archaeology within the planning process. Site developers are required to contract with archaeological teams to have sites investigated in advance of development.
* Neil Kinnock, who has been leader of the Labour Party since October 1983, is now the longest serving opposition leader in British political history.
1 November
* Geoffrey Howe, [Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Deputy Prime Minister], resigns over the government's European policy.
* Broadcasting Act makes bidding for independent television franchises more commercially based and relaxes regulation of television and radio broadcasting.
* Courts and Legal Services Act introduces major reforms of the legal profession and Courts of England and Wales.
* Employment Act prohibits the closed shop and solidarity action in industrial disputes.
2 November
* Neil Kinnock announces his support for the adoption of a single European currency.
* British Sky Broadcasting founded as a merger between Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting.
8 November – By-elections are held in Bootle and [1990 1990 Bradford North by-election|Bradford North by-election|Bradford North], caused by the respective deaths of Labour MPs Michael Carr on 20 July and Pat Wall on 30 August. Labour retain both seats, with new Bootle MP Joe Benton gaining nearly 80% of the votes, while in Bradford North Terry Rooney becomes the first Latter-day Saint MP.
12 November – The Football Association deducts Arsenal two points and Manchester United one point and fines both clubs £50,000 for a mass player brawl in a Football League match between the two clubs last month in a league match at Old Trafford.
13 November – Geoffrey Howe makes a dramatic resignation speech in the House of Commons, attacking the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher's hostility towards the EC.
14 November
* The CBI confirms that the whole of Britain is now in recession, with every region now reporting a fall in output.
* Former cabinet minister Michael Heseltine announces that he will challenge Margaret Thatcher's leadership.
15 November – Despite constant disputes in the government and widespread doubt over Thatcher's position as prime minister and party leader, combined with recent by-election defeats and anger over the poll tax, the Conservatives have cut Labour's lead in the opinion polls to four points as they gain 41% of the vote in the latest MORI poll.
19 November – Major job cuts are reported to be on the way at the Rover Group, Britain's largest independent carmaker.
20 November – Margaret Thatcher fails to win outright victory in a leadership contest for the Conservative Party.
22 November – Margaret Thatcher announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party and therefore as Prime Minister, having led the government for more than 11 years and the Conservative Party for over 15 years. She is the longest serving prime minister of the 20th century.
23 November – The best-selling children's author Roald Dahl dies of cancer aged 74 in Oxford.
26 November – Plastic surgeons Michael Masser and Kenneth Paton are murdered in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
27 November – John Major is elected leader of the Conservative Party and becomes Britain's new prime minister, defeating Douglas Hurd and Michael Heseltine. At 47, Major will be the youngest British Prime Minister of the 20th century until 1997. He is to be officially appointed prime minister tomorrow at Buckingham Palace.
28 November – John Major is officially appointed prime minister by the Queen, as Margaret Thatcher officially tenders her resignation after leaving 10 Downing Street for the last time.
29 November – By-elections are held in the neighbouring Scottish constituencies of Paisley North and Paisley South, caused by the deaths of their respective Labour MPs Allen Adams on 5 September and Norman Buchan on 23 October. Labour fends off the Scottish National Party and wins both by-elections.

