2000 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 2000 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Monarch – Elizabeth II
Prime Minister – Tony Blair

Events

January

Japanese carmaker Nissan adds a third model to its factory near Sunderland: the new generation of the Almera hatchback and saloon which goes on sale in March.
1 January – Millennium celebrations take place throughout the UK. The Millennium Dome in London is officially opened by HM The Queen.
4 January – Catherine Hartley and Fiona Thornewill become the first British women to reach the South Pole.
10 January – Tony Blair's wife, Cherie, is fined for not having a valid train ticket with her on a journey from Blackfriars to Luton. She claims to have had only Portuguese currency with her at the time and to have been unable to find a machine where she could use her credit card.
11 January – A Scottish trawler, the Solway Harvester, sinks in the Irish Sea, killing seven sailors.
12 January – Indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet: It is announced that former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, is to be deported after the home secretary, Jack Straw, accepts "unequivocal and unanimous" medical evidence that Pinochet is unfit to stand trial in Spain on charges of torture.
22 January – The Rugby league 2000 World Club Challenge is won by Melbourne Storm who defeat St. Helens 44 – 6 at the JJB Stadium in Wigan.
28 January – The Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, Nigel Jones, is attacked at his constituency surgery by a mentally disturbed man with a samurai sword. Andrew Pennington, a councillor, comes to Jones's defence but is stabbed nine times and dies later aged 39.
31 January – Dr. Harold Shipman is sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murdering fifteen elderly women patients in Greater Manchester between 1995 and 1998. He is also sentenced to four years in prison, to run concurrently, for forging the will of one of his victims. The subsequent enquiry considers him to have killed at least 215.

February

3 February – At the Ceredigion by-election, Simon Thomas holds the seat for Plaid Cymru.
10 February – A group of hijackers hijack an Ariana Afghan Airways plane and force it to fly to the United Kingdom. The plane lands at London Stansted airport and the hijackers surrender to authorities there.
11 February
* The Royal Bank of Scotland succeeds in the hostile takeover battle for its larger English rival, NatWest Bank, successfully defeating a rival offer made by the Bank of Scotland.
* Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended
15 February – Waterhouse report into the North Wales child abuse scandal published.
25 February – Murder of Victoria Climbié in London after torture and neglect by her guardians, her aunt Marie Therese Kouao and Kouao's partner Carl Manning; local authority social services departments will be severely criticised for their shortcomings in the case.
28 February – The chief of British Nuclear Fuels resigns over a safety scandal at Sellafield.

March

2 March – Indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet: The UK deports Augusto Pinochet to his native Chile where he will face trial for human rights violations.
14 March – All stores of furniture retailer World of Leather and its parent Uno plc close.
15 March – BMW announces plans to sell the Rover Group, with London-based Alchemy consortium emerging as favourites for a takeover.
25 March – David Trimble wins the leadership election of the Ulster Unionist Party.
31 March – Myra Hindley, who has spent 34 years in prison for her role in the Moors murders, loses a third High Court appeal against a Home Office ruling that her life sentence should mean life.

April

April – The Ministry of Defence publishes a booklet Soldiering – The Military Covenant which introduces the term into public discourse referring to the mutual obligations between the nation and its armed forces.
1 April
* An Enigma machine is stolen from Bletchley Park Museum.
* Section 27 of the Access to Justice Act 1999 comes into force allowing recovery of fees from the losing party in civil actions, extending the availability of conditional fee arrangements.
3 April – The Immigration and Asylum Act means that all asylum seekers in England and Wales will now receive vouchers to cover the cost of food and clothing.
4 April – Charlie Kray, one of the infamous Kray brothers, dies in a hospital on the Isle of Wight after suffering a heart attack in Parkhurst Prison at age 73.
12 April – The Royal Ulster Constabulary is presented with the George Cross by The Queen.
14 April
* Kenneth Noye, the so-called "M25 killer", is sentenced to life imprisonment.
* Clark v University of Lincolnshire and Humberside decided in the Supreme Court determining that actions by universities established by statute are subject to judicial review, though the courts will not adjudicate on questions of academic judgment.
19 April – Tony Martin is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a sixteen-year-old burglar, Fred Barras, he shot dead at his Norfolk farmhouse eight months ago; he is also convicted of the attempted murder of Brendon Fearon, the burglar wounded when Martin opened fire.
29 April – At Murrayfield Stadium, the 2000 Challenge Cup rugby league tournament culminates in the Bradford Bulls' 24 – 18 win in the final against the Leeds Rhinos.

