1934 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1934 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George V
• Prime Minister – Ramsay MacDonald (Coalition)

Events

• 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]
• 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.^[3] Part 2 (lotteries) prohibits the sale of lottery tickets, primarily directed against the Irish Free State Hospitals' Sweepstake.^[4][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 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 – launching 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

• 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

• 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

• 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)
• 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
• 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 – 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)
• 16 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
• 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)
• 20 October
  • Maureen Cleave, journalist (died 2021)^[28]
  • Timothy West, actor
• 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)
• 27 December – Pat Moss, racing driver (died 2008)
• 28 December
  • Alasdair Gray, Scottish fiction writer and artist (died 2019)
  • Maggie Smith, English actress^[29]

Deaths

• 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

• List of British films of 1934

References