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1948 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950

Sport and Music

1948 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1948 in British music

Events from the year 1948 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

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

Events

• 1 January - British Rail created when the government nationalises the railway industry.^[1]
• 4 January - Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.^[2]
• 12 January - The London Co-operative Society opens Britain's first supermarket, in Manor Park, London.^[3]
• 30 January–8 February - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and win 2 bronze medals.
• 4 February - Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.^[4] King George VI becomes King of Ceylon.
• 17 March - Britain signs the Treaty of Brussels with Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.^[5]
• 14 May - The murder of a three-year-old girl in Blackburn leads to the fingerprinting of more than 40,000 men in the city in an attempt to find the murderer.
• 21 June - Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, the world's first stored-program computer, ran its first program.^[5]
• 22 June
  • the ship Empire Windrush arrives in Britain with 500 Jamaican immigrants.^[1]
  • An order in council removes the title of Emperor of India from the Royal Style and Titles, recognising the independence of India in 1947.
• 5 July - The National Health Service is founded, giving Britons the right to universal healthcare, free at point of use.^[1]
• 15 July - First London chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous.^[5]
• 25 July - End of Post-War bread rationing.^[3]
• 29 July–14 August
  • 1948 Summer Olympics held in London.^[1]
  • Great Britain and Northern Ireland win 3 gold, 14 silver and 6 bronze medals at the London Olympics.
• 30 July - Gas Boards created as the government nationalises the gas industry.^[3]
• 18 August - Jockey Lester Piggott, aged 12, wins his first race at Haydock Park Racecourse.^[5]
• September - The first comprehensive schools open in Potters Bar and Hillingdon.^[3]
• 6 September - Flying the de Havilland DH 108, John Derry becomes the first British pilot to break the sound barrier.^[5]
• October - The Morris Minor and Land Rover both go on sale.^[3]
• 8 November- The King issues Letters Patent granting the title of Prince or Princess of the United Kingdom, with the style Royal Highness, to the children of The Duke of Edinburgh and The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh.
• December - Patrick Blackett wins the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation".^[6]
• 10 December - T. S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry".^[7]

Publications

• Graham Greene's novel The Heart of the Matter.
• Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novel Taken at the Flood.
• Aldous Huxley's novel Ape and Essence.
• Evelyn Waugh's novel The Loved One.
• Winston Churchill's The Gathering Storm, first volume of his history The Second World War.

Births

• 2 January — Deborah Watling, actress
• February 11 — Roger Mills, race walker
• 22 March — Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer
• 1 April — Peter Law, politician (died 2006)
• 4 April — Derek Thompson, Northern Irish actor
• 12 April — Jeremy Beadle, television presenter, writer and producer (died 2008)
• April 12 — Ian Richards, English race walker
• 28 April — Terry Pratchett, fantasy and science fiction author
• 31 May — John Bonham, drummer (Led Zeppelin) (died 1980)
• 4 June — Bob Champion, jump jockey
• 21 June — Ian McEwan, novelist
• 19 September — Jeremy Irons, actor
• 26 September — Olivia Newton-John, singer
• 27 September — Michele Dotrice, actress
• 3 November — Lulu, singer and entertainer
• 14 November — Prince Charles of Edinburgh, later The Prince of Wales, eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II
• 25 November — Paul Murphy, politician
• 2 December — Patricia Hewitt, politician

Deaths

• 13 March - Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein- granddaughter of Queen Victoria (born 1870)
• 12 August - Harry Brearley, inventor (born 1871)
• 22 August - Sophia Duleep Singh, Princess and suffragette (born 1876)
• 10 September
  • Bernard Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard, politician (born 1874)
  • Hamar Greenwood, 1st Viscount Greenwood, politician (born 1870)
• 31 December - Malcolm Campbell, racing motorist and motoring journalist (born 1885)

References

See also