1934 in the United Kingdom
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Events from the year 1934 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
[edit]Events
[edit]- 1 January – Establishment of the National Council for Civil Liberties by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith.[1]
- 21 January – Ten thousand people attend a British Union of Fascists rally in Birmingham, organised by Oswald Mosley.[2]
- 16 February – A Commission of Government for the Dominion of Newfoundland is sworn in as a form of return to direct colonial rule by the UK forced by the island's economic collapse.[3]
- 27 March – The Betting and Lotteries Act 1934 is passed. Part 1 (betting) is designed to restrict betting on racecourses and tracks to a maximum of 104 days.[4] Part 2 (lotteries) prohibits the sale of lottery tickets, primarily directed against the Irish Free State Hospitals' Sweepstake.[5]
- April – Meccano Ltd introduce the first Dinky Toys.
- 3 April – Percy Shaw patents the cat's eye road-safety device.[6]
- 6 April – Rudyard Kipling and William Butler Yeats are awarded the Gothenburg Prize for Poetry.
- 21 April
- The "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster, much later admitted to be a hoax, is published in the Daily Mail.[7]
- David Low's cartoon character Colonel Blimp first appears in the London Evening Standard.[8]
- May – The London Zoo penguin pool, designed by Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton Architectural Group with Ove Arup, one of the most significant examples of modern architecture in Britain, is opened.[9]
- 4 May – 54-year-old grandmother Mrs G. E. Alington becomes the first woman in Britain to complete a parachute jump, skydiving from 1500 feet over Brooklands Aerodrome.
- 28 May – Opening of the first Glyndebourne Festival Opera season.
- 29 May – First regular domestic airmail service, inaugurated by Highland Airways between Inverness and Kirkwall.[10]
- 12 July – Petroleum (Production) Act vests ownership of all U.K. subterranean oil and natural gas in the Crown.
- 18 July – Opening of the Queensway Tunnel beneath the River Mersey by King George V.[11]
- 19 July – 41 squadrons added to the Royal Air Force as part of a new air defence program.[2]
- 4–11 August – British Empire Games held at Wembley Park, London.[12]
- 6 September – The BBC's most powerful long-wave transmitter, Droitwich Transmitting Station, starts transmitting regularly at 200 kilohertz, following test transmissions from 8 May.[13]
- 10 September – The British Graham Land Expedition sets out to explore Graham Land in Antarctica.
- 22 September – Gresford disaster: a gas explosion takes place at Gresford Colliery in Wrexham, north-east Wales, which leads to the death of 266 miners and rescuers,[11] one of the worst tragedies in Welsh mining history.
- 26 September – Launch of the liner RMS Queen Mary[11] at Clydebank.
- 29 September – Stanley Matthews makes his debut for the England national football team, beginning a record 23-year international career.
- 29 November – Marriage of Prince George, Duke of Kent, to Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, the first this century, and last, foreign-born princess to marry into the British royal family; the wedding is the first to be broadcast live on radio.[11]
- 30 November – London and North Eastern Railway steam locomotive Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman becomes the first officially to exceed 100 miles per hour (160.9 km/h) on test in England.[14]
- 10 December – Arthur Henderson wins the Nobel Peace Prize.[15]
- 21 December – Special Areas Act provides grants from central government funds to assist regions with high unemployment.[16]
Undated
[edit]- The "British Committee for Relations with Other Countries", which will become the British Council, is set up to foster cultural relations.[17]
- Aero Pictorial, a British aerial photography company is founded.
- EKCO introduces its distinctive round bakelite radio cabinets.
Publications
[edit]- John Betjeman's guidebook Cornwall, first of the Shell Guides.
- Agatha Christie's novels Murder on the Orient Express (featuring Hercule Poirot) and Why Didn't They Ask Evans?.
- Robert Graves' novel I, Claudius.
- A. P. Herbert's satirical novel Holy Deadlock.
- James Hilton's novel Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
- George Orwell's memoir Burmese Days.
- J. B. Priestley's travelogue English Journey.[18]
- Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novel The Nine Tailors.
- Dylan Thomas' first collection 18 Poems, including "The Force that Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower".
- P. L. Travers' first children's story Mary Poppins.
- Geoffrey Trease's children's story Bows against the Barons.