May

1 May – May Day riot in Central London by anti-capitalist protestors. The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square and the Cenotaph in Whitehall are daubed with graffiti.
3 May – The London Stock Exchange and Germany's Deutsche Börse announce plans to amalgamate; this never happens.
4 May
* London mayoral election: Ken Livingstone, standing as an independent, becomes the first directly elected Mayor of London defeating Steve Norris, the Conservative Party candidate in second place; and Frank Dobson, the Labour Party candidate in third place.
* At the Romsey by-election following the death of Conservative MP Michael Colvin, the Liberal Democrat candidate Sandra Gidley wins the seat.
9 May
* BMW sells the bulk of the Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium, while it retains the rights to the Mini marque and sells Land Rover to Ford.
* Convicted child murderer and paedophile Ronald Jebson is further convicted at the Old Bailey of killing Susan Blatchford, 11, and Gary Hanlon, 12. Both disappeared in 1970 after leaving Gary's home in Enfield to go for a walk together. Their bodies were found 11 weeks after their disappearance on Lippitts Hill, Epping Forest.
11 May – Introduction of services on Croydon Tramlink, the first trams in London since 1952.
12 May
* The Tate Modern art museum is opened to the public in London.
* Ford announces that production of cars at the Dagenham plant will end when the Fiesta launches a new generation in 2002.
17 May – Royal Marines Alan Chambers and Charlie Paton become the first British people to reach the Geographic North Pole unaided.
20 May – Chelsea beat Aston Villa 1–0 to win the last FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium before the old stadium is rebuilt.
21 May
* Best-selling author Dame Barbara Cartland dies aged 98 at her home near Hatfield, Hertfordshire.
* Long-serving actor Sir John Gielgud dies aged 94 at his home at Wooton Underwood, Buckinghamshire.
24 May – National Botanic Garden of Wales opens to the public in Carmarthenshire.
25 May – National Waste Strategy, covering England and Wales, first published.

June

June – Celtic Manor Wales Open European Tour golf tournament first played.
7 June – Tony Blair receives a hostile reception during a speech at the Women's Institute, where he is heckled and slow hand-clapped by furious members.
8 June – The British military attaché to Greece, Brigadier Stephen Saunders, aged 52, is shot dead while driving in Athens; the Greek terrorist group 17 November later claims responsibility.
10 June – The much-anticipated Millennium Bridge across the Thames in London opens to the public, but has to close after it starts swaying.
12 June–20 June – The England national football team participates at Euro 2000, jointly hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium. Despite beating Germany, England are eliminated in the group stage after two defeats.
21 June – Repeal in Scotland of controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which prevented local authorities from "promoting homosexuality". Section 28 is not repealed in the rest of the UK until 2003.
22 June – At the Tottenham by-election following the death of Labour MP Bernie Grant, the Labour candidate David Lammy holds the seat.
30 June – David Copeland is found guilty of causing the three 1999 London nail bombings with three deaths. He is sentenced to life imprisonment and the trial judge recommends that he should serve at least thirty years before being considered for parole, meaning that he is likely to remain in prison until at least 2029 and the age of 54.

