2003 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 2003 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Monarch – Elizabeth II
Prime Minister – Tony Blair

Events

January

January – Toyota launches an all-new Avensis to be built at TMUK.
10 January – Ian Carr, a 27-year-old banned from driving with a total of 89 previous convictions, admits causing the death by dangerous driving of a six-year-old girl in Ashington, Northumberland – a crime which sparks widespread public and media outrage across the United Kingdom.
14 January – Anti-terrorism detective Stephen Oake is murdered in Crumpsall, Manchester by Islamic terrorist Kamel Bourgass after being stabbed eight times while attempting his arrest.
25 January – Central line underground train crashes into the tunnel wall at Chancery Lane tube station in London, injuring 34 people.
29 January – Sally Clark, a 38-year-old former solicitor from Cheshire, is released from prison after the Court of Appeal clears her of murdering her two sons, who are believed to have suffered sudden infant death syndrome.
30 January – Richard Colvin Reid, the so-called "shoe bomber", is sentenced to life imprisonment by a United States court.
31 January – One of the longest prison sentences ever issued in a British court for a motoring offence is given to killer driver Ian Carr, who receives a nine-and-a-half-year sentence for causing death by dangerous driving – his second conviction for the crime in twelve years.

February

1 February – In Northern Ireland, the Protestant Ulster Defence Association Belfast leader John Gregg is killed by a loyalist faction.
15 February – In London, more than 2,000,000 people demonstrate against the Iraq War, the largest demonstration in UK history.
17 February – The London congestion charge, a fee levied on motorists travelling within designated parts of central London, comes into operation.
27 February
* 122 Labour MPs vote against the government in a debate over the Iraq War.
* Rowan Williams enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.

March

12 March – Iraq disarmament crisis: UK Prime Minister Tony Blair proposes an amendment to the possible 18th U.N. resolution, which would call for Iraq to meet certain benchmarks to prove that it was disarming. The amendment is immediately rejected by France, who promises to veto any new resolution.
15 March – Comic actress Dame Thora Hird dies in a nursing home in London, aged 91, less than a year after her final appearance on BBC Radio.
18 March – Parliament votes to approve an invasion of Iraq.
20 March – 2003 Iraq war: Land troops from United Kingdom join troops from the United States, Australia and Poland in the invasion of Iraq.
22 March – Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from Royal Navy submarines take part in a massive air and missile strike on military targets in Baghdad.
End – First arrest of a British-based terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda, in Operation CREVICE.

April

6 April – British forces capture the city of Basra during the invasion of Iraq.
8 April – Three men are convicted in relation to a Real IRA campaign that saw bombs explode in London and Birmingham in 2001. Two others have already admitted plotting to cause explosions as part of the same campaign.
9 April – Invasion of Iraq: the Battle of Baghdad, fought with British air support, concludes, ending Saddam Hussein's rule in the country after 24 years in power.
21 April – Robert Wardle is appointed Director of the Serious Fraud Office of England and Wales.
29 April – Tony Blair holds a one-day summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin mocks the United Kingdom and America's failure to locate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

May

3 May
* 2003 Scottish Parliament election: the Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition led by Jack McConnell win a majority of the seats and remain in power. The Scottish Green Party and the Scottish Socialist Party significantly increase their representation.
* 2003 National Assembly for Wales election: the Labour Party remain in power.
* The BBC announces that the hugely popular character Den Watts will return to its soap opera EastEnders later this year, fourteen years after he was supposedly killed off.
15 May – The government suspends all flights to and from Kenya after warnings of an imminent al-Qaeda attack.
28 May – The UEFA Champions League Final at Old Trafford with AC Milan beating Juventus in a penalty shootout following a goalless draw.
29 May – Journalist Andrew Gilligan broadcasts a report on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme stating that the government claimed in its 2002 dossier that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within forty-five minutes knowing the claim to be dubious. A political storm ensues. Gilligan has interviewed weapons expert David Kelly.

