1947 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – George VI
• Prime Minister – Clement Attlee
• Parliament – 38th

  Events

• 1 January – the government nationalises the coal industry in the UK and Cable & Wireless Ltd.
• 2 January – British coins cease to include any silver content.
• 8 January – a Cabinet sub-committee approves High Explosive Research, a civil project to develop an independent British atomic bomb.
• 5 February – the Minister of Food, John Strachey, announces the £25,000,000 Tanganyika groundnut scheme.
• 10 February – major cuts in power supply due to shortages of fuel under severe winter conditions are imposed in England and Wales. The BBC Television Service is temporarily suspended until 11 March.
• 20 February – Earl Mountbatten of Burma is appointed as the last Viceroy of India.
• February
• * Ealing Studios release the film Hue and Cry, regarded as the first of the Ealing Comedies.
• * The coldest February in the CET series with an average of features the coldest Central England maximum temperature for any month since records began in 1878 at.
• 4 March – Treaty of Dunkirk signed with France providing for mutual assistance in the event of attack.
• 14 March – Thames flood and other widespread flooding as the exceptionally harsh winter ends in a thaw.
• March – postwar boom in births reaches peak.
• April – English country houses at Arundel, Chatsworth and Longleat reopen to the visiting public, after wartime use.
• 1 April – raising of school leaving age to fifteen.
• 3 April – the private healthcare firm BUPA is founded.
• 9 April – How Does Your Garden Grow? first broadcast on BBC Radio. As Gardeners' Question Time it will still be running more than sixty-five years later.
• 18 April – in the largest non-nuclear single explosive detonation in history, the Royal Navy sets off 6,800 tonnes of surplus ammunition in an attempt to destroy Heligoland, Germany.
• 23 April – Mumbles lifeboat RNLB Edward, Prince of Wales capsizes on service to Liberty ship SS Samtampa off South Wales: all 8 lifeboat and 39 steamship crew are lost.
• 26 April – Charlton Athletic, who lost the FA Cup final last year, win this year's final 1–0 against Burnley.
• May – the Conservative Party publishes its Industrial Charter.
• 6 May – East Kilbride designated as the first New Town in Scotland under powers of the New Towns Act 1946.
• 11-15 June – first Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod is held.
• 15 June – restrictions on foreign travel imposed during World War II lifted.
• June – Retail Prices Index begins.
• 10 July – Princess Elizabeth announces her engagement to Lt. Philip Mountbatten.
• 15 July-20 August: "Convertibility Crisis": Pound sterling fully convertible into United States Dollars, leading to loss of currency reserves.
• 27-28 July – English endurance swimmer Tom Blower becomes the first person to swim the North Channel, from Donaghadee in Northern Ireland to Portpatrick in Scotland.
• 31 July – Fire Services Act returns fire services in the United Kingdom from the National Fire Service to control of local authorities and provides the legislative basis for their organisation for more than fifty years.
• First few days of August – anti-Jewish riots, primarily in North West England, following 'the Sergeants affair' in Mandatory Palestine.
• 5 August – release of Holiday Camp, first of the popular Huggetts Trilogy of comedy films.
• 14 August and 15 August – Pakistan and India gain independence from the UK, remaining Dominions with the Commonwealth of Nations under King George VI.
• 15 August
• * a mining accident at William Pit, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, kills 104 people.
• * "GLEEP" experimental nuclear reactor runs for the first time at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, near Oxford, the first reactor to operate in Western Europe.
• 24 August – first Edinburgh Festival of the Arts opens. On 31 August, the first Edinburgh International Film Festival opens as part of the overall festival; it will become the world's oldest continually running film festival.
• September – the University of Cambridge votes to allow women to become full students.
• 29 September – Harold Wilson is appointed President of the Board of Trade at thirty-one years old, he is the youngest member of the Cabinet this century.
• October – Snoek is imported as a food fish from South Africa.
• 10 November – decision of the Court of Appeal in Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corp, a leading case in the law of judicial review, establishing a standard of unreasonableness of public-body decisions that makes them liable to be quashed on review.
• 12 November – Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Dalton inadvertently reveals some of the contents of his Budget while on his way to the House of Commons to deliver his speech, effectively finishing his political career.
• 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.
• 19 November – Philip Mountbatten created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich, with the style His Royal Highness.
• 20 November – wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh: Princess Elizabeth, daughter of George VI marries The Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey, London. The service is watched by an estimated 400,000 television viewers and is the oldest surviving telerecording in Britain.
• 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.
• 6 December – women are admitted to full membership of the University of Cambridge.
• 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".
• * Robert Robinson wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids"
• * The Friends Service Council wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
• * First permanent Oxfam charity shop begins trading, in Broad Street, Oxford.

  Undated

• Discovery of the pion, a subatomic particle, by Cecil Frank Powell at the University of Bristol.
• Discovery of the kaon, a subatomic particle, by George Rochester and C. C. Butler.
• Poliomyelitis epidemic in the UK begins.
• Royal Military Academy Sandhurst established by merger of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
• Robert Wiseman Dairies founded by Robert Wiseman with a horse and cart used for doorstep deliveries in East Kilbride.
• Soft toilet paper first goes on sale in the UK, at Harrods.
• The avocet resumes breeding in England, at Havergate Island and Minsmere RSPB reserve.

