From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UK-related events during the year of 1947
Events from the year
1947 in the
United Kingdom .
Incumbents
Events
1 January – The government
nationalises the coal industry in the UK
[1] and
Cable & Wireless .
[2]
2 January –
British coins cease to include any silver content.
[1]
8 January – A
Cabinet sub-committee approves
High Explosive Research , a civil project to develop an independent British
atomic bomb .
5 February – The
Minister of Food ,
John Strachey , announces the £25,000,000
Tanganyika groundnut scheme .
[3]
10 February – Major cuts in power supply due to shortages of fuel under
severe winter conditions are imposed in England and Wales.
[4] The
BBC Television Service is temporarily suspended until 11 March.
20 February –
Earl Mountbatten of Burma is appointed as the last
Viceroy of India .
[1]
23 February –
Ealing Studios release the film
Hue and Cry , regarded as the first of the
Ealing Comedies .
[5]
February – The coldest February in
the CET series with an average of −1.9 °C (28.6 °F)
[6] features the coldest Central England maximum temperature for any month since records began in 1878 at 0.1 °C (32.2 °F).
[7]
4 March –
Treaty of Dunkirk (coming into effect 8 September) signed with France providing for mutual assistance in the event of attack.
14 March –
Thames flood and other widespread flooding as the exceptionally
harsh winter ends in a thaw.
[8]
[9]
March – Postwar boom in births reaches peak.
[10]
April –
English country houses at
Arundel ,
Chatsworth and
Longleat reopen to the visiting public, after wartime use.
1 April –
Raising of school leaving age to fifteen.
[10]
[11]
3 April – The private healthcare firm
BUPA is founded.
[1]
9 April – How Does Your Garden Grow? first broadcast on
BBC Radio . As
Gardeners' Question Time , it will still be running more than sixty-five years later.
[12]
15 April – A large bomb planted by members of Israeli militant group
Lehi at the
Colonial Office building in
Whitehall (London) fails to explode.
[13]
18 April – In
the largest non-nuclear single explosive detonation in history , the
Royal Navy sets off 6,800
tonnes of surplus
ammunition in an attempt to destroy
Heligoland , Germany.
23 April –
Mumbles
Watson-class
life-boat RNLB Edward, Prince of Wales (ON 678)
capsizes on service to
Liberty ship
SS Samtampa off
South Wales : all 8 lifeboat and 39 steamship crew are lost.
[14]
26 April –
Charlton Athletic who
lost the
FA Cup final last year, win
this year's final 1–0 against
Burnley .
[15]
May – The
Conservative Party publishes its
Industrial Charter .
6 May –
East Kilbride designated as the first
New Town in
Scotland under powers of the
New Towns Act 1946 .
[16]
11–15 June – First
Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod is held.
[17]
15 June – Restrictions on foreign travel imposed during
World War II lifted.
[18]
June –
Retail Prices Index begins.
[19]
10 July – Princess Elizabeth (the future
Elizabeth II ) announces her engagement to Lt. Philip Mountbatten (the future
Duke of Edinburgh ).
15 July–20 August – "Convertibility Crisis":
Pound sterling fully convertible into
United States Dollars , leading to loss of
currency reserves .
[10]
27–28 July – English endurance swimmer
Tom Blower becomes the first person to swim the
North Channel , from
Donaghadee in Northern Ireland to
Portpatrick in Scotland.
31 July –
Fire Services Act returns
fire services in the United Kingdom from the
National Fire Service to control of local authorities (from 1948) and provides the legislative basis for their organisation for more than fifty years.
First few days of August – anti-Jewish riots, primarily in
North West England , following '
the Sergeants affair ' in
Mandatory Palestine .
[20]
5 August – Release of
Holiday Camp , first of the popular
Huggetts Trilogy of comedy films.
[10]
14 & 15 August – Pakistan
[21] and India
[22] gain independence from the UK, remaining
Dominions with the
Commonwealth of Nations under King
George VI .
15 August
24 August – First
Edinburgh Festival of the Arts opens.
[8] On 31 August, the first
Edinburgh International Film Festival opens as part of the overall festival; it will become the world's oldest continually running film festival.
[24]
September – The
University of Cambridge votes to allow women to become full students.