- Evelyn Waugh's novel A Handful of Dust.
- P. G. Wodehouse's Thank You, Jeeves and Right Ho, Jeeves, the first Jeeves stories written as full-length novels.
- V. M. Yeates' war novel Winged Victory.
Births
[edit]- 6 January – Sylvia Syms, actress (died 2023)
- 8 January – Roy Kinnear, actor (died 1988)
- 12 January – Mick Sullivan, English rugby league footballer (died 2016)
- 14 January – Richard Briers, actor (died 2013)
- 18 January – Raymond Briggs, writer and illustrator (died 2022)[19]
- 19 January – Ron Newman, British-American soccer player and manager (died 2018)
- 20 January – Tom Baker, actor
- 22 January – Graham Kerr, TV cook
- 25 January – George William Coventry, 11th Earl of Coventry, peer (died 2002)
- 29 January – Noel Harrison, singer, actor and Olympic skier (died 2013)
- 2 February – Hugh McIlvanney, sports journalist (died 2019)
- 6 February – Roger Becker, tennis player (died 2017)
- 11 February – John Surtees, racing driver and motorcyclist (died 2017)
- 12 February – Anthony Howard, journalist (died 2010)
- 17 February – Alan Bates, actor (died 2003)
- 19 February – David Jones, film director (died 2008)
- 21 February – Michael Grylls, politician (died 2001)
- 24 February – Ray Honeyford, head teacher (died 2012)[20]
- 25 February
- Bernard Bresslaw, actor (died 1993)
- Nicholas Edwards, Baron Crickhowell, politician (died 2018)
- 28 February – Ronnie Moran, football captain (Liverpool F.C.) (died 2017)
- 4 March – John Dunn, radio presenter (died 2004)
- 5 March – Nicholas Smith, actor (died 2015)
- 6 March – John Noakes, children's television presenter (died 2017)
- 7 March – Zena Walker, actress (died 2003)
- 8 March
- Gawaine Baillie, race car driver and industrialist (died 2003)
- John McLeod, Scottish composer (died 2022)[21]
- 11 March – Dilys Laye, actress and screenwriter (died 2009)
- 15 March – Richard Layard, Baron Layard, economist
- 16 March – Roger Norrington, conductor
- 20 March – Eric Hebborn, art forger (died 1996)
- 22 March – Larry Martyn, comic actor (died 1994)
- 26 March – Norman Reynolds, production designer and film director (died 2023)
- 28 March – Laurie Taitt, Olympic sprint hurdler (died 2006)
- 1 April – Marie Patterson, English trade union leader (died 2021)
- 2 April – Brian Glover, actor and wrestler (died 1997)
- 3 April – Jane Goodall, primatologist
- 6 April – Brian Cosgrove, animator
- 7 April
- Ian Richardson, actor (died 2007)
- Roger Webb, jazz musician (died 2002)
- 11 April – Ron Pember, actor and dramatist (died 2022)
- 16 April
- Vince Hill, singer (died 2023)
- Richard Kershaw, journalist (died 2014)
- Geoffrey Owen, journalist, academic and businessman
- 3 May – Henry Cooper, boxer (died 2011)
- 5 May – Jim Reid, folk musician (died 2009)
- 8 May – David Williamson, Baron Williamson of Horton, English soldier and politician (died 2015)
- 9 May
- Alan Bennett, playwright, screenwriter, actor and author
- David Plastow, English businessman (died 2019)
- Peter Ramsden, rugby league player (died 2002)
- 14 May – Alasdair Macintosh Geddes, infectious diseases expert (died 2024)
- 15 May
- John Keegan, military historian (died 2012)
- George Roper, comedian (died 2003)
- 16 May – Victor Emery, physicist (died 2002)
- 24 May
- Barry Rose, choir director and organist
- Margaret Tebbit, nurse (died 2020)
- 26 May
- Jeffrey Alan Gray, psychologist (died 2004)
- Mike Rawson, track and field athlete (died 2000)
- 29 May – Nanette Newman, actress
- 5 June – Bryon Butler, sports journalist (died 2001)
- 6 June – Joanne Cole, artist (died 1985)
- 11 June – Lady Annabel Goldsmith, socialite
- 12 June – John Townend, politician (died 2018)
- 15 June – Eileen Atkins, actress
- 19 June
- Terence Clark, soldier and diplomat, British Ambassador to Iraq
- Brian London, boxer (died 2021)[22]
- 20 June
- Brian Barder, diplomat (died 2017)
- Keith Hopkins, historian and sociologist (died 2004)
- 21 June
- Maggie Jones, actress (died 2009)
- Ken Matthews, race walker (died 2019)
- 23 June – Keith Sutton, bishop (died 2017)
- 24 June