  Publications

• Malcolm Lowry's novel Under the Volcano.
• Compton Mackenzie's comic novel Whisky Galore.
• Stephen Potter's book The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship: Or, The Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating.

  Births

• 5 January
• *Chris Cutler, drummer and songwriter
• *Rick Stein, chef, author and restaurateur
• 6 January – Sandy Denny, folk rock singer
• 8 January
• *David Bowie, born David Jones, rock singer
• *Jenny Boyd, model
• 10 January
• * Patricia Hodgson, broadcaster, educationalist and academic
• * Matthew Oakeshott, Baron Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay, banker and politician
• 16 January
• * Magdalen Nabb, author
• * Harvey Proctor, Conservative Member of Parliament
• 23 January – Mary Arden, lawyer and judge
• 27 January – Philip Sugden, historian and author
• 30 January
• *Les Barker, poet
• *Steve Marriott, rock singer and guitarist
• 3 February – Dave Davies, singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 20 February – Peter Osgood, footballer
• 6 March – Kiki Dee, pop singer
• 7 March – Matthew Fisher, singer-songwriter and producer
• 14 March
• * Pam Ayres, comic verse writer and performer
• * Peter Skellern, singer-songwriter
• 18 March – Susan Sheridan, actress
• 24 March
• * Mike Kellie, rock musician
• * Alan Sugar, entrepreneur
• 25 March – Elton John, born Reginald Dwight, rock musician
• 16 April – Gerry Rafferty, singer-songwriter
• 23 April – Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster
• 30 April – Leslie Grantham, actor and murderer
• 6 May – Kit Martin, architect and author
• 8 May
• *David Manners, 11th Duke of Rutland, English politician
• *John Reid, Labour politician, Home Secretary
• 1 June
• * Jonathan Pryce, Welsh actor
• * Ronnie Wood, rock guitarist
• 5 June – Tom Evans, rock singer-songwriter
• 6 June – David Blunkett, Labour politician, Home Secretary
• 7 June – Annette Brooke, educator and politician
• 17 June – Paul Young, pop singer-songwriter
• 22 June
• * Trevor Blades, cricketer
• * David Jones, Northern Irish golfer
• 24 June
• * Mick Fleetwood, rock drummer
• * Clarissa Dickson Wright, chef and television personality
• 2 July – Ann Taylor, Labour politician
• 3 July – Adrian Bird, geneticist and academic
• 6 July – Richard Beckinsale, actor
• 7 July – Rob Townsend, rock drummer
• 12 July – Gareth Edwards, Welsh rugby player
• 13 July
• * Colin Thurston, record producer
• * Edward Wilson, actor
• 17 July
• * Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, née Shand, 2nd wife of Charles, Prince of Wales
• * Phil Cordell, musician
• 19 July – Brian May, rock guitarist
• 23 July – David Essex, actor and singer
• 24 July – Chris Townson, musician
• 31 July – Richard Griffiths, actor
• 23 August – Willy Russell, playwright
• 28 August – Emlyn Hughes, footballer
• 16 September – Roger Millward, English rugby league footballer and coach
• 17 September – Tessa Jowell, Labour politician, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
• 18 September – Paul Seed, television director and former actor
• 30 September – Marc Bolan, musician
• 4 October – Ann Widdecombe, Conservative politician
• 5 October – Brian Johnson, rock singer
• 10 October – Larry Lamb, actor
• 16 October – Nicholas Day, actor
• 10 November – Greg Lake progressive rock singer-songwriter
• 21 November – Nickolas Grace, actor
• 1 December – Bob Fulton, English-Australian rugby league footballer and coach
• 2 December
• *Tommy Jenkins, footballer and manager
• *Andy Rouse, racing driver
• 6 December – Geoffrey Hinton, English-born cognitive psychologist and computer scientist
• 8 December – John MacDougall, politician
• 12 December – Will Alsop, architect
• 16 December – Ben Cross, actor
• 20 December – Roger Alton, journalist

  Deaths

• 17 January – Arthur Headlam, theologian and Bishop of Gloucester
• 30 January – Frederick Blackman, plant physiologist
• 6 February – Ellen Wilkinson, socialist
• 11 February – Ernest Terah Hooley, financial fraudster
• 13 February – Pauline Johnson, silent film actress
• 21 February – Richard Barry Parker, architect and urban planner
• 2 March – Stanhope Forbes, painter of the Newlyn school
• 6 March – Sir Halford Mackinder, geographer
• 13 March – Angela Brazil, school-story writer for girls
• 16 May – Sir Frederick Hopkins, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
• 6 June – James Agate, author and critic
• 24 July – Ernest Austin, composer
• 25 July – Kathleen Scott, sculptor, widow of Capt. Scott
• 23 August – Roy Chadwick, aircraft designer
• 13 October – Sidney Webb, political economist
• 28 November – James Miller, Scottish architect
• 1 December
• * Samuel Courtauld, art collector
• * Aleister Crowley, occultist
• * G. H. Hardy, mathematician
• 14 December
• *Stanley Baldwin, former Prime Minister
• *Will Fyffe, Scottish music hall entertainer
• 15 December – Arthur Machen, Welsh journalist, novelist and short-story writer
• 17 December – Bernard Spilsbury, forensic pathologist
• 30 December – Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher