1947 in the United Kingdom

1947 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1945 | 1946 | 1947 (1947) | 1948 | 1949

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport, Television and music

1947 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland 1947 in British television

Events from the year 1947 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George VI
• Prime Minister – Clement Attlee (Labour)

Events

• 1 January – The government nationalises the coal industry in the UK and Cable & Wireless Ltd.
• 2 January – British coins cease to include any silver content.
• 5 February – The Minister of Food, John Strachey, announces the £25 million Tanganyika groundnut scheme.
• 10 February – Major cuts in power supply due to shortage of fuel under severe winter conditions are imposed in England and Wales. The BBC Television Service is temporarily suspended until 11 March.
• 20 February – Earl Mountbatten of Burma is appointed as the last Viceroy of India.
• February
  • Ealing Studios release the film Hue and Cry, regarded as the first of the Ealing Comedies.
  • The coldest February in the CET series with an average of −1.9 °C (28.6 °F) features the coldest Central England maximum temperature for any month since records began in 1878 at 0.1 °C (32.2 °F).
• 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.
• March – Postwar boom in births reaches peak.
• 1 April – Raising of school leaving age to 15.
• 3 April – The private healthcare firm BUPA founded.
• 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.
• 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 lifeboat 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.
• 26 April – Charlton Athletic, who lost the FA Cup final last year, win this year's final 1–0 against Burnley.
• 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.
• 11–15 June – First Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod is held.
• 15 June – Restrictions on foreign travel imposed during World War II lifted.
• June – Retail Prices Index begins.
• 10 July – The Princess Elizabeth (now Elizabeth II) announces her engagement to Lt Philip Mountbatten (now The Duke of Edinburgh).
• 15 July–20 August – "Convertibility Crisis": Pound sterling fully convertible into United States Dollars, leading to loss of currency reserves.
• 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.
• 5 August – Release of Holiday Camp, first of the popular Huggetts Trilogy of comedy films.
• 15 August – A mining accident at William Pit, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, kills 104.
• 14 August and 15 August – Pakistan and India gain independence from the UK, remaining Dominions with the Commonwealth of Nations under King George VI.
• 15 August – 'GLEEP' (the Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile) experimental nuclear reactor runs for the first time at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, near Oxford, the first reactor to operate in Western Europe.
• 24 August – First Edinburgh Festival of the Arts opens. 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.
• September – The University of Cambridge votes to allow women to become full students.
• 29 September – Harold Wilson is appointed President of the Board of Trade at 31, the youngest member of the Cabinet this century.
• October – Snoek is imported as a food fish from South Africa.
• 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.
• 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.
• 19 November – Philip Mountbatten created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich, with the style His Royal Highness.
• 20 November – The Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II), daughter of George VI marries The Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey, London. The service is watched by an estimated 400,000 television viewers and is the oldest surviving telerecording in Britain.
• 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.
• 6 December – Women are admitted to full membership of the University of Cambridge.
• December
  • Edward Victor Appleton wins the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer".
  • Robert Robinson wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids"
  • The Friends Service Council wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • First permanent Oxfam charity shop begins trading, in Broad Street, Oxford.

Undated

• Discovery of the pion, a subatomic particle, by Cecil Frank Powell at the University of Bristol.
• Discovery of the kaon, a subatomic particle, by George Rochester and C. C. Butler.
• Poliomyelitis epidemic in the U.K. begins.
• Royal Military Academy Sandhurst established by merger of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
• Robert Wiseman Dairies founded by Robert Wiseman with a horse and cart used for doorstep deliveries in East Kilbride.
• The avocet resumes breeding in England, at Havergate Island and Minsmere RSPB reserve.

Publications

• Malcolm Lowry's novel Under the Volcano.
• Compton Mackenzie's novel Whisky Galore.
• Stephen Potter's book The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship: Or, The Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating.

Births

• 6 January – Sandy Denny, folk rock singer (died 1978)
• 8 January
  • David Bowie, born David Jones, rock singer (died 2016)
  • Jenny Boyd, model
• 10 January – Patricia Hodgson, broadcaster, educationalist and academic
• 23 January – Mary Arden, lawyer and judge
• 27 January – Philip Sugden, historian and author (died 2014)
• 30 January
  • Les Barker, poet
  • Steve Marriott, rock singer and guitarist (Small Faces, Humble Pie) (died 1991)
• 20 February – Peter Osgood, footballer (died 2006)
• 7 March – Matthew Fisher, singer-songwriter and producer
• 25 February – Elton John, born Reginald Dwight, musician
• 24 March – Alan Sugar, businessman
• 16 April – Gerry Rafferty, singer-songwriter (died 2011)
• 23 April – Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster
• 8 May
  • David Manners, 11th Duke of Rutland, English politician
  • John Reid, Labour politician, Home Secretary
• 2 July – Ann Taylor, Labour politician
• 3 July – Adrian Bird, geneticist and academic
• 6 June – David Blunkett, Labour politician, Home Secretary
• 7 June – Annette Brooke, educator and politician
• 6 July – Richard Beckinsale, actor (died 1979)
• 7 July – Rob Townsend, rock drummer (Family)
• 12 July – Gareth Edwards, Welsh rugby player
• 17 July – Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, née Shand, 2nd wife of Charles, Prince of Wales
• 19 July – Brian May, rock guitarist (Queen)
• 23 July – David Essex, actor and singer
• 31 July – Richard Griffiths, actor (Withnail and I, Harry Potter) (died 2013)
• 23 August – Willy Russell, playwright
• 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
• 30 September – Marc Bolan, musician (died 1977)
• 5 October – Brian Johnson, rock singer
• 21 November – Nickolas Grace, actor
• 1 December – Bob Fulton, English-Australian rugby league footballer and coach
• 2 December
  • Tommy Jenkins, footballer and manager
  • Andy Rouse, racing driver

Deaths

• 30 January – Frederick Blackman, plant physiologist (born 1866)
• 6 February – Ellen Wilkinson, socialist (born 1891)
• 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 – 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
  • Samuel Courtauld, art collector (born 1876)
  • Aleister Crowley, occultist (born 1875)
  • G. H. Hardy, mathematician (born 1877)
• 14 December
  • Stanley Baldwin, former Prime Minister (born 1867)
  • Will Fyffe, Scottish music hall entertainer (born 1885; fell from hotel room window)
• 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)