June

14 June
* First Minister for Children appointed, Margaret Hodge.
* The first official Twenty20 cricket matches are played between the English counties in the Twenty20 Cup.
15 June – The News of the World publishes an article in which Ian Huntley is photographed in his cell at Woodhill Prison. An undercover reporter had got a job in the prison and was employed as Huntley's guard.
21 June – The novel Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is released to the public.
24 June
* President Vladimir Putin becomes the first Russian head of state to make a state visit to the United Kingdom since Tsar Alexander II in 1874.
* Six members of the Royal Military Police are killed, and eight other soldiers are injured, in Iraq.
26 June
* The latest MORI poll puts Labour and Conservative parties on even terms at 35%.
* Businessman Sir Denis Thatcher, husband of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, dies aged 88 at the Lister Hospital in London.

July

2 July – Chelsea F.C. are bought by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for a sum of £150,000,000 from current chairman Ken Bates, twenty-one years after he bought the club for £1.
15 July – David Kelly appears before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, to answer questions over the information he had given to Andrew Gilligan.
18 July – David Kelly is found dead near his home in Oxfordshire – police suspect that he committed suicide.
20 July – The BBC confirms that Dr. David Kelly, found dead from a suspected suicide two days earlier, was the main source for a controversial report that sparked a deep rift with the government.
27 July – The British-born American actor and comedian Bob Hope dies at his home in California, two months after his hundredth birthday.
30 July
* Eurostar train number 3313/14 sets a new speed record at 334.7 km/h on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
* Motorcyclist Steve Hislop, 41, is killed in a helicopter crash near Teviothead in the Scottish Borders.

August

1 August – The Hutton Inquiry into the recent death of weapons expert Dr. David Kelly, chaired by judge Lord Hutton, opens, beginning to take evidence on 11 August.
3 August – Police use the taser for the first time.
10 August – Brogdale, near Faversham, enters the UK Weather Records for the highest ever recorded temperature of 38.5 °C, a record which holds until July 2019. The 2003 European heat wave makes this the United Kingdom's hottest summer for thirteen years.

September

3 September – Britain's last surviving Army officer of World War I, Norman Porteous, dies in Edinburgh at the age of 104.
4 September – The rebuilt Bull Ring shopping centre in Birmingham is officially opened by Sir Albert Bore.
18 September – Brent East by-election: Sarah Teather of the Liberal Democrats becomes MP for Brent East after twenty-nine years of Labour control.
29 September
* Section 1 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, later High Speed 1, from Fawkham Junction to the Channel Tunnel is opened for passengers.
* The comeback of Den Watts in EastEnders is screened, fourteen years after the character was supposedly killed off, and just over four months after the BBC confirmed that Grantham would be returning to the series.

October

24 October – Supersonic aircraft Concorde makes its final commercial flights after twenty-seven years.
29 October – Iain Duncan Smith resigns after serving two years as Leader of the Conservative Party.

November

4 November – Channel 4's soap opera Brookside, on air since the station was launched in 1982, ends after 21 years.
6 November – Conservative Party leadership election: Michael Howard is elected unopposed as Leader of the Conservative Party, a post he will hold for two years.
8 November – Sophie, Countess of Wessex gives birth to her and Prince Edward's first child, a baby girl.
16 November – David Davis, the new Shadow Home Secretary, calls for a return of the death penalty for murderers found guilty of the most horrific murders; citing Moors murderer Ian Brady and Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe as criminals whose crimes would meet the criteria.
18 November
* United States President George W. Bush makes a state visit to London in the midst of massive protests.
* Passage of the Local Government Act 2003 including the repeal in England, Northern Ireland and Wales of controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which prevented local authorities from "promoting homosexuality". Section 28 had already been repealed in Scotland since 2000.
20 November
* Several bombs explode in Istanbul, Turkey at several British targets. The Turkish head office of HSBC and the British consulate are destroyed and the British Consul-General, Roger Short is killed.
* Criminal Justice Act 2003 passed, permitting waiver of the rule against double jeopardy in certain serious cases and removing the privilege of peerage to be excused from jury service.
* Sexual Offences Act 2003 passed, superseding the Act of 1956 with more specific and explicit wording, also creating several new offences.
22 November – England are rugby world champions after defeating Australia 20–17 after extra time.
24 November – The High Court in Glasgow imposes a minimum sentence of 27 years for Al Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
25 November – Serial killer Anthony Hardy, of Camden, is jailed for life at the Old Bailey for murdering three women. The dismembered remains of two victims were found in a pub bin in December 2002.
26 November – The final Concorde flight touches down in Filton, Bristol where it is welcomed by the Duke of York.

December

9 December – The M6 Toll motorway opens, giving the United Kingdom its first toll motorway and providing a northern by-pass for the congested section of the M6 motorway through the West Midlands conurbation.
10 December
* Clive Granger wins the Nobel Prize in Economics jointly with Robert F. Engle "for methods of analysing economic time series with common trends ".
* Anthony J. Leggett wins the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov and Vitaly Ginzburg "for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids".
* Peter Mansfield wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Paul Lauterbur "for their discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging".
* The Court of Appeal overturns two murder convictions against 40-year-old Wiltshire woman Angela Cannings, who was wrongly convicted of murdering her two baby sons in April last year. Mrs. Cannings, who has a surviving daughter, always maintained that her sons were both victims of sudden infant death syndrome.
* The official inflation target measure is changed to the Consumer Price Index figure from RPIX.
12 December – Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones receives a knighthood from the Prince of Wales.
16 December – The Government announces plans to build a new runway at Stansted Airport in Essex and a short-haul runway at Heathrow Airport sparking anger from environmentalist groups.
17 December – Ian Huntley is found guilty of the Soham Murders and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey. A High Court judge will later decide on the minimum number of the years that he will have to serve before being considered for parole. His ex-girlfriend Maxine Carr is found guilty of perverting the course of justice and receives a jail term of three-and-a-half years, but she will be freed on licence in May 2004 as she has already served sixteen months on remand. Home Secretary David Blunkett orders an inquiry into how the police vetting system failed to prevent Huntley from getting a job in a school after it is revealed at the end of his trial that he had been suspected in the past of crimes including underage sex, rape, indecent assault and burglary.
29 December – Celebrity television presenter and comedian Bob Monkhouse dies of cancer at his home in Eggington, Bedfordshire, aged 75.

Undated

153,065 divorces this year.
Sales of the DVD home video format take the largest share of the UK home video market for the first time. The format, first launched in the UK in June 1998, accounts for more than 70% of home video sales this year as the VHS format's popularity falls and many new titles are not being released on it.
New car sales reach a record high this year of nearly 2,600,000, with the Ford Focus enjoying its fifth successive year as the United Kingdom's best-selling new car. BMW sales also reach a record high, with the BMW 3 Series managing well over 60,000 sales as the UK's ninth best-selling car. Sales of Vauxhall, Peugeot, Renault and Volkswagen cars remain strong as well, while Nissan also enjoys an increase in sales largely due to the popularity of its new version of the Micra.

Publications

Iain Banks' book Raw Spirit.
Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Adrian Praetzellis' Death by Theory: A Tale of Mystery and Archaeological Theory, first in the Hannah Green book series.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels The Wee Free Men and Monstrous Regiment.
J. K. Rowling's novel Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Lynne Truss's punctuation guide Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
Charlotte Voake's picture book Ginger Finds a Home.

Births

26 February – Levi Colwill, footballer
2 March – Eloise Taylor, second daughter of Lady Helen Taylor and Timothy Taylor
24 March – Mae Stephens, singer
30 March – Lara Wollington, actress
4 April – Harvey Elliott, footballer
18 April – Sophia Grace, media personality
30 April – Emily Carey, actor
12 May – Madeleine McCann, abductee
14 June – Yasha Asley, mathematical prodigy
29 June – Jude Bellingham, footballer
9 July – Conor Bradley, footballer
18 July – Lucy Hutchinson, actress
25 September
* Alexander Aze, actor
* Bella Ramsey, actress
3 October – Callum Doyle, footballer
13 October – Shoaib Bashir, cricketer
20 October – Carney Chukwuemeka, footballer
8 November – Lady Louise Windsor, daughter of Prince Edward and Sophie
9 December – Chris Sze, Malaysian footballer