July

July – Vauxhall launches the all-new Agila city car.
5 July – Colin Fallows, driving the Vampire turbojet-propelled dragster, sets a British land speed record, a mean, at Elvington, Yorkshire.
14 July – Reality television game show Big Brother first airs in the UK.
17 July – Murder of Sarah Payne: an 8-year-old Surrey girl is found dead in West Sussex, having gone missing sixteen days earlier. On 23 July, the News of the World starts a campaign for Sarah's Law, a child sex offender disclosure scheme.
18 July – Alex Salmond resigns as leader of the Scottish National Party.
20 July
* Production of the Ford Escort, one of Britain's most successful and iconic motoring nameplates, finishes after 32 years, although remaining stocks of the model would continue to be sold until early 2001 while the van model would continue to be produced until 2002.
* Rioting breaks out in Brixton following the fatal shooting of Derek Bennett, a 29-year-old black man, by armed police in the area. 27 people are arrested and three police officers are injured.
28 July – The final eighty prisoners leave Maze Prison in Northern Ireland as part of the Northern Ireland peace process.

August

3 August – Rioting erupts on the Paulsgrove estate in Portsmouth after more than 100 people besiege a block of flats allegedly housing a convicted child sex offender, the latest vigilante violence against suspected sex offenders since the beginning of the "naming and shaming" campaign by the News of the World.
4 August – The Queen Mother celebrates her hundredth birthday.
26 August – Gangster and murderer Reggie Kray, in the thirty-second year of his life sentence at Broadmoor Hospital, is released from prison on compassionate grounds by Home Secretary Jack Straw due to bladder cancer from which he is expected to die within weeks.

September

September
* Curriculum 2000 reform of GCE Advanced Level examinations introduced.
* Ford unveils its all-new second generation Mondeo large family car, which is due for sale towards the end of this year.
8 September – UK fuel protests: Protesters block the entrances to oil refineries in protest against high fuel prices. Panic buying by motorists, leads to nationwide petrol shortages, with between 75 and 90% of all UK petrol stations closing due to low supplies in the following week.
10 September - Operation Barras, a British military operation to free five soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment who have been held captive for over two weeks during the Sierra Leone Civil War, rescues all of them.
14 September – After beginning the year 20 points behind the Labour government in the opinion polls, the Conservative opposition's hopes of winning the next election are boosted when they come two points ahead of Labour on 38% in a MORI opinion poll. This marks the first time the Conservatives have led the Labour Party in national opinion polling since January 1993.
15 September–1 October – Great Britain competes at the Olympics in Sydney and wins 11 Gold, 10 Silver and 7 Bronze medals.
18 September – Survivors of the Southall and Ladbroke Grove rail disasters criticise Railtrack for putting costs ahead of safety and causing a series of blunders which led to the tragedies.
20 September – A missile is fired from a rocket launcher at the MI6 headquarters building in central London, striking the eighth floor. It is the first time this type of weapon has been used on the mainland, with the Real IRA suspected of being behind the attack.
21 September – William McCrea of the Democratic Unionist Party wins the South Antrim by-election from the Ulster Unionist Party.
23 September
* Earthquake in Warwickshire.
* Rower Steve Redgrave wins his fifth consecutive gold medal at the Olympics.
29 September – HM Prison Maze, a prison used to incarcerate members of illegal paramilitaries during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, closes as a result of the Good Friday Agreement.

October

October – Ford launches the all-new Mondeo with a range of hatchbacks, saloons and estates.
1 October – Reggie Kray dies from cancer at a hotel in Norwich aged 66.
3 October – Approximate start of Autumn 2000 Western Europe floods, particularly affecting England, the worst nationally since the winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom, precipitated by the most rainfall since 1766.
4 October – After 41 years, production of the Mini ends at the Longbridge plant owned by MG Rover in Birmingham. The new model will go into production next Spring at the Cowley plant in Oxford that is owned by German carmaker BMW.
7 October – Wembley Stadium closes after seventy-seven years. It is set to reopen in 2003, following a complete reconstruction that will see its seating capacity raised to 90,000 all-seated. In the final game at the old stadium, the England football team loses 1–0 to Germany in their opening qualifying game for the 2002 World Cup and manager Kevin Keegan resigns after eighteen months in charge.
10 October – Donald Dewar, the first First Minister of Scotland, is taken to hospital following a fall outside Bute House, his official Edinburgh residence; his health rapidly deteriorates and he dies in office the following day, aged 63.
16 October – The BBC's main evening news programme moves to 10pm; early the following year, ITV will move its news programme back to the same time slot and broadcast in direct competition.
17 October – Hatfield rail crash: A Great North Eastern Railway InterCity 225 train derails south of Hatfield station, killing four people.
23 October
* After the fuel protests has been resolved, support for the Labour Party has been restored, according to the latest MORI opinion poll which shows them 13 points ahead of the Conservatives with an approval rating of 45%.
* Michael Martin is elected as the Speaker of the House of Commons following the retirement of Betty Boothroyd.
26–27 October – Following the death of Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish is selected to be First Minister of Scotland by the Scottish Parliament, and is officially appointed by The Queen.
26 October – House of Lords delivers judgement in White v White, a landmark case in redistribution of finances and property on divorce.
30 October – Sven-Göran Eriksson, the 52-year-old Swedish coach of Italian side Lazio, accepts an offer from the Football Association to take charge of the England football team for five years commencing next July. Eriksson will be the first foreign manager to take charge of the England national team, but until his arrival, the England team will be jointly managed by interim coaches Peter Taylor and Howard Wilkinson.

