1932 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

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

  Events

• 8 January – the Archbishop of Canterbury forbids church remarriage of divorcees.
• 24 January – inmates at Dartmoor Prison mutiny.
• 26 January – British submarine sinks off the Dorset coast with all sixty hands.
• 1–29 February – with an average precipitation of, this period constitutes the driest calendar month over the United Kingdom as a whole since records began in 1910.
• 4–15 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete in the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York but do not win any medals.
• 1 March – Import Duties Act re-establishes protective trade tariffs.
• 15 March – first BBC radio broadcast from the new Broadcasting House in London; all programmes transfer from 15 May.
• 6 April – Ministry of Health encourages local councils to engage in widespread slum clearance.
• 13 April – mass trespass of Kinder Scout, a wilful trespass by ramblers at Kinder Scout, in the Peak District of England, to protest against lack of free public access to open country.
• 23 April – new Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opens in Stratford-upon-Avon; designed by Elisabeth Scott, it is the country's first important work by a woman architect.
• 1 May – protestors clash with police in Hyde Park, London, during a May day protest against Japan's attitude towards China when they try to march on the Japanese Embassy.
• 10 May – James Chadwick discovers the neutron.
• 26 May – the Scots law case of Donoghue v Stevenson is decided in the House of Lords, establishing the modern concept of a duty of care in cases of negligence.
• 4 July – George Carwardine patents the Anglepoise lamp.
• 12 July – Hedley Verity of Yorkshire establishes a new first-class cricket record by taking all ten wickets for only ten runs against Nottinghamshire on a pitch affected by a storm.
• 19 July – King George V opens the replacement Lambeth Bridge across the Thames in London.
• 30 July–14 August – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Los Angeles, California and win 4 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze.
• 1 August – Forrest Mars produces the first Mars bar in his Slough factory.
• 22 August – first experimental television broadcast by the BBC.
• 20 September – Methodist Union: the Methodist Church is formed in Britain by merger of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodists and the United Methodist Church.
• 26 September – first contingent of the National Hunger March leaves Glasgow.
• October
• * Oswald Mosley founds the British Union of Fascists.
• * Anglo-Irish Trade War begins.
• 3 October – The Times newspaper first appears set in the Times New Roman typeface devised by Stanley Morison.
• 7 October – Thomas Beecham establishes the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
• 13 October – Britain grants independence to Iraq in exchange for a restrictive long-term military alliance.
• 27 October – arrival of the Hunger March in London leads to several violent clashes with police.
• 14 November – book tokens go on sale in the UK.
• 30 November – the BBC begins a series of radio broadcasts to mark the 75th birthday of Sir Edward Elgar.
• 2 December – English cricket team in Australia in 1932–33: opening of the 'bodyline' series.
• 5 December – the comic strip character Jane first appears in the Daily Mirror.
• 10 December
• * John Galsworthy wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga".
• * Charles Scott Sherrington and Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries regarding the functions of neurons".
• 19 December – the BBC Empire Service, later known as the BBC World Service, begins broadcasting using a shortwave radio facility at its Daventry transmitting station.
• 25 December – King George V delivers the first Royal Christmas Message on the BBC Empire Service from Sandringham House; the text has been written by Rudyard Kipling.

  Undated

• Opening of the Hoover Building on the Western Avenue in Perivale, Middlesex, a noted example of Art Deco architecture, designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners for The Hoover Company.
• Production of Weetabix breakfast cereal in the U.K. begins at Burton Latimer in Northamptonshire.
• English Folk Dance and Song Society formed by merger of the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society.

  Publications

• Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novel Peril at End House.
• Lewis Grassic Gibbon's novel Sunset Song, first in A Scots Quair trilogy.
• Stella Gibbons' parodic novel Cold Comfort Farm.
• J. B. S. Haldane's book The Causes of Evolution, unifying Mendelian genetics and evolutionary science.
• Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel Brave New World.
• Captain W. E. Johns' first Biggles aviation stories, collected as The Camels are Coming.
• F. R. Leavis' book New Bearings in English Poetry.
• Q. D. Leavis' book Fiction and the Reading Public.
• John Cowper Powys' novel A Glastonbury Romance.
• Evelyn Waugh's novel Black Mischief.
• First issue of the journal of literary criticism Scrutiny: a quarterly review edited by F. R. Leavis.
• First issue of the magazine Woman's Own.