[18]
29 September –
Harold Wilson is appointed
President of the Board of Trade at thirty-one years old, he is the youngest member of the
Cabinet this century.
October –
Snoek is imported as a food fish from
South Africa .
[25]
10 November – Decision of the
Court of Appeal in
Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corp , a leading case in the law of
judicial review , establishing a standard of unreasonableness ("Wednesbury unreasonableness") of public-body decisions that makes them liable to be quashed on review.
12 November –
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Hugh Dalton inadvertently reveals some of the contents of his Budget while on his way to the House of Commons to deliver his speech, effectively finishing his political career.
[26]
16 November – The
British Army begins to withdraw troops from
Palestine .
18 November –
Tommy Lawton , 28-year-old centre-forward, becomes Britain's first £20,000 footballer in a move from
Chelsea to
Notts County .
[27]
19 November – Philip Mountbatten created
Duke of Edinburgh , Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich with the style
His Royal Highness .
20 November –
Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh : Princess Elizabeth (later
Elizabeth II ), daughter of
George VI marries
The Duke of Edinburgh at
Westminster Abbey ,
London .
[1] The procession is watched by an estimated 400,000 television viewers and is the oldest surviving
telerecording in Britain.
[28]
25 November – New Zealand ratifies the
Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.
29 November – The
United Nations approves the
Partition Plan for Palestine thus ending the
British Mandate of Palestine .
[1]
6 December – Women are admitted to full membership of the
University of Cambridge .
[29]
December
Undated
Publications
Births
5 January
6 January –
Sandy Denny , folk rock singer (died 1978)
8 January –
David Bowie , born David Jones, rock singer (died 2016)
10 January
16 January
23 January –
Mary Arden , lawyer and judge
27 January –
Philip Sugden , historian and author (died 2014)
30 January
3 February –
Dave Davies , singer-songwriter and guitarist
10 February –
Nicholas Owen , newsreader (ITN)
20 February –
Peter Osgood , footballer (died 2006)
26 February –
Sandie Shaw , pop singer
1 March –
Mike Read , television presenter and radio disc jockey
6 March –
Kiki Dee , pop singer
7 March
10 March –
Piers Corbyn , weather forecaster and political activist
14 March
18 March –
Susan Sheridan , actress (died 2015)
24 March
25 March –
Elton John , born Reginald Dwight, rock musician
28 March –
Peter Hennessy , historian
16 April –
Gerry Rafferty , singer-songwriter (died 2011)
20 April –
David Leland , actor, director, and screenwriter
23 April –
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey , Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster
30 April –
Leslie Grantham , actor (
EastEnders ) and murderer (died 2018)
2 May –
James Dyson , inventor and entrepreneur
6 May –
Kit Martin , architect and author
8 May
20 May –
Greg Dyke , media executive,
Director-General of the BBC
27 May –
Felix Dennis , publisher and philanthropist (died 2014)
1 June
5 June –
Tom Evans , rock singer-songwriter (died 1983)
6 June –
David Blunkett , Labour politician, Home Secretary
[42]
7 June –
Annette Brooke , educator and politician
11 June –
Richard Palmer-James , singer-songwriter and guitarist
17 June –
Paul Young , pop singer-songwriter (died 2000)
22 June
23 June –
Anne Owers , chief inspector of prisons
24 June
25 June –
John Hilton , English table tennis player
28 June –
Stephen Whittaker , actor (died 2003)
2 July
3 July –
Adrian Bird , geneticist and academic
6 July –
Richard Beckinsale , actor (died 1979)
7 July –
Rob Townsend , rock drummer (
Family )
12 July
13 July
15 July –
Peter Banks , guitarist and songwriter (died 2013)
17 July
19 July –
Brian May , rock guitarist (
Queen )
23 July –
David Essex , actor and singer
24 July
31 July –
Richard Griffiths , actor (
Withnail and I ,
Harry Potter ) (died 2013)
9 August –
Roy Hodgson , football manager
12 August –
William Hartston , journalist and chess player