November

7 November – The attempted theft of £350,000,000 worth of diamonds from the Millennium Dome is foiled by police.
16 November – Actor Michael Caine receives a knighthood from the Queen.
18 November – Marriage of American actor Michael Douglas and Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, exactly 25 years his junior, in New York City.
20 November – Judith Keppel becomes the first person to win £1,000,000 on the ITV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
21 November – Dennis Canavan MSP for Falkirk West, resigns as the Member of Parliament for Falkirk West, triggering a by-election.
23 November
* Double by-election held in Glasgow Anniesland to elect successors to Donald Dewar's seats in both the UK Parliament and the Scottish Parliament. Labour holds both seats with swings to the SNP of 6% and 7%.
* The Preston by-election is won by the Labour Party candidate Mark Hendrick.
* The West Bromwich West by-election is won by the Labour Party candidate Adrian Bailey.
26 November – Rio Ferdinand, the 22-year-old England national football team defender, becomes the nation's most expensive player in an £18,000,000 transfer from West Ham United to Leeds United.
27 November – Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old boy originally from Nigeria, is stabbed to death on his way home from school in Peckham, London. At a third trial, held in 2006, two teenagers are convicted of his manslaughter.
30 November – Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 provides for regulation of political parties, elections and referendums, including limits on national expenditure by parties in elections.

December

3 December – The Church of England introduces the Common Worship series of service books.
8 December – The Equitable Life Assurance Society closes to new business in the aftermath of the legal case Equitable Life Assurance Society v Hyman.
18 December – British pop star Kirsty MacColl, 41, is accidentally killed while diving in Mexico, when a power boat enters a restricted area and collides with her.
21 December – Falkirk West by-election results in Eric Joyce retaining the seat for Labour, though with a majority reduced to just 705 votes in the face of a swing of 16.2% to the SNP.
22 December – American pop star Madonna, 42, marries 32-year-old British film producer Guy Ritchie at Skibo Castle in the Scottish Highlands.
29 December – Arctic weather conditions blight Britain, with heavy snow and temperatures as low as −13 °C plaguing the country, causing extensive gridlocking on roads and railways.
31 December – The Millennium Dome closes as planned after one year. It will be repurposed in 2007 when it becomes The O2 and the O2 Arena.

Undated

2000 is the wettest year on record in the UK.
Sales of the DVD format, first launched in the UK in June 1998, pass the 1 million mark, although the VHS format remains by far the most popular format of home video.

Publications

Iain M. Banks' novel Look to Windward.
Lauren Child's children's book I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato, first in the Charlie and Lola series.
Matthew Kneale's novel English Passengers.
Nigella Lawson's guide How to be a domestic goddess: baking and the art of comfort cooking.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel The Truth.
Philip Pullman's novel The Amber Spyglass, third and final book in the His Dark Materials series.
J. K. Rowling's novel Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, fourth in the Harry Potter series.
Zadie Smith's novel White Teeth.