- Rodney Peppé, author and illustrator (died 2022)
- Peter Stoddart, English cricketer (died 2019)
- 26 June – Jeremy Wolfenden, journalist and spy (died 1965)
- 30 June – Richard Jolly, development economist
- 1 July
- Paddy Jones, salsa dancer
- Jean Marsh, actress
- Ian Robinson, publisher (died 2004)
- 2 July – Tom Springfield, songwriter and record producer (died 2022)[23]
- 4 July – James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Abercorn, British nobleman, peer and politician
- 5 July – Philip Madoc, actor (died 2012)
- 7 July
- Robert McNeill Alexander, zoologist (died 2016)
- Richard Taylor, medical doctor, politician and Royal Air Force officer
- 8 July – Marty Feldman, writer, comedian and actor (died 1982)
- 9 July – John Clegg, Indian-born English actor (died 2024)
- 11 July – Helen Cresswell, writer (died 2005)
- 13 July – Gordon Lee, football player and manager (died 2022)[24]
- 14 July – John Tyndall, politician (died 2005)
- 15 July – Harrison Birtwistle, composer (died 2022)
- 21 July – Jonathan Miller, polymath theatre director (died 2019)
- 23 July – Tony Lee, jazz pianist (died 2004)
- 26 July – Anthony Gilbert, composer (died 2023)
- 28 July
- Pat Douthwaite, artist (died 2002)
- Ron Flowers, footballer (died 2021)[25]
- 31 July – Julia Bodmer, geneticist (died 2001)
- 6 August – Chris Bonington, mountaineer
- 8 August – Keith Barron, actor (died 2017)
- 16 August – Diana Wynne Jones, English writer (died 2011)[26]
- 18 August – Michael de Larrabeiti, writer (died 2008)
- 19 August – Ronald Jones, track and field athlete (died 2021)
- 20 August – Tom Mangold, journalist and author
- 2 September – Allen Carr, writer and anti-smoking campaigner (died 2006)
- 4 September – Clive Granger, economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2009)
- 8 September – Peter Maxwell Davies, composer (died 2016)
- 11 September
- Ian Abercrombie, English-American actor (died 2012)
- Kallistos (Ware), Eastern Orthodox theologian and bishop (died 2022)[27]
- Cedric Price, architect and writer (died 2003)
- 19 September
- Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles (died 1967)
- Austin Mitchell, politician (died 2021)
- 20 September – David Marquand, academic and politician
- 21 September – David J. Thouless, Scottish-born condensed-matter physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2019)
- 24 September
- Tommy Anderson, Scottish footballer
- Robert Lang, English stage, television actor (died 2004)
- 26 September – Dick Heckstall-Smith, jazz saxophonist (died 2004)
- 30 September
- Alan A'Court, English footballer (died 2009)
- Anna Kashfi, Welsh actress (died 2015)
- 1 October – Geoff Stephens, songwriter and record producer (died 2020)
- 14 October – Rose Wylie, painter
- 17 October – Alan Garner, young adult fiction writer
- 20 October
- Maureen Cleave, journalist (died 2021)[28]
- Timothy West, actor (died 2024)
- 24 October – Wally Herbert, explorer (died 2007)
- 27 October
- David and Frederick Barclay, businessmen (David died 2021)
- Peter Donaldson, economist (died 2002)
- 14 November – Dave Mackay, Scottish footballer (died 2015)
- 22 November – Nicolas Walter, anarchist writer (died 2000)
- 28 November – Ted Walker, poet, travel writer and broadcaster (died 2004)
- 1 December – Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 28th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, peer
- 3 December – Bob Cryer, politician (died 1994)
- 9 December – Judi Dench, actress
- 16 December – Jim Parker, composer (died 2023)
- 17 December – Ray Wilson, footballer (died 2018)
- 18 December – John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (disappeared 1974)
- 27 December – Pat Moss, racing driver (died 2008)
- 28 December
- Alasdair Gray, Scottish fiction writer and artist (died 2019)
- Maggie Smith, English actress (died 2024)[29]
- 31 December – George Christie, opera manager (died 2014)
Deaths
[edit]- 6 January – Herbert Chapman, football manager (born 1878)
- 23 January
- Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, politician and jurist (born 1850)
- Sir William Hardy, biologist and food scientist (born 1864)
- 23 February – Sir Edward Elgar, composer (born 1857)
- 10 March – Thomas Anstey Guthrie, comic novelist 'F. Anstey' (born 1856)
- 25 March – Edmund Selous, ornithologist and writer (born 1857)
- 11 April – John Collier, writer and Pre-Raphaelite painter (born 1850)
- 25 May – Gustav Holst, composer (born 1874)
- 10 June – Frederick Delius, composer (born 1862)
- 10 September – Sir George Henschel, musician (born 1850)
- 27 September – Ellen Willmott, horticulturalist (born 1858)
- 3 November – Sir Robert McAlpine, 1st Baronet, builder (born 1847)
- 16 November – Alice Hargreaves, née Alice Liddell, inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (born 1852)
- 25 November – N. E. Brown, English plant taxonomist (born 1849)
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (January 2000). Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organisations. A&C Black. ISBN 9780826458148. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
- ^ a b Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 378–379. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ "Collapse of Responsible Government, 1929–1934". Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
- ^ "Betting and Lotteries Act, 1934" (PDF). Legislation.gov.uk.
- ^ Coleman, Marie (2005). ""A terrible danger to the morals of the country": The Irish hospitals' sweepstake in Great Britain, 1930–87". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C. 105 (5). Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
- ^ Challoner, Jack, ed. (2009). 1001 Inventions That Changed the World. London: Cassell. pp. 634–5. ISBN 978-1-84403-611-0.
- ^ Martin, David; Boyd, Alastair (1999). Nessie – the Surgeon's Photograph Exposed. East Barnet: authors. ISBN 0-9535708-0-0.
- ^ "David Low". British Cartoon Archive. Retrieved 29 June 2012.[dead link]
- ^ "Berthold Lubetkin". Design Museum. Archived from the original on 25 March 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2008.
- ^ Blake, Richard. The Book of Postal Dates, 1635–1985. Caterham: Marden. p. 29.
- ^ a b c d Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
- ^ "1934 - London". www.insidethegames.biz. 30 August 2009. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
- ^ Phillips, John (December 2006). "Droitwich Calling". Retrieved 3 December 2015.
- ^ "No. 4472 Flying Scotsman". The Heritage Trail. Archived from the original on 21 June 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
- ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 1934". Archived from the original on 27 January 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2007.
- ^ The History Today Companion to British History. London: Collins & Brown. 1995. p. 709. ISBN 1-85585-178-4.
- ^ "1930s and 1940s". British Council. Archived from the original on 15 April 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
- ^ Marr, Andrew (2008). A History of Modern Britain. Macmillan. p. xxii. ISBN 978-0-330-43983-1.
- ^ "Raymond Briggs obituary". the Guardian. 10 August 2022. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
- ^ "Ray Honeyford". 8 February 2012.
- ^ "Scotsman Obituaries: John McLeod CBE, Scottish composer and conductor". The Scotsman. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
- ^ Boxer Brian London who fought Muhammad Ali for world title dies
- ^ Fifth Seeker and songwriter dead at 88
- ^ EVERTON DEEPLY SADDENED TO LEARN OF GORDON LEE PASSING
- ^ "Ron Flowers obituary". The Guardian. 12 November 2021. Archived from the original on 19 June 2023.
- ^ "Diana Wynne Jones | British writer | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
- ^ Kallistos Ware: Theologian Who Explained the Orthodox Way to Other Christians
- ^ "Maureen Cleave obituary". The Guardian. 9 November 2021. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023.
- ^ "Maggie Smith: A glorious antidote to the self-absorption of so many in her profession". The Independent. 13 November 2015. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2020.