December

1 December
* Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the English Channel seabed, establishing the first land connection between the United Kingdom and the mainland of Europe for around 8,000 years.
* The CBI predicts that the recession will last longer than predicted, and that GDP is likely to fall by at least 1% in 1991.
2 December - BSB Galaxy shuts down for the final time, replaced by Sky One.
3 December – The mother of Gail Kinchin is awarded £8,000 in the High Court, a decade after her pregnant 16-year-old daughter was killed by a police marksman who intervened with a siege at the Birmingham flat where she was being held hostage by her boyfriend.
6 December
* Saddam Hussein announces that all British hostages in Iraq are to be released.
* House price inflation has returned and stands at 0.2% for November, the first year-on-year rise in house prices since February.
8 December
* The UK grinds to a halt following heavy snow overnight. Large parts of the country are without power after snowfall brings down power lines, disrupting the electricity supply. Many rural areas are cut off for several days, while the Army is called out to help restore power.
* There is grim news for the retail industry as a CBI survey reports that retail sales have hit a standstill and High Street employment will fall.
11 December
* The first British hostages from Iraq released by Saddam Hussein arrive back in the UK.
* The government makes £42 million compensation available to the 1,200 British haemophiliacs infected with the AIDS virus through blood transfusions.
12 December – The new chancellor Norman Lamont rules out an early cut in interest rates which critics, including opposition MP's, claim would be a quick route out of recession.
13 December
* Russell Bishop is sentenced to life imprisonment for the abduction, indecent assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl in Brighton in February this year. He was cleared of the murder of two young girls in Brighton four years ago but will be convicted for that crime in 2018.
* Poundland, a supermarket chain selling all items for £1, opens its first store at Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire.
* Netto, a Danish discount food supermarket chain, launches its first UK store in Leeds.
* The sharpest rise in unemployment since 1981 has taken it to more than 1,700,000, with 155,000 jobs having been lost in Britain since April. Economists blame high interest rates; a government method to combat inflation.
19 December – Tony Adams, the Arsenal captain and England defender, is sentenced to four months in prison for a drink-driving offence committed near his home in Southend-on-Sea on 6 May this year. He is also fined £500 and banned from driving for two years.
20 December
* British women Karyn Smith and Patricia Cahill receive 25-year prison sentences in Thailand for heroin smuggling after being arrested in Bangkok five months ago. Their lawyers are planning to ask for a Royal pardon.
* An era ends in the Rhondda, South Wales, when the last coalmine closes after more than 100 years of heavy coalmining in the region. 300 miners have lost their jobs and just seventeen will remain employed in the industry elsewhere in the valley.
23 December – The nine-month-old daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York is christened Eugenie Victoria Helena.
25 December – Storms on Christmas Day leave more than 100,000 British homes without power.
26 December – The fatwa against Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie is upheld by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, more than one year after it was first issued. Rushdie is still living in hiding.
27 December – The latest MORI poll shows that Conservative support has been boosted by the appointment of John Major, with his party now just four points behind Labour – eight months after Labour had peaked with a 23-point lead.
29 December – Leading economists warn that the recession creeping upon Britain will deepen during 1991 and unemployment is likely to increase to well over 2,000,000 from the current total of over 1,700,000.
30 December – An opinion poll shows Labour slightly ahead of the Conservatives for the first time since John Major became prime minister.
31 December – 89-year-old romantic novelist Barbara Cartland becomes a Dame in the New Year's Honours.

Undated

Inflation reaches 9.5% for the first time since 1981.

Publications

Iain M. Banks' novel Use of Weapons.
Louis de Bernières' novel The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts.
A. S. Byatt's novel Possession: A Romance.
Elizabeth Jane Howard's novel The Light Years, first of the Cazalet series.
Hanif Kureishi's novel The Buddha of Suburbia.
Ian McEwan's novel The Innocent.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels Eric and Moving Pictures and The Bromeliad novels Diggers and Wings.
Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's novel Good Omens.

