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1945 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947

World War II

UK during World War II

Events from the year 1945 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - George VI of the United Kingdom
• Prime Minister - Winston Churchill, coalition (until 27 July), Clement Attlee, Labour

Events

• 7 January - General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference at Zonhoven describing his contribution to the Battle of the Bulge.
• 4 February - Prime Minister Winston Churchill attends the Yalta Conference (ends February 11).^[1]
• 13 February - The RAF Bomber Command begins the strategic bombing of Dresden in Saxony, Germany, resulting in a lethal firestorm which killed tens of thousands of civilians.
• 14 March - The RAF uses the Grand Slam bomb for the first time on the Bielefeld railway viaduct.^[1]
• 27 March- The last V-2 rocket attack on the UK takes place.
• 29 March- The last V-1 flying bomb attack on the UK takes place.

Churchill waves to the crowds on VE Day

• 13 April - The first Scottish National Party Member of Parliament, Robert McIntyre, is elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom after his victory at the Motherwell by-election.
• 15 April - British troops liberate the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.^[1]
• 19 April - Geoffrey Fisher enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 8 May - V-E Day is celebrated throughout the UK. Churchill makes a victory speech and appears on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with King George VI, Queen Elizbeth and the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Street parties take place throughout the country.^[2]
• 12 May - German forces in the Channel Islands, the only occupied part of the British Isles, surrender.^[3]
• 23 May - Churchill forms a 'caretaker' Conservative administration, pending an election, officially ending the wartime Coalition government.^[3]
• 28 May - William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw" is captured. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio. He is hanged in January of 1946.
• 1 June - The UK takes over Lebanon and Syria.
• 15 June - Parliament passes the Family Allowances Act 1945 to provide payments to families with children.
• 5 July - Polling day for the general election; the count was not made for another three weeks (see below) so that votes from the armed services could be added.^[3]
• 7 June - The Benjamin Britten opera Peter Grimes first performed at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London.^[4]
• 18 June - The demobilization of the wartime armed forces begins.
• 17 July - Potsdam Conference - the three main Allied leaders begin their final summit of the war. The meeting will end on August 2.
• 26 July - United Kingdom general election, 1945. Winston Churchill resigns as Britain's prime minister after his Conservative Party is soundly defeated by the Labour Party. Clement Attlee becomes the new prime minister.^[2]
• 29 July - The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched, aimed at mainstream light entertainment and music.^[2]
• 13 August - Zionist World Congress approaches British government to talk about founding of Israel.
• 14 August - The 1945 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours are announced, to mark the resignation of Winston Churchill.^[5]
• 15 August - V-J Day is celebrated in the UK.
• 17 August - George Orwell's Animal Farm published.
• 30 August - British sovereignty of Hong Kong restored following the end of the Japanese occupation of the territory.^[1]
• 2 October - Piccadilly Circus tube station becomes the first to be lit by fluorescent light.^[1]
• 24 October - The British government signs the United Nations Charter.
• December - Alexander Fleming and Ernst Boris Chain win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Howard Florey "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases".^[6]
• 31 December - Britain receives its first shipment of bananas since the beginning of the war.^[2]

Undated

• Bernard Lovell establishes the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire.^[7]

Publications

• Agatha Christie's novel Sparkling Cyanide.
• Winston Graham's novel Ross Poldark, first of the Poldark Novels.
• Henry Green's novel Loving.
• C. S. Lewis' novel That Hideous Strength.
• Nancy Mitford's novel The Pursuit of Love.
• George Orwell's novel Animal Farm.
• Karl Popper's book The Open Society and its Enemies.
• Bertrand Russell's book History of Western Philosophy.
• Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited.

Births

• 6 January - Barry John, rugby union footballer
• 10 January - Rod Stewart, British singer
• 15 January - Princess Michael of Kent, Czech born wife of Prince Michael of Kent
• 21 January - Martin Shaw, English actor
• 26 January - Jacqueline du Pré, English cellist (died 1987)
• 29 January - Jim Nicholson, Northern Irish Unionist politician and MEP for Northern Ireland
• 5 February - Charlotte Rampling, English actress
• 7 February
  • Gerald Davies, Welsh rugby player
  • Pete Postlethwaite, English actor
• 13 February - Simon Schama, historian
• 30 March - Eric Clapton, English guitarist
• 14 May - Widnes, Cheshire: George Nicholls, English rugby league footballer
• 16 May - Nicky Chinn, English songwriter (The Sweet and Suzi Quatro)
• 19 May - Pete Townshend, English guitarist and lyricist
• 12 June - Pat Jennings, Northern Irish footballer player
• 7 July - Michael Ancram, British Conservative politician and MP for Devizes
• 28 July - Richard Wright, English keyboardist (Pink Floyd)
• 9 August - Posy Simmonds, English cartoonist
• 19 August - Ian Gillan, English singer (Deep Purple)
• 31 August - Van Morrison, Northern Irish singer and songwriter
• 21 September - Shaw Clifton, General of The Salvation Army
• 26 September - Bryan Ferry, singer and musician
• 26 November - John McVie, English musician (Fleetwood Mac)
• 30 November - Hilary Armstrong, politician
• 24 December - Ian "Lemmy" Kilminster, British bassist and singer (Motörhead)

Deaths

• 21 February - Eric Liddell, athlete (born 1902)
• 26 March - David Lloyd George, former Prime Minister (born 1863)
• 29 March - Jack Agazarian, spy (born 1916)
• 18 April - John Ambrose Fleming, electrical engineer and physicist (born 1849)
• 15 May - Charles Williams, author (born 1886)
• 5 December - Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury (born 1864)
• 14 December - Princess Maud, Countess of Southesk, granddaughter of King Edward VII (born 1893)

References

See also