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1947 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949

Sport and Music

1947 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1947 in British music

Events from the year 1947 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch - George VI of the United Kingdom
• Prime Minister - Clement Attlee, Labour

Events

• January - One of the most severe winters on record in the UK.
• 1 January - The government nationalises the coal industry in the UK.^[1]
• 2 January - British coins ceased to made from silver.^[1]
• 20 February - Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma appointed the last Governor-General of India.^[1]
• 15 March - Widespread flooding as the exceptionally harsh winter ends in a thaw.^[2]
• 3 April - The private healthcare firm BUPA founded.^[1]
• 18 April - In the largest non-nuclear single explosive detonation in history, the Royal Navy set off 6,800 tonnes of surplus ammunition in an attempt to destroy Heligoland, Germany.
• May - The Conservative Party publishes its Industrial Charter.
• 15 June - Restrictions on foreign travel imposed during World War II lifted.^[3]
• 10 July - Princess Elizabeth announces engagement to Philip Mountbatten (previously known as Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark).
• 14 August and 15 August- Pakistan^[4] and India^[5] gain independence from the UK, remaining Commonwealth Realms under King George VI.
• 24 August - First Edinburgh Festival of the Arts opens.^[2]
• September - Cambridge University votes to allow women to become full students.^[3]
• 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. [1]
• 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, daughter of King George VI marries the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey, London.^[1]
• 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]
• 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".^[6]
  • Robert Robinson wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids"^[7]
  • The Friends Service Council wins the Nobel Peace Prize.^[8]

Undated

• Discovery of the pion, a subatomic particle, by Cecil Frank Powell at the University of Bristol.^[9]
• Discovery of the kaon, a subatomic particle, by George Rochester and C. C. Butler.

Publications

• Malcolm Lowry's novel Under the Volcano.
• Compton Mackenzie's novel Whisky Galore.

Births

• 6 January - Sandy Denny, singer (died 1978)
• 8 January
  • David Bowie, singer
  • Jenny Boyd, model
• 30 January
  • Les Barker, poet
  • Steve Marriott, singer and musician (Small Faces, Humble Pie) (died 1991)
• 20 February - Peter Osgood, footballer (died 2006)
• 7 March - Matthew Fisher, singer-songwriter and producer
• 25 March - Elton John, musician
• 23 April - Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Member of Parliament
• 8 May - John Reid, politician
• 2 July - Ann Taylor, Baroness Taylor of Bolton, politician
• 6 June - David Blunkett, former Home Secretary
• 7 July -
  • Richard Beckinsale, actor
  • Rob Townsend, rock drummer (Family)
• 17 July - The Duchess of Cornwall (née Camilla Parker Bowles), the 2nd wife of Charles, Prince of Wales
• 23 July - David Essex, actor and singer
• 19 July - Brian May, guitarist (Queen)
• 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, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
• 30 September - Marc Bolan, musician (died 1977)
• 5 October - Brian Johnson, singer
• 1 December - Bob Fulton, English-Australian rugby league footballer and coach

Deaths

• 16 May - Frederick Hopkins, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (born 1861)
• 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)

References

See also