Births

4 January – Max Aarons, footballer
21 January – Jac Morgan, rugby union player
26 January – Ryan Giles, footballer
27 January – Morgan Gibbs-White, footballer
2 February – Shannon Cooke, footballer
6 February – Conor Gallagher, footballer
8 February – Cieran Dunne, footballer
17 February – Billy Sass-Davies, footballer
26 February – Ryan Cooney, footballer
14 February – Tashan Oakley-Boothe, footballer
5 March – Jack Aitchison, footballer
11 March – Kane Wilson, footballer
17 March – Molly Caudery, pole vaulter
25 March – Jadon Sancho, footballer
1 April – Rhian Brewster, footballer
8 April – Brenock O'Connor, English actor.
12 April – Alex Denny, footballer
2 May – Tom Dean, freestyle swimmer
16 May – Jacob Fletcher, footballer
18 May
*Ryan Sessegnon, footballer
*Steven Sessegnon, footballer
20 May – Leo Blair, son of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, the first legitimate child born to a serving prime minister since 1849
28 May
*Phil Foden, footballer
*Alfie Gleadall, cricketer
23 June – Caitlin Blackwood, actress
28 June – Ruben Reuter, actor
29 June – Kia Pegg, actor
21 July – Erling Haaland, footballer
25 July – Ellie Soutter, snowboarder
28 July – Emile Smith Rowe, footballer
9 August
* Arlo Parks, singer
* Djed Spence, footballer
11 August – James Cartmell, actor
28 August – Danny Loader, footballer
30 August – Catherine Lyons, artistic gymnast
31 August
*Angel Gomes, footballer
*Mia Jenkins, actress
3 September – Brandon Williams, English footballer
14 September – Ethan Ampadu, Welsh footballer
16 September – Oliver Skipp, English footballer
18 September – Max Bird, footballer
6 October – Isobelle Molloy, actress
4 October – Archie Lyndhurst, actor
5 October – Millie Innes, actress
2 November – Georgia-Mae Fenton, artistic gymnast
7 November – Callum Hudson-Odoi, footballer
8 November – Jasmine Thompson, English singer-songwriter and YouTube celebrity
16 November – Hannah Hampton, footballer
19 November – Ben Charlesworth, cricketer
20 November – Connie Talbot, singer
21 November – Matt O'Riley, footballer
23 November – Jack Clarke, footballer
27 November – Jay Foulston, footballer
28 November – Sophia Kiely, actress
5 December
* Hamidullah Qadri, cricketer
* Freddie Steward, rugby union player
28 December – Isobel Steele, actress

Deaths

January

1 January – Victor Serebriakoff, member of Mensa
2 January
* Patrick O'Brian, novelist
* Ullin Place, philosopher and psychologist
5 January
* Bernard Braine, Baron Braine of Wheatley, politician
* Hopper Read, cricketer
9 January
* Arnold Alexander Hall, aeronautical engineer and scientist
* Nigel Tranter, historian and author
13 January – Peter Henderson, Baron Henderson of Brompton, public servant, Clerk of the Parliaments
14 January – Julian Vereker, designer of hi-fi audio equipment
17 January
* Norman Blamey, painter
* Elisabeth Collins, painter and sculptor
* Philip Jones, trumpeter
* Ralph Kekwick, biochemist
18 January – Arnold W. G. Kean, civil aviation lawyer
22 January – E. W. Swanton, cricket commentator
23 January – Willie Hamilton, politician
26 January – Kathleen Hale, children's author
28 January
* Sarah Caudwell, barrister and crime fiction writer
* Andrew Pennington, politician
30 January – Martin Aldridge, footballer

February

1 February – Peter Levi, poet, Jesuit priest and scholar
2 February – Mary Docherty, communist activist
3 February – Ken Stroud, mathematician
5 February – G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, historian
7 February
* Stewart Farrar, screenwriter, novelist and Wiccan priest
* Dave Peverett, singer and musician
12 February – Dominic Bruce, Air Force officer and escapee from Colditz in World War II
19 February – Josef Herman, painter
21 February – Noel Annan, Baron Annan, military intelligence officer, historian and academic
22 February
* Joseph Gold, lawyer
* Ernest Lough, singer
23 February
* Sir Stanley Matthews, footballer
* John Nevill, 5th Marquess of Abergavenny, peer
24 February – Michael Colvin, politician