Births

4 January – Lucy Letby, convicted serial killer
7 January – Jack Gallagher, pro wrestler
9 January – Jonathan Gullis, politician
11 January – Mark Wood, cricketer
14 January – Oli London, internet troll
15 January
* Stephen Bear, television personality and sex offender
* Paul Blake, English sprinter
18 January – Scott Williams, darts player
1 February
* Dan Gosling, English footballer
* Laura Marling, English folk-pop singer-songwriter
6 February – Dominic Sherwood, English actor and model
8 February
* Jonathan Page, English footballer
* Emily Scarratt, English rugby union player
13 February – Olivia Allison, swimmer
17 February – Alex Banfield, operatic tenor
19 February – Luke Pasqualino, actor
20 February – Anjli Mohindra, actress
28 February – Georgina Leonidas, actress
1 March
* Harry Eden, actor
* James Lomas, actor
2 March – Cadet, English rapper
5 March – Danny Drinkwater, English footballer
10 March - Olivia Blake, Labour politician
17 March – Greg Stewart, Scottish footballer
19 March – Maddy Hill, actress
23 March – Princess Eugenie of York, daughter of The Duke and Duchess of York
24 March – Cleo Sol, musician
28 March – Zoe Sugg, YouTuber and vlogger
6 April – Kate Forbes, Scottish politician
10 April
* Ben Amos, English footballer
* Alex Pettyfer, actor
15 April Emma Watson, actress
20 April – Abby Mavers, English actress
21 April – Chris Broad, YouTuber
23 April
* Dev Patel, actor
* Callum Smith, boxer
27 April – Martin Kelly, footballer
6 May – Craig Dawson, footballer
16 May – Thomas Sangster, actor
20 May – Josh O'Connor, actor
26 May – Nadia Oh, musician
28 May – Kyle Walker, footballer
31 May – Chris Dobey, darts player
2 June – Jack Lowden, actor
9 June – Lauren Socha, actress
13 June – Aaron Taylor-Johnson, actor
16 June – John Newman, singer
17 June
* Jordan Henderson, footballer
* Laura Wright, singer
18 June – Jacob Anderson, actor
19 June – Chuku Modu, actor
24 June – Rosie Jones, comedian
27 June – TomSka, youtuber
5 July – Nikki Patel, actress
7 July – Joe Marler, English rugby union player
15 July – Olly Alexander, actor and singer
19 July – GFOTY, signer
21 July – Chris Martin, footballer
24 July
* Jay McGuiness, English pop singer
* Dean Stoneman, English racing driver
29 July – Joey Essex, reality TV personality
30 July – Chris Maxwell, Welsh footballer
2 August – Chris Billam-Smith, boxer
3 August
* James Baxter, actor
* Jourdan Dunn, model
10 August – Tai Woffinden, speedway rider
13 August – Jamal Edwards, music entrepreneur
14 September – Alex and Sam Lowes, twin brother motorcycle racers
18 September – Michael Smith, darts world champion
21 September – Rob Cross, darts player
27 September – Lola Kirke, English-born American actress and singer
1 October – Charlotte McDonnell, YouTube personality
8 October – Karl Darlow, English footballer
12 October – Henri Lansbury, English footballer
17 October – Scarlett Moffatt, TV presenter
18 October – Danny Mayor, English footballer
20 October – Jamie George, English rugby union player
14 November – Josh Warrington, boxer
26 November – Danny Welbeck, footballer
28 November – Holly Hale, model
10 December – Bryony Page, trampolinist
13 December − Joseph Garrett, YouTuber, gamer, author, actor, voice actor, and stop-motion animator
17 December – John Rooney, footballer
20 December – Bugzy Malone, English grime rapper
26 December
* Heather Knight, cricketer
* Aaron Ramsey, footballer
30 December – Joe Root, cricketer

Deaths

January

2 January – Reginald Paget, Baron Paget of Northampton, lawyer and politician
3 January – William Wells, lawyer and politician
4 January – Lydia Bilbrook, actress
6 January – Ian Charleson, actor
7 January
* Gerald Gardiner, Baron Gardiner, Lord Chancellor
* Edwin McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of Moffat, construction magnate
8 January – Terry-Thomas, actor
9 January – Sir Roger Bower, Army lieutenant-general
10 January – John Benham, Olympic runner
14 January
* Rosalind Pitt-Rivers, biochemist
* John Witty, actor
15 January – Gordon Jackson, actor
16 January – Ruskin Spear, artist
17 January – Simon Nicholson, artist
18 January
* Melanie Appleby, singer
* Elke Mackenzie, explorer and botanist
19 January – Alberto Semprini, pianist
20 January – Robert Donington, musicologist
22 January – Bill Ferrar, mathematician
23 January – Derek Royle, actor
24 January – John Blacking, anthropologist
26 January – Bob Gerard, racing driver
27 January – Pit Corder, linguist
28 January – F. W. Winterbotham, RAF officer and World War II spy

February

1 February – Peter Racine Fricker, composer
2 February – Kathleen Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
6 February – John Merivale, actor
8 February
* Rhys Adrian, playwright and screenwriter
* Charles Maclean, Baron Maclean, Lord Chamberlain to the Queen
* Sir Ernest Titterton, nuclear physicist
10 February – Sir John Arthur Pilcher, diplomat
11 February – Colin Henderson Roberts, classical scholar
12 February – Harold McCusker, Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament
15 February – Norman Parkinson, photographer
16 February – J. C. Trewin, journalist
18 February
* Margaret Craske, ballet dancer and choreographer
* Joe Erskine, boxer
19 February
* Laura Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, socialite
* Michael Powell, filmmaker
25 February – Henry Fairlie, political journalist
26 February – Sir Julian Gascoigne, Army major-general
28 February
* Fabia Drake, actress
* Colin Milburn, English cricketer
* Greville Wynne, engineer and businessman