Deaths

January

1 January – Cyril Shaps, actor
2 January – Bill Shelton, Conservative politician
4 January – Yfrah Neaman, Lebanese-born violinist
5 January
* Roy Jenkins, Labour government minister, later founder member and the first leader of the former Social Democratic Party
* Daphne Oram, composer and musician
6 January
* Glyn Davies, Welsh economist
* Sir Philip Ward, Army major-general
8 January – Ron Goodwin, composer
9 January
* Elizabeth Irving, actress and founder of Keep Britain Tidy
* Peter Tinniswood, scriptwriter
11 January – Anthony Havelock-Allan, film producer
12 January
* Maurice Gibb, musician and singer-songwriter ; died in the United States of America
* Alan Nunn May, physicist and Soviet spy
13 January – Elisabeth Croft, actress
14 January
* Monica Furlong, author and journalist
* Stephen Oake, police officer of Greater Manchester Police
16 January – Chris Mead, ornithologist
18 January – Gavin Lyall, novelist
20 January – David Battley, actor
22 January – Peter Russell, poet ; died in Italy
26 January
* Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, historian
* George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, politician

February

2 February – Jack Lauterwasser, racing cyclist
3 February – Trevor Morris, Welsh footballer
4 February – Charles McLaren, 3rd Baron Aberconway, horticulturalist and industrialist
6 February
* Sir Peter Saunders, theatre impresario
* Alec Stokes, physicist
7 February
* Malcolm Roberts, singer
* Leader Stirling, missionary surgeon ; died in Tanzania
* Stephen Whittaker, actor
9 February
* H. Douglas Keith, physicist
* Ken McKinlay, speedway rider
11 February – Marc Iliffe, strongman
12 February
* Frederick Higginson, World War II air ace
* Sir Brian Stanbridge, Air Force officer
14 February
* Nick Duncombe, rugby union player
* Dolly the Sheep, cloned sheep
15 February – Richard Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce, judge
16 February – Philip John Gardner, World War II soldier and Victoria Cross recipient
18 February
* Len Garrison, Jamaican-born historian and community activist
* Keith Ross, surgeon
21 February – Eddie Thomson, Scottish footballer
23 February – Christopher Hill, historian
27 February – John Lanchbery, composer ; died in Australia
28 February – Chris Brasher, athlete, co-founder of the London Marathon

March

1 March – Roger Needham, computer scientist
2 March
* William Blezard, composer
* Sir George Edwards, aircraft designer
* Sir Ian Hogg, admiral
* Malcolm Williamson, Australian-born composer, Master of the Queen's Musick
8 March – Adam Faith, actor and singer
10 March
* Tom Boardman, Baron Boardman, Conservative politician and businessman
* Lionel Frederick Dakers, organist
* Geoffrey Kirk, classical scholar
* Barry Sheene, motorcycle racer
11 March
* Brian Cleeve, English-Irish author and playwright
* Kevin Laffan, screenwriter
13 March – Ian Samwell, musician and singer-songwriter
15 March – Dame Thora Hird, comic actress
17 March
* Alan Keith, actor and radio presenter
* Beatrice Wright, Lady Wright, American-born politician
22 March – Terry Lloyd, ITN television journalist
25 March
* Christopher French, judge
* Michael Kidron, cartographer and revolutionary
27 March – Jeremiah Duggan, student
28 March – Sir Kenneth Porter, air marshal
29 March – Maude Storey, nurse
30 March – Andy Barr, Northern Irish communist and trade unionist

April

1 April – Richard Caddel, poet
4 April – Billy McPhail, Scottish footballer
5 April – Beti Rhys, Welsh author and bookseller
7 April – David Greene, television and film director
11 April
* Cecil Howard Green, geophysicist and businessman
* Peter Lloyd, mountaineer and engineer
14 April – Bob Evans, Welsh rugby union player
16 April
* Jock Hamilton-Baillie, World War II soldier
* Danny O'Dea, actor
17 April
* Sir Paul Getty, American-born philanthropist and book collector
* Graham Stuart Thomas, horticulturalist
* Peter Cathcart Wason, psychologist
18 April – Edgar F. Codd, computer scientist
20 April – Johnny Douglas, musician and composer
22 April – Berkeley Smith, broadcaster
23 April – Guy Mountfort, advertising executive and ornithologist
25 April
* Lynn Chadwick, sculptor
* Dick Moore, World War II naval officer and George Cross recipient
26 April – Edward Max Nicholson, environmentalist
29 April – Angus Campbell-Gray, 22nd Lord Gray, Scottish peer
30 April – Jennifer d'Abo, entrepreneur

