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1949 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950 | 1951

Sport and Music

1949 English cricket season

Football England | Scotland

1949 in British music

Events from the year 1949 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

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

Events

• January - a national sex survey is carried out into the sexual behaviour of 4,000 Britons.^[1] The results were considered outrageous and suppressed for over 50 years.^[2]
• 4 January - RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage.
• 15 March - Post-War rationing of clothes ends.^[3]
• 25 March - Laurence Olivier's film Hamlet becomes the first British film to win an Oscar.^[4]
• 4 April - Britain signs the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO.^[3]
• 20 April
  • Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst goes up the Yangtze River to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of the Mao's communist forces. Under heavy fire it runs aground off Rose Island. After an aborted rescue attempt at April 26 it anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the communist forces to let the ship leave drag on for weeks.
  • The first Badminton Horse Trials are held at Badminton House in Gloucestershire.^[4]
• May - EDSAC, the first stored-program computer, begins operation at University of Cambridge.
• 24 April - Wartime rationing of sweets and chocolate ends, but is re-instituted shortly thereafter as shortages return.^[4]
• 1 May - the gas industry is nationalised.^[4]
• 8 June - George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.
• 7 June to 25 June - Dock strike forces the government to use troops to unload goods.^[3]
• 27 July - maiden flight of the British-built de Havilland Comet, the world's first passenger jet, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.^[3]
• 31 July - Captain Kerans of the HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army both sides of the Yangtze River and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day.
• 2 September - release of the film The Third Man with screenplay by Graham Greene. The film wins 1949 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.
• 19 September - the pound devalued by 30% against the United States dollar.^[1]
• 21 September - the first comprehensive school is opened in Holyhead, Anglesey.^[4]
• 30 September - The Berlin Airlift comes to an end, during which 17 American and 7 British planes had crashed delivering supplies to Soviet blockaded Berlin.^[4]
• 12 October - John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr wins the Nobel Peace Prize.^[5]
• 16 December - Parliament Act given royal assent; cuts the House of Lords veto to one year.^[3]

Undated

• Manchester Mark 1 computer built at University of Manchester.

Publications

• W. V. Awdry's children's book Thomas the Tank Engine.
• Enid Blyton's first Noddy book.
• Agatha Christie's novel Crooked House.
• Nancy Mitford's novel Love in a Cold Climate.
• George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Births

• 19 January - Robert Palmer, singer (died 2003)
• 29 January - Andrew Carter, middle distance runner
• 16 February - Lyn Paul, singer
• 2 March - J. P. R. Williams, rugby player
• 6 March - Martin Buchan, footballer
• 28 March - Kevin Lloyd, actor (died 1998)
• 3 April - Richard Thompson, musician and songwriter
• 2 May - Alan Titchmarsh, television presenter
• 13 May - Zoë Wanamaker, actress
• 18 May - Rick Wakeman, musician and songwriter (Yes)
• 2 June - Heather Couper, astronomer
• 4 May - Graham Swift, novelist
• 24 May - Jim Broadbent, actor
• 14 June - Jimmy Lea, musician (Slade)
• 21 June - John Agard, writer
• 15 July - Trevor Horn, singer and producer
• 26 July - Roger Taylor, musician (Queen)
• 6 August - Alan Campbell, clergyman
• 12 August - Mark Knopfler, guitarist (Dire Straits)
• 15 August - Richard Deacon, sculptor
• 25 August - Martin Amis, novelist
• 9 September - John Curry, figure skater (died 1994)
• 18 September
  • Mo Mowlam, politician (died 2005)
  • Peter Shilton, footballer
• 19 September - Twiggy, model
• 14 October - Katy Manning, actress
• 6 November - Nigel Havers, actor
• 24 November - Nicholas Richard Ainger, politician
• December 4 — Paul Dickenson, English hammer thrower
• 12 December - Bill Nighy, actor
• 13 December - Robert Lindsay, actor
• 17 December - Paul Rodgers, singer (Free)

Deaths

• 11 February - John Buchan, Scottish novelist (born 1875)
• 18 April - Will Hay, comedian and actor (born 1888)
• 30 August - Arthur Fielder, cricketer (born 1877)
• 26 September - W. H. Davies, poet and author (born 1871)
• 9 October - Sir Wilfred Grenfell, medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador (born 1865)
• 24 October - Thomas Rowland Hughes, writer (born 1903)
• 16 December - George Maitland Lloyd Davies, pacifist politician (born 1880)

References

See also