23 August
28 August –
Emlyn Hughes , footballer (died 2004)
16 September –
Roger Millward , English rugby league footballer and coach
17 September –
Tessa Jowell , Labour politician,
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (died 2018)
18 September –
Paul Seed , television director and former actor
21 September –
Rupert Hine , musician, songwriter, and record producer (died 2020)
[43]
28 September –
Jon Snow , journalist and trelevision presenter
30 September –
Marc Bolan , musician (died 1977)
1 October –
Larry Lamb , actor
4 October –
Ann Widdecombe , Conservative politician
5 October –
Brian Johnson , rock singer
7 October –
Pip Williams , record producer
16 October –
Nicholas Day , actor
2 November –
Dave Pegg , folk musician, bass player (
Fairport Convention ,
Jethro Tull )
6 November –
Jim Rosenthal , ITV sport presenter
8 November –
Jenny Boyd , model
10 November –
Greg Lake progressive rock singer-songwriter (
Emerson, Lake & Palmer ) (died 2016)
21 November –
Nickolas Grace , actor
1 December –
Bob Fulton , English-Australian rugby league footballer and coach
2 December
6 December –
Geoffrey Hinton , English-born cognitive psychologist and computer scientist
8 December –
John MacDougall , politician (died 2008)
12 December –
Will Alsop , architect
16 December –
Ben Cross , actor (died 2020)
20 December –
Roger Alton , journalist
26 December –
Liz Lochhead , poet and playwright
Deaths
17 January –
Arthur Headlam , theologian and Bishop of Gloucester (born 1862)
30 January –
Frederick Blackman , plant physiologist (born 1866)
6 February –
Ellen Wilkinson , socialist (born 1891)
11 February –
Ernest Terah Hooley , financial fraudster (born 1859)
13 February –
Pauline Johnson , silent film actress (born 1899)
21 February –
Richard Barry Parker , architect and urban planner (born 1867)
2 March –
Stanhope Forbes , painter of the
Newlyn school (born 1857)
6 March – Sir
Halford Mackinder , geographer (born 1861)
13 March –
Angela Brazil , school-story writer for girls (born 1868)
16 May –
Sir Frederick Hopkins , biochemist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (born 1861)
6 June –
James Agate , author and critic (born 1877)
24 July –
Ernest Austin , composer (born 1874)
25 July –
Kathleen Scott (Lady Scott), sculptor, widow of Capt. Scott (born 1878)
23 August –
Roy Chadwick , aircraft designer (born 1893; killed in aircraft accident)
13 October –
Sidney Webb , political economist (born 1859)
28 November –
James Miller , Scottish architect (born 1860)
1 December
14 December
15 December –
Arthur Machen , Welsh journalist, novelist and short-story writer (born 1863)
17 December –
Bernard Spilsbury , forensic pathologist (born 1877; suicide)
30 December –
Alfred North Whitehead , mathematician and philosopher (born 1861)
See also
References
^
a
b
c
d
e
f Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006.
ISBN
0-14-102715-0 .
^ Glover, Bill (2010).
"Cable & Wireless Ltd" . History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications . Retrieved 3 January 2011 .
^ Wood, Alan (1950). The Groundnut Affair . London: Bodley Head.
OCLC
1841364 .
^ "Drastic Cuts in Power Essential".
The Times . No. 50682. London. 11 February 1947. p. 4.
^
"Hue and Cry" . screenonline . BFI. Retrieved 9 July 2010 .
^
"Monthly ranked Hadley Central England temperature" . metoffice.gov.uk . Retrieved 20 April 2018 .
^
"Monthly central England maximum temperature" . metoffice.gov.uk . Retrieved 20 April 2018 .
^
a
b Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 396–397.
ISBN
0-7126-5616-2 .
^ Cullingham, G. G. (November 2012).
"The Floods of 1947" . Histories of Windsor . The Royal Windsor Web Site. Retrieved 1 March 2013 .
^
a
b
c
d
Kynaston, David (2007). Austerity Britain 1945–51 . London: Bloomsbury.
ISBN
978-0-7475-7985-4 .
^
"Education leaving age" . Politics.co.uk. 12 June 2007. Archived from
the original on 23 December 2007. Retrieved 25 August 2010 .
^
"About The Programme" . Gardeners' Question Time . BBC. Retrieved 30 March 2011 .
^
Andrew, Christopher (2010) [2009].
The Defence of the Realm . London: Penguin. p. 355.
ISBN
978-0-141-02330-4 .