May

2 May
* James Miller, film-maker
* Laurence O'Keeffe, diplomat, Ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution
3 May – Lucy Barfield, goddaughter of C. S. Lewis and eponym for Lucy Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia
4 May
* Barbara Bailey, nun and artist
* Arthur Oldham, composer and choirmaster
5 May – Philip Powell, architect
6 May
* Colin Gunton, theologian
* Jocelyn Herbert, stage designer
9 May – Sir George Grenfell-Baines, architect and town planner
11 May
* Cecil Allan, Northern Irish footballer
* Noel Redding, rock musician
12 May
* Sir Michael Richardson, investment banker
* Don Ryder, Baron Ryder of Eaton Hastings, businessman and politician
* Jeremy Sandford, television screenwriter
13 May – Theo Aronson, royal biographer
14 May – Dame Wendy Hiller, actress
15 May – Sir Desmond Dreyer, admiral
18 May – Peter Lasko, German-born art historian
23 May – Dame Diana Collins, human rights activist and wife of Canon John Collins
24 May – Rachel Kempson, actress and wife of Sir Michael Redgrave
29 May
* Trevor Ford, Welsh footballer
* David Jefferies, motorcycle racer
30 May – John Roberts, historian

June

1 June – Peter Yarranton, rugby union player and manager
3 June
* Sir Anthony Barrowclough, lawyer and government ombudsman
* John Jympson, film editor
6 June – Dave Rowberry, singer-songwriter and pianist
7 June
* Trevor Goddard, actor
* Tony McAuley, Northern Irish broadcaster and musician
8 June – Leighton Rees, Welsh darts player
10 June
* Bernard Williams, philosopher
* Phil Williams, Welsh politician and scientist
13 June – Robin Russell, 14th Duke of Bedford, peer
15 June
* Sir Ralph Kilner Brown, athlete and judge
* Philip Stone, actor
16 June – Peter Redgrove, poet
17 June – Paul Hirst, sociologist and political theorist
18 June
* Sir Kenneth Cross, World War II air commander
* Paul Daisley, Labour politician
19 June
* Jack Butterworth, Baron Butterworth, lawyer
* Laura Sadler, actress
26 June
* Marc-Vivien Foé, British-based Cameroonian footballer ; died in France while playing football for the Cameroon national football team
* Sir Denis Thatcher, husband of prime minister Margaret Thatcher
27 June – John Stokes, Conservative politician

July

1 July – George Roper, comedian
3 July – Sir Charles Tidbury, brewing executive
6 July
* Michael Hoban, teacher
* Kathleen Raine, poet and critic
7 July – Paul Brand, doctor and surgeon
9 July – Valerie Gearon, actress
10 July
* Winston Graham, novelist
* Hartley Shawcross, chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials
11 July – Ken Whyld, chess player and chess writer
15 July
* Judith Hare, Countess of Listowel, Hungarian-born writer and journalist
* Alexander Walker, film critic
* Elisabeth Welch, American-born singer
17 July
* Pat Fillingham, test pilot for the de Havilland company
* Dr. David Kelly, government weapons expert ; suspected suicide
20 July – Nicolas Freeling, novelist
22 July – Norman Lewis, travel writer
25 July – John Schlesinger, film director
27 July – Bob Hope, comedian
29 July – Sir Gerard Vaughan, psychiatrist and politician
30 July
* Will Atkinson, folk musician
* Steve Hislop, motorcycle racer

August

2 August – Don Estelle, actor
6 August – Larry Taylor, actor and stuntman
9 August
* Jimmy Davis, English footballer
* Ray Harford, English footballer and football manager
10 August
* Constance Chapman, actress
* Cedric Price, architect and writer
11 August
* Diana Mitford, writer, socialite and wife of Sir Oswald Mosley
* John Shearman, art historian
13 August – Michael Maclagan, historian
18 August – Tony Jackson, singer
20 August
* Ian MacDonald, music critic
* Brianne Murphy, cinematographer
* Andrew Ray, actor
21 August
* John Coplans, artist, curator and museum director
* Fraser Noble, Scottish academic
* Kathy Wilkes, philosopher and academic
24 August
* Sir Wilfred Thesiger, soldier and explorer
* Zena Walker, actress
* Kent Walton, sports commentator
26 August – Clive Charles, English footballer