March

2 March – Arthur Fleischmann, sculptor
5 March – Timothy Mason, Marxist historian of Nazi Germany ; suicide in Italy
7 March – Ruth Glass, sociologist and urban planner
8 March – Jack Lindsay, writer
10 March
* Michael Stewart, Baron Stewart of Fulham, politician
* Lance Tingay, tennis journalist
11 March – Dean Horrix, English footballer ; car accident
12 March
* Wallace Breem, author
* Jane Grigson, cookery writer
* Rosamond Lehmann, novelist and translator
* Harry South, jazz pianist and composer
13 March – Hugh Cholmondeley, 6th Marquess of Cholmondeley, peer and Lord Great Chamberlain
14 March – Aubrey Wisberg, filmmaker
15 March – Farzad Bazoft, journalist ; executed in Iran
17 March – Ric Grech, rock musician
18 March – Eileen Soper, artist
20 March
* Sir Kenneth Mather, geneticist
* Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, banker, intelligence officer and zoologist
21 March – Allan Roberts, Labour Member of Parliament
22 March – Geoffrey Ostergaard, political scientist
23 March – John Dexter, theatre director
27 March – Sir Alfred Earle, RAF air marshal

April

2 April
* Vanda Godsell, actress
* Peter Jones, radio broadcaster
6 April
* James MacNabb, Olympic rower
* Peter Doherty, Northern Irish footballer
10 April – Sir Hugh Trefusis Brassey, Army colonel and magistrate
12 April – Sir Geoffrey Harrison, diplomat
15 April – Jock Bruce-Gardyne, politician
20 April
* N. H. Gibbs, academic
* Alex McCrindle, actor
* George Reindorp, former Bishop of Salisbury
21 April – R. B. Braithwaite, philosopher and theologian
22 April – Rosalind Moss, Egyptologist
23 April – Charlie Wilson, criminal ; murdered in Spain
28 April – Peter Fuller, art critic ; car accident
30 April – Ken Chisholm, Scottish footballer

May

2 May
* Ann Casson, actress
* David Rappaport, actor ; suicide
4 May – John Ormond, poet and filmmaker
5 May – Sir Reginald Goodall, orchestral conductor
7 May – Ann Bishop, biologist
8 May – Tomás Ó Fiaich, cardinal
9 May – George Kennedy Young, politician and merchant banker
15 May – Peter Grimwade, television director and screenwriter
18 May
* Jill Ireland, actress and singer
* Lorna Johnstone, equestrian
21 May
* Mrs Victor Bruce, racing driver
* Max Wall, comedian and actor
22 May
* Pat Reid, Army officer and historian
* Leslie Spriggs, politician
24 May – John Kendall-Carpenter, English rugby union player
27 May – Jessie MacWilliams, mathematician
28 May – Ralph Bagnold, geologist
30 May – Charles Morris, Baron Morris of Grasmere, philosopher

June

1 June – Eric Barker, comedy actor
2 June – Sir Rex Harrison, actor
3 June
* Robert Edwards, politician
* Ivor Raymonde, musician
6 June
* Albert Alderman, cricketer and footballer
* Joe Loss, bandleader
7 June – Sir Robert Perceval Armitage, colonial administrator
9 June
* James Carreras, film producer
* Eric Fletcher, Baron Fletcher, politician
* Angus McBean, photographer
12 June – Terence O'Neill, politician, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
13 June
* Antony Andrewes, historian
* Thomas Ponsonby, 3rd Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede, peer and politician
15 June
* Raymond Huntley, actor
* Leonard Sachs, actor
16 June
* Thomas Cowling, astronomer
* Dame Eva Turner, opera singer
17 June – Ronald F. Tylecote, archaeologist
20 June – Sir Tom Hopkinson, journalist
21 June – Cedric Belfrage, journalist
22 June – Elizabeth Harwood, opera singer
23 June – Frank Gatliff, actor
24 June – Sean Hughes, Labour Member of Parliament
26 June – Sidney Smith, snooker player
30 June
* Lynne Carol, actress
* Brian Tiler, footballer, manager and director ; car accident in Italy

July

1 July
* Anna Palk, actress
* Eric M. Rogers, physicist
8 July – Malcolm Hilton, English cricketer
14 July – Philip Leacock, television and film director
15 July
* Alison Leggatt, actress
* Margaret Lockwood, actress
16 July – Sidney Torch, composer and conductor ; suicide
17 July – Wilf Grant, English footballer
20 July – Michael Carr, Labour Member of Parliament for 57 days
22 July – Ray Mawby, politician
24 July – Alan Clarke, filmmaker
27 July – Elizabeth Allan, actress
28 July
* Maurice Braddell, actor and author
* Jill Esmond, actress
30 July
* Victor Cavendish-Bentinck, 9th Duke of Portland, peer and diplomat
* Launcelot Fleming, Anglican bishop and polar explorer
* Ian Gow, Conservative Member of Parliament