  Births

• 4 January – Thelma Holt, actress and producer
• 14 January – Timothy Sprigge, philosopher
• 19 January – Russ Hamilton, singer
• 23 January – George Allen, footballer
• 29 January – Tommy Taylor, footballer
• 1 February – John Nott, Conservative politician
• 8 February
• *Cliff Allison, racing driver
• *Jean Saunders, romantic novelist
• 11 February – Dennis Skinner, politician
• 12 February – Richard Rougier, judge
• 14 February – Peter Ball, bishop and sex offender
• 15 February – Adrian Swire, English businessman
• 27 February – Elizabeth Taylor, actress
• 28 February - Brian Moore, football commentator
• 25 March – Martin Brandon-Bravo, politician
• 15 April – John T. Lewis, Welsh physicist
• 21 April – Bob Grant, actor, comedian and writer
• 25 April
• * David Frederick Case, audiobook narrator
• * William Roache, actor
• 26 April – Michael Smith, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 4 May – Ivor Wood, television animator
• 7 May – Jenny Joseph, poet
• 8 May – Phyllida Law, actress
• 12 May – Derek Malcolm, historian and critic
• 19 May – Alma Cogan, singer
• 24 May – Arnold Wesker, dramatist
• 30 May
• * Ray Cooney, farceur
• * Ivor Richard, Welsh Labour politician
• 18 June – Geoffrey Hill, poet
• 22 June
• *Prunella Scales, actress
• * John Wakeham, businessman and Conservative Party politician
• 25 June
• * Peter Blake, pop artist
• * Charles Morrison, politician
• 26 June – John Wall, inventor
• 27 June – Alan Warren, Anglican priest and author
• 4 July – Matt Crowe, Scottish football player
• 8 July
• *Roy Proverbs, football player
• *Brian Walden, politician and political interviewer
• 16 July – John Chilton, jazz trumpeter
• 21 July – Vilma Hollingbery, actress
• 23 July
• *Tony Dean, racing driver
• * Hugh Davies, Welsh cricketer
• 28 July – Russell Johnston, politician
• 6 August – Howard Hodgkin, painter and print-maker
• 11 August – Eric Varley, politician
• 17 August – V. S. Naipaul, Trinidadian-born writer
• 20 August – Anthony Ainley, actor
• 24 August
• *Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, cardinal and Archbishop of Westminster
• *W. Morgan Sheppard, actor
• 4 September – Dinsdale Landen, actor
• 7 September – Malcolm Bradbury, author and academic
• 9 September – Alice Thomas Ellis, writer
• 11 September
• * Peter Anderson, footballer
• * Ian Hamer, jazz trumpeter
• 22 September – Michael Barnes, politician
• 27 September – Michael Colvin, Conservative politician
• 4 October – Edward Judd, actor
• 5 October – Michael John Rogers, ornithologist
• 8 October – Ray Reardon, Welsh snooker player
• 9 October – Robert McBain, actor
• 10 October – Harry Smith, footballer
• 15 October – Vince Karalius, English rugby league footballer and coach
• 24 October – Adrian Mitchell, poet and novelist
• 25 October – Maurice Dodd, cartoonist
• 6 November – Ron Saunders, footballer and manager
• 4 November – Joyce Blair, actress
• 11 November – John Zamet, periodontist
• 15 November – Petula Clark, singer, actress and songwriter
• 18 November – Trevor Baxter, actor and playwright
• 20 November – Richard Dawson, comedian and game show host
• 21 November – Beryl Bainbridge, novelist
• 30 November – Arthur Hopcraft, scriptwriter
• 24 December – Colin Cowdrey, cricketer
• 28 December – Roy Hattersley, Labour politician

  Deaths

• 13 January – Ernest Mangnall, football manager
• 21 January – Lytton Strachey writer and biographer
• 24 January – Sir Alfred Yarrow, shipbuilder and philanthropist
• 10 February – Edgar Wallace, novelist and screenwriter
• 4 March – Fawcet Wray, admiral
• 11 March – Dora Carrington, painter
• 16 March – Harold Monro, poet and bookshop proprietor
• 26 April – William Lockwood, cricketer
• 13 June – Alexander Bethell, admiral
• 6 July – Kenneth Grahame, author
• 16 July – Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, general
• 22 July – J. Meade Falkner, novelist and poet
• 23 July – Tenby Davies, Welsh sprinter
• 19 August – E. S. Prior, Arts and crafts architect and theorist
• 16 September – Ronald Ross, physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1 October – W. G. Collingwood, painter and author
• 30 October – Paul Methuen, 3rd Baron Methuen, field marshal
• 12 November – Sir Dugald Clerk, mechanical engineer
• 13 November – Catherine Isabella Dodd, education writer and novelist
• 8 December – Gertrude Jekyll, garden designer, writer and artist