March

5 March – Alexander Young, operatic tenor
6 March – Chris Balderstone, cricketer and footballer
7 March
* Charles Gray, actor
* W. D. Hamilton, evolutionary biologist
* Nicolas Walter, anarchist writer
10 March – Ivan Hirst, British army officer and engineer, best known for his part in the revival of German carmaker Volkswagen after World War II
11 March – Will Roberts, painter
13 March – Cab Kaye, jazz singer and pianist
15 March – Robert Welch, designer
16 March – Roy Henderson, opera singer
18 March – Graham Balcombe, cave diver
22 March – John Morrison, 2nd Viscount Dunrossil, peer and diplomat
26 March – Alex Comfort, scientist and physician
27 March – Ian Dury, singer and actor
28 March – Anthony Powell, novelist
31 March – Adrian Fisher, guitarist

April

1 April – Alexander Mackenzie Stuart, Baron Mackenzie-Stuart, judge
2 April – Sir Robert Sainsbury, businessman and art collector
3 April – Evelyn Irons, journalist and war correspondent
4 April – Bridget Jones, literary academic
6 April – William Stobbs, illustrator
8 April – Bernie Grant, politician
10 April – Peter Jones, actor
11 April
* Diana Darvey, actress
* André Deutsch, publisher
12 April – Carmen Dillon, film art director and production designer
14 April – Wilf Mannion, footballer
20 April – Bill Dean, actor
24 April
* Derek Allhusen, equestrian
* William Moore, actor
27 April
* C. R. Boxer, historian
* Clifford Forsythe, politician
28 April – Penelope Fitzgerald, poet, essayist and biographer

May

1 May – Nora Swinburne, actress
2 May – Billy Munn, jazz pianist
3 May – Lewis Allen, film and television director
4 May – Derick Ashe, diplomat
6 May
* John Clive Ward, physicist, developer of the Ward–Takahashi identity
* Peter Youens, diplomat who helped secure the independence of Malawi
10 May – Margaret Harris, costume designer
14 May – Alex Stuart-Menteth, naval officer in World War II
17 May – Donald Coggan, retired Archbishop of York and Canterbury
18 May
* Julie Dawn, singer
* Denis Gifford, writer, broadcaster and journalist
19 May – Larry Lamb, newspaper editor
21 May
* Dame Barbara Cartland, novelist
* Sir John Gielgud, actor
25 May – Nicholas Clay, actor
29 May – Aubrey Richards, actor
30 May – Doris Hare, actress

June

2 June – Gerald James Whitrow, mathematician and cosmologist
8 June – Stephen Saunders, Army brigadier-general
12 June – Leonard Appelbee, painter and printmaker
14 June – Elsie Widdowson, dietitian and nutritionist
15 June – Neville Ford, cricketer
17 June – Brian Statham, cricketer
19 June – William Papas, cartoonist
21 June – Billy Sperrin, footballer
24 June
* Vera Atkins, World War II intelligence officer
* Duncan Kyle, novelist
* David Tomlinson, actor
27 June – David Neal, actor
28 June – William Glock, music critic
29 June
* John Abineri, actor
* John Aspinall, zoo owner
* Jane Birdwood, Baroness Birdwood, politician
* Rodney Nuckey, racing driver

July

1 July – John Albert Axel Gibson, World War II air ace
2 July – Joey Dunlop, Northern Irish motorcycle racer
4 July – Philip Lever, 3rd Viscount Leverhulme, peer and racehorse owner
5 July – Lord Woodbine, calypsonian
8 July – Anne Mueller, civil servant
9 July – John Morgan, etiquette expert
10 July – Justin Pierce, actor and skateboarder
11 July
* Bill Alexander, communist activist and commander of the British Battalion in the Spanish Civil War
* Robert Runcie, retired Archbishop of Canterbury
15 July – Paul Young, singer-songwriter
19 July – Owen Maddock, racing car designer
21 July – Iain Hamilton, composer
22 July – Eric Christmas, actor
27 July – Constance Stuart Larrabee, photographer and war correspondent
28 July – Margaret Chapman, illustrator
30 July – Derek Hill, painter