August

1 August
* Michael Glenny, author and translator
* Graham Young, convicted serial killer
2 August – Edwin Richfield, actor
5 August – Ivan Blatný, poet
6 August – Pat Wall, politician
9 August – Joe Mercer, footballer and manager
12 August
* Dorothy Mackaill, actress
* Roy Williamson, songwriter
15 August – Billy Hume, Scottish footballer
17 August
* Roderick Cook, actor and playwright
* Graham Williams, television producer and screenwriter ; accidentally killed
20 August – Tim Barrett, actor
24 August – Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon, peer, artist and politician
25 August – David Hampshire, racing driver
26 August – Sir Peter Agnew, 1st Baronet, Royal Navy commander and politician
31 August – Bert Assirati, wrestler

September

2 September – John Bowlby, psychologist
3 September – Elizabeth Douglas-Home, Baroness Home of the Hirsel, socialite and wife of Alec Douglas-Home
5 September
* Allen Adams, politician
* Hugh Foot, Baron Caradon, colonial administrator
* Jack Hildyard, cinematographer
* Graham Hough, literary critic
6 September – Len Hutton, cricketer
7 September – A. J. P. Taylor, historian
8 September
* Kathleen Gough, anthropologist
* Denys Watkins-Pitchford, writer
9 September – Molly Adair, actress
11 September – F. F. Bruce, biblical scholar
12 September – Athene Seyler, actress
16 September – Harold Palin, English rugby league player
18 September
* Richard Eric Holttum, botanist
* Walter Thompson Welford, physicist
22 September – Michael Swann, Baron Swann, biologist
27 September – John Aldam Aizlewood, Army major-general
28 September – Dan Davin, author
30 September – W. F. R. Hardie, philosopher

October

1 October
* John Stewart Bell, physicist, discoverer of Bell's theorem
* Sir Edmund George Irving, Royal Navy admiral and hydrographer
4 October
* Alyn Ainsworth, singer, composer and orchestral conductor
* Jill Bennett, actress
* Avis Bunnage, actress
* Peter Taylor, English footballer and manager
8 October – B. J. Wilson, rock drummer
9 October – Richard Murdoch, actor
10 October – Kenneth Cross, paediatrician and physiologist
12 October – Bridget Bate Tichenor, Surrealist painter
15 October – Gwen Nelson, actress
16 October – Roger Powell, bookbinder
18 October – Sir Ben Lockspeiser, scientific administrator
20 October – Freda Jackson, actress
21 October – Jo Ann Kelly, blues singer and guitarist
23 October
* Norman Buchan, politician
* Berthold Lubetkin, architect
29 October – Emrys Roberts, politician
31 October – Harold Caccia, Baron Caccia, diplomat

November

3 November
* Valerie French, actress
* George Gale, journalist
4 November – Sir David Stirling, Army lieutenant-colonel and founder of the SAS
5 November – Erich Heller, essayist
6 November – Rodrigo Moynihan, painter
7 November
* Lawrence Durrell, writer
* Josephine Wilson, Baroness Miles, actress and wife of Bernard Miles, Baron Miles
10 November – Tommy Sale, English footballer
13 November
* Don Chaffey, film director
* Rowland Emett, kinetic sculptor
* Richard Lewis, operatic tenor
14 November – Malcolm Muggeridge, journalist, author and media personality
15 November – Jill Day, singer and actress
18 November
* Fred Daly, Northern Irish golfer
* Beatrice Shilling, aeronautical engineer
21 November – Vernon Ellis Cosslett, microscopist
22 November – Jack Petersen, boxer
23 November – Roald Dahl, author
24 November – Dodie Smith, novelist and playwright
26 November – Edward Pearce, Baron Pearce, judge

December

7 December – Oscar Millard, screenwriter
11 December – David Turner, playwright
12 December
* Jack Harley, botanist
* Sir Ian Trethowan, journalist and broadcaster
15 December – Frederic Seebohm, Baron Seebohm, banker and social work innovator ; road accident
18 December – Arthur Roy Clapham, botanist
19 December
* Basil Henson, actor
* Michael Oakeshott, philosopher
20 December
* Andrea Dunbar, playwright
* John Hewetson, newspaper editor
22 December – Robin Friday, English footballer
24 December
* Judith Ledeboer, architect
* Gwyn Williams, writer
25 December – Dodo Watts, actress
29 December – David Piper, curator and novelist
31 December – Donald Kingaby, World War II air ace