September

1 September
* Terry Frost, artist
* Sir John Gray, diplomat
2 September
* George Chubb, 3rd Baron Hayter, politician and industrialist
* Peter West, sports commentator and television presenter
3 September – Norman Porteous, theologian and last surviving British Army officer of World War I
4 September – Ben Aris, actor
5 September – C. H. Sisson, writer and poet
9 September
* Thomas Allibone, physicist
* Sir Francis Purchas, judge
12 September – Brian Plummer, writer and dog breeder
13 September – Arthur Rowe, Olympic shot putter
15 September – Jack Brymer, clarinettist
17 September
* Derek Bryan, diplomat, sinologist and author
* George Gale, cartoonist
19 September – Jim Thompson, Anglican prelate, Bishop of Bath and Wells
20 September
* Robert Blake, Baron Blake, historian and peer
* Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn, Labour politician and Leader of the House of Lords
22 September
* Sir Allan Gilmour, Army colonel and World War II veteran
* Hugo Young, journalist
24 September – Derek Prince, Biblical scholar
25 September – Donald Nicol, Byzantinist
26 September
* Glyn Gilbert, Army general
* Jonny Kennedy, sufferer of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa
* Robert Palmer, singer
* David Williams, crime writer

October

3 October – Winifred Watkins, biochemist
4 October – Mary Donaldson, Baroness Donaldson of Lymington, first woman Lord Mayor of London
5 October – Denis Quilley, actor
6 October
* Joe Baker, English footballer
* Sir Antony Buck, Conservative politician
10 October
* Max Rayne, Baron Rayne, property developer and philanthropist
* Julia Trevelyan Oman, stage designer
11 October
* Vivien Alcock, writer of children's books
* Franklyn Perring, botanist
13 October – Anne Ziegler, soprano
14 October – Patrick Dalzel-Job, World War II naval commando
17 October – Clare Venables, theatre director
19 October – Sir Peter Berger, admiral, survivor of the Amethyst Incident
20 October – Peter Morgan, motor-car maker
21 October – John Walter Baxter, civil engineer and designer of London's Westway
23 October
* Tony Capstick, actor
* Pete Chisman, cyclist
25 October – Noreen Branson, Communist activist
27 October – Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz, food writer
31 October – Daphne Hardy Henrion, sculptor

November

1 November
* W. Brian Harland, geologist
* Colin Hayes, painter
2 November – Christabel Bielenberg, author
4 November
* Lotte Berk, German-born dancer and dance teacher
* Charles Causley, poet
* Richard Wollheim, philosopher
7 November – Foo Foo Lammar, drag queen
11 November
* Robert Brown, actor
* Harold Walker, Baron Walker of Doncaster, Labour politician
* George Wallace, Baron Wallace of Coslany, Labour politician
14 November
* Giles Gordon, Scottish writer and literary agent
* Tim Vigors, World War II air ace and horse breeder
19 November
* Gillian Barge, actress
* Greg Ridley, rock bassist
20 November
* Robert Addie, actor
* Ernest Radcliffe Bond, soldier and Metropolitan Police commissioner
* Roger Short, diplomat
23 November – Patricia Burke, singer and actress
26 November – Gordon Reid, actor
27 November – Marjorie Reeves, historian and educationalist
28 November – Ted Bates, footballer and football manager
29 November – Jesse Carver, footballer and football manager

December

1 December – Hamza Alvi, Pakistani-born sociologist and activist
2 December – Alan Davidson, food writer
3 December – David Hemmings, actor and film director
4 December – David Vaughan, psychedelic artist
5 December – Antony Rowe, rower
11 December – Malcolm Clarke, composer
15 December
* Johnny Cunningham, folk musician
* Jack Gregory, athlete
17 December – Alan Tilvern, actor and voice artist
18 December
* Jack Dormand, Baron Dormand of Easington, Labour politician
* Susan Travers, World War II nurse, only British woman to serve in the French Foreign Legion
19 December – Les Tremayne, actor
21 December – Sir Gawaine Baillie, race car driver, industrialist and stamp collector
22 December – Rose Hill, actress and soprano
23 December – John Sanders, organist and composer
27 December – Sir Alan Bates, actor
28 December – John Terraine, military historian
29 December
* Dickie Davis, cricketer
* Dinsdale Landen, actor
* Don Lawrence, comic book artist
* Bob Monkhouse, comedian and game show host