August

2 August
* Trevor Leggett, author and translator
* Patricia Moyes, mystery writer
3 August – Geoffrey Page, World War II air ace
5 August – Sir Alec Guinness, actor and writer
6 August – Robin Day, political broadcaster
10 August – Robert Manuel Cook, classical scholar
13 August
* Edgar Claxton, rail engineer
* Sir Antony Duff, diplomat and director-general of MI5
15 August
* Edward Craven Walker, inventor of the lava lamp
* Lancelot Ware, barrister, biochemist and co-founder of Mensa
17 August – Jack Walker, industrialist
18 August – Joseph Comerford, engineer
20 August – Nancy Evans, opera singer
29 August – Shelagh Fraser, actress

September

1 September – Barbara Brooke, Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte, politician
2 September – Audrey Wise, politician
3 September – Jack Simmons, historian
6 September – Desmond Wilcox, journalist and television producer
9 September
* Sir Julian Critchley, journalist and politician
* Bill Waddington, actor and comedian
10 September – Jakie Astor, politician and sportsman
12 September – Gary Olsen, actor
13 September – Howard Johnson, politician
14 September – Frederick Erroll, 1st Baron Erroll of Hale, politician
17 September – Paula Yates, television presenter
19 September – Anthony Robert Klitz, artist
20 September – Mona Moore, illustrator
21 September – John Egerton, 6th Duke of Sutherland, peer
25 September – R. S. Thomas, poet

October

1 October – Reggie Kray, convicted gangster and murderer, recently released from prison on compassionate grounds after serving more than 30 years of a life sentence
5 October – Keith Roberts, science fiction author
8 October – Charlotte Lamb, novelist
9 October – Patrick Anthony Porteous, recipient of the Victoria Cross
11 October – Donald Dewar, First Minister of Scotland
17 October – Ivan Owen, voice actor
22 October
* Anthony Chinn, actor
* Fred Pratt Green, Methodist minister and hymn writer
25 October – John Sinclair Morrison, classicist
30 October – Elizabeth Bradley, actress

November

1 November – Sir Steven Runciman, historian
4 November
* Ian Sneddon, mathematician
* Stephanie Lawrence, singer and actress
8 November – Dick Morrissey, jazz musician
9 November
* Eric Morley, television host
* Hugh Paddick, actor
11 November – William Harris, 6th Earl of Malmesbury, peer
15 November
* Bernard Gadney, English rugby union player
* Simon Wigg, speedway rider
19 November – Jane Shaw, children's author
21 November
* Sir Cyril Clarke, physician and lepidopterist
* Sir David Croom-Johnson, judge
23 November
* Florence Bell, scientist
* Rayner Unwin, publisher
26 November – Ralph Bates, writer
27 November
* Malcolm Bradbury, author and academic
* Willie Cunningham, footballer
28 November – Len Shackleton, footballer and writer

December

2 December – Arthur Oglesby, writer and fisherman
3 December
* Hugh Edward Richardson, diplomat and Tibetologist
* Frank Roper, sculptor
4 December – Colin Cowdrey, cricketer
5 December – O. W. Wolters, academic, historian and author
6 December – Chrystabel Leighton-Porter, model
7 December – Toby Low, 1st Baron Aldington, politician
9 December – Billie Yorke, tennis player
12 December – Alastair Graham, zoologist
15 December
* Trevor Adams, actor
* George Alcock, astronomer
18 December – Kirsty MacColl, singer-songwriter
19 December – Sir Laurence Whistler, poet and artist
20 December – Adrian Henri, poet and painter
23 December – Sir Jimmy Shand, musician
24 December – John Cooper, car maker
26 December – Walter Hayes, journalist
27 December – Forbes Howie, businessman
28 December
* William Gardner, coin designer
* Charlotte Wilson, voluntary teacher
31 December – Edna Savage, singer