^ Smith, Carl (1977). The Men of the Mumbles Head: the Story of the Mumbles Life-boat from 1832 . Llandysul: Gomer Press.
ISBN
0-85088-384-9 .
^
"FA Cup Final 1947" . Archived from
the original on 21 May 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2010 .
^
"No. 16436" .
The Edinburgh Gazette . 9 May 1947. p. 189.
^
"Llangollen International Eisteddfod – How it Started" . Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Archived from
the original on 24 August 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2012 .
^
a
b
The Lost Decade Timeline, BBC
Archived 21 August 2006 at the
Wayback Machine
^
"Finding RPI Data" . Office for National Statistics. 2010. Retrieved 6 January 2011 .
^ Trilling, Daniel (23 May 2012).
"Britain's last anti-Jewish riots" .
New Statesman . Retrieved 29 May 2012 .
^
Pakistan .
The World Factbook .
Central Intelligence Agency .
^
India .
The World Factbook .
Central Intelligence Agency .
^
"60th anniversary of William Pit disaster" .
BBC . 2008. Retrieved 14 October 2010 .
^
"Scotland Hosts the World's Longest Running Film Festival" . Scotland.com . Retrieved 18 July 2014 .
^
Marr, Andrew (2007). A History of Modern Britain . London: Macmillan. p. 83.
ISBN
978-1-4050-0538-8 .
^
Pimlott, Ben (2004).
"Dalton, (Edward) Hugh Neale, Baron Dalton (1887–1962)" .
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi :
10.1093/ref:odnb/32697 . (Subscription or
UK public library membership required.)
^
"Tommy Lawton" . Archived from
the original on 11 March 2005. Retrieved 22 September 2011 .
^
"The Royal Wedding, 1947" . BBC Archive . 16 January 2022.
^
"Fact sheet: Women at Cambridge: A Chronology" . University of Cambridge. 2010. Archived from
the original on 7 November 2007. Retrieved 13 September 2010 .
^
"The Nobel Prize in Physics 1947" . nobelprize.org . Retrieved 20 April 2018 .
^
"The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1947" . nobelprize.org . Retrieved 20 April 2018 .
^
"The Nobel Peace Prize 1947" . nobelprize.org . Retrieved 20 April 2018 .
^ Lattes, C. M. G.; Muirhead, H.; Occhialini, G. P. S.; Powell, C. F. (1947). "Processes involving charged mesons". Nature . 159 (4047): 694–697.
Bibcode :
1947Natur.159..694L .
doi :
10.1038/159694a0 .
S2CID
4152828 .
^ Smallman-Raynor, M. R.; Cliff, A. D. (2006). Poliomyelitis : a world geography: emergence to eradication . Oxford University Press. pp. 317–18.
ISBN
019924474X .
^
"Company history" . Robert Wiseman Dairies. Archived from
the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 23 January 2011 .
^
Symons, Mitchell (2013). Numberland . London: Michael O'Mara Books. p. 30.
ISBN
978-1-78243-060-5 .
^ Lowrey, Burling (Autumn 1993).
"The Timelessness of Stephen Potter's Gamesmanship" . Virginia Quarterly Review : 718–26. Archived from
the original on 7 September 2009.
^ Britannica Educational Publishing (1 December 2012).
Alternative, Country, Hip-Hop, Rap, and More: Music from the 1980s to Today . Britannica Educational Publishing. p. 47.
ISBN
978-1-61530-910-8 .
^
"Rick Stein" . dunedinlibraries.govt.nz . Archived from
the original on 25 July 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2017 .
^ Harvey Proctor, K. (29 March 2016).
Credible and True: The Political and Personal Memoir of K. Harvey Proctor .
ISBN
9781785900594 .
^
‘Artist, iconoclast, anarchist, punk, hippie, rebel and romantic’: A personal tribute to Jamie Reid
^
"David Blunkett | British politician" . Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved 6 July 2021 .
^ Pareles, Jon (15 June 2020).
"Rupert Hine, Synth-Pop Music Producer, Dies at 72" . The New York Times . Retrieved 15 June 2020 .
^
Jack, Ian (3 June 2006).
"Will Fyffe: Glasgow and the art of drinking" .
The Guardian . London. p. 23 (Review). Retrieved 11 January 2016 .