1934 in the United Kingdom

1934 in the United Kingdom

Other years

1932 | 1933 | 1934 (1934) | 1935 | 1936

Constituent countries of the United Kingdom

England | Northern Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Popular culture

1934 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland 1934 in British television 1934 in British music

Events from the year 1934 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George V
• Prime Minister – Ramsay MacDonald (Coalition)
• Parliament – 36th

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 1934 Betting and Lotteries Act 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.[9]
• 4 May – fifty-four-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.
• 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.[12]
• 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.[13]
• 10 December – Arthur Henderson wins the Nobel Peace Prize.[14]
• 21 December – Special Areas Act provides grants from central government funds to assist regions with high unemployment.[15]

Undated

• The "British Committee for Relations with Other Countries", which will become the British Council, is set up to foster cultural relations.[16]
• 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.
• James Hilton's novel Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
• George Orwell's memoir Burmese Days.
• J. B. Priestley's travelogue English Journey.[17]
• 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

• 8 January – Roy Kinnear, actor (died 1988)
• 12 January – Mick Sullivan, English rugby league footballer
• 14 January – Richard Briers, actor (died 2013)
• 18 January – Raymond Briggs, writer and illustrator
• 20 January – Tom Baker, actor
• 22 January – Graham Kerr, TV cook
• 2 February – Hugh McIlvanney, sports journalist (died 2019)
• 6 February – Roger Becker, tennis player (died 2017)
• 11 February
  • Mary Quant, fashion designer
  • John Surtees, racing driver and motorcyclist (died 2017)
• 17 February – Alan Bates, actor (died 2003)
• 19 February – David Jones, film director (died 2008)
• 24 February – Ray Honeyford, head teacher (died 2012)[18]
• 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)
• 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)
• 28 March – Laurie Taitt, Olympic sprint hurdler (died 2006)
• 1 April – Marie Patterson, English trade union leader
• 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)
• 16 April
  • Vince Hill, singer
  • 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
• 15 May – George Roper, comedian (died 2003)
• 24 May – Barry Rose, choir director and organist
• 26 May
  • Jeffrey Alan Gray, psychologist (died 2004)
  • Mike Rawson, track and field athlete (died 2000)
• 29 May – Nanette Newman, actress
• 12 June 12 – John Townend, politician (died 2018)
• 19 June – Terence Clark, soldier and diplomat, British Ambassador to Iraq
• 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
• 23 June – Keith Sutton, bishop (died 2017)
• 24 June
  • Rodney Peppé, author and illustrator
  • Peter Stoddart, English cricketer
• 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)
• 4 July – James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Abercorn, British nobleman, peer and politician
• 5 July – Philip Madoc, actor (died 2012)
• 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)
• 14 July – John Tyndall, politician (died 2005)
• 15 July – Harrison Birtwistle, composer
• 21 July – Jonathan Miller, theatre director (died 2019)
• 23 July – Tony Lee, jazz pianist (died 2004)
• 6 August – Chris Bonington, mountaineer
• 8 August – Keith Barron, actor (died 2017)
• 16 August – Diana Wynne Jones, writer (died 2011)
• 18 August – Michael de Larrabeiti, writer (died 2008)
• 19 August – Ronald Jones, track and field athlete
• 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)
• 19 September – Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles (died 1967)
• 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)
• 20 October – Timothy West, actor
• 24 October – Wally Herbert, explorer (died 2007)
• 27 October – David and Frederick Barclay, businessmen
• 14 November – Dave Mackay, Scottish footballer (died 2015)
• 28 November – Ted Walker, poet, travel writer and broadcaster (died 2004)
• 9 December – Judi Dench, actress
• 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, actress

Deaths

• 6 January – Herbert Chapman, football manager (born 1878)
• 23 January – Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, politician and jurist (born 1850)
• 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 – Sie George Henschel, musician (born 1850)
• 27 September – Ellen Willmott, horticulturalist (born 1858)
• 3 November – Sir Robert McAlpine, 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

1. Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organisations. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
2. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 378–379. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
3. "Betting and Lotteries Act, 1934" (PDF). Legislation.gov.uk.
4. 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.
5. Coleman, Marie (2009). The Irish Sweep – A History of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake, 1930–87. University College Dublin Press. ISBN 978-1-906359-41-6.
6. Challoner, Jack, ed. (2009). 1001 Inventions That Changed the World. London: Cassell. pp. 634–5. ISBN 978-1-84403-611-0.
7. Martin, David; Boyd, Alastair (1999). Nessie – the Surgeon's Photograph Exposed. East Barnet: authors. ISBN 0-9535708-0-0.
8. "David Low". British Cartoon Archive. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
9. "Berthold Lubetkin". Design Museum. Archived from the original on 25 March 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2008.
10. Blake, Richard. The Book of Postal Dates, 1635–1985. Caterham: Marden. p. 29.
11. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
12. Phillips, John (December 2006). "Droitwich Calling". Retrieved 3 December 2015.
13. "No. 4472 Flying Scotsman". The Heritage Trail. Archived from the original on 21 June 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
14. "The Nobel Peace Prize 1934". Archived from the original on 27 January 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2007.
15. The History Today Companion to British History. London: Collins & Brown. 1995. p. 709. ISBN 1-85585-178-4.
16. "1930s and 1940s". British Council. Archived from the original on 15 April 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
17. Marr, Andrew (2008). A History of Modern Britain. Macmillan. p. xxii. ISBN 978-0-330-43983-1.
18. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9069943/Ray-Honeyford.html

External links