1949 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

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

  Events

• January – Mass Observation carries out a national survey into the sexual behaviour and attitudes of 4,000 British people, "Little Kinsey". The results remain largely unpublished for over fifty years.
• 1 January
• * Peacetime conscription in the United Kingdom is regularised under the National Service Act 1947. Men aged 18–26 in England, Scotland and Wales are obliged to serve full-time in the armed forces for 18 months.
• * The British Nationality Act 1948 comes into effect, creating the status of "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies", superseding the shared status of "Commonwealth citizen".
• 4 January – of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage.
• 28 January – Lynskey tribunal on corruption in public life reports, leading to the resignation of John Belcher as an MP.
• 31 January – Book at Bedtime debuts on the BBC Light Programme.
• 1 February – Women's Auxiliary Air Force renamed as the Women's Royal Air Force.
• 15 March – post-war rationing of clothes ends.
• 25 March – Laurence Olivier's film Hamlet becomes the first British film to win a 'Best Picture' Oscar.
• 28 March – astronomer Fred Hoyle coins the term Big Bang during a BBC Third Programme radio broadcast.
• 1 April – the Marquess of Bath opens Longleat House to paying visitors, the first privately owned stately home to be so opened.
• 4 April – Britain signs the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO.
• 12 April – First women appointed King's Counsel in England: Rose Heilbron and Helena Normanton.
• 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 on 26 April, it anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the communist forces to let the ship leave drag on for weeks, during which time its cat, Simon, raises the crew's morale.
• * The first Badminton Horse Trials are held at Badminton House in Gloucestershire.
• 24 April – Wartime rationing of sweets and chocolate ends, but is re-instituted shortly thereafter as shortages return.
• 26 April – Ealing comedy film Passport to Pimlico is premièred in London.
• 28 April – The 1949 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference issues the London Declaration, enabling India to remain in the Commonwealth despite becoming a republic, creating the position of 'Head of the Commonwealth', and renaming the organisation from 'British Commonwealth' to 'Commonwealth of Nations'.
• 29 April – the News Review reveals that neither the English public school Selhurst College nor its headmaster H. Rochester Sneath exist, but are a hoax created by Humphry Berkeley the previous year.
• 30 April – 1949 FA Cup Final: Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. win the FA Cup for the first time in 41 years, and the third time in their history, with a 3–1 win over Leicester City at Wembley Stadium.
• April – Manchester Mark 1 computer operable at the University of Manchester.
• May – Council for Wales and Monmouthshire, set up as a government advisory body, first meets.
• 1 May – the gas industry is nationalised.
• 3 May – Parliament passes the Ireland Act guaranteeing the position of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom as long as a majority of its citizens want it to be. The government also recognises the existence of the Republic of Ireland.
• 6 May – EDSAC, the first practicable stored-program computer, runs its first program at Cambridge University.
• 10 May – first self-service launderette opens, in Queensway.
• 11 May – Christopher Fry's verse drama The Lady's Not for Burning premieres in London.
• 7–25 June – dock strike forces the government to use troops to unload goods.
• 8 June – George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is published in London by Secker & Warburg.
• 16 June – Ealing comedy film Whisky Galore! released.
• 21 June – Ealing comedy film Kind Hearts and Coronets released.
• 27 July – maiden flight of the British-built de Havilland Comet, the world's first passenger jet, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.
• 30 July – Legal Aid and Advice Act establishes a much-extended system of Legal aid in England and Wales.
• 31 July – Captain Kerans of 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.
• 22 August – T. S. Eliot's comedy The Cocktail Party premieres at the Edinburgh Festival.
• 24 August – Old Trafford football stadium, home of Manchester United F.C., is re-opened following a comprehensive rebuild due to bomb damage by the Luftwaffe eight years ago.
• 2 September – film The Third Man, with screenplay by Graham Greene, released. The film wins the 1949 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.
• 19 September – the pound devalued by 30% against the United States dollar.
• 21 September – the first comprehensive school in Wales is opened in Holyhead, Anglesey.
• 30 September – the Berlin Airlift comes to an end, during which 17 American and 7 British planes have crashed delivering supplies to Soviet blockaded Berlin.
• October – Valerie Hunter Gordon is granted a U.K. patent for the disposable nappy.
• 12 October – John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 26 October – How Do You View?, the first comedy series on British television, starring Terry-Thomas, is first broadcast on BBC Television.
• 4 November – Cwmbran designated as the first New Town in Wales under powers of the New Towns Act 1946.
• 28 November – Winston Churchill makes a landmark speech in support of the idea of a European Union at Kingsway Hall, London.
• 16 December – Parliament Act given royal assent; cuts the House of Lords veto to one year.
• 17 December – Sutton Coldfield transmitting station begins transmitting BBC Television to the English Midlands, the first broadcasts to be seen outside the London area.

  Undated

• The number of workforce deaths in the coal industry is reported to have fallen to a record low since nationalisation two years ago.
• With an average Central England temperature of, the record for the hottest year in that series set in 1834 and equalled in 1921 is broken. 1949’s record stands until 1990 by when anthropogenic global warming has come largely to control temperatures.

  Publications

• Enid Blyton's children's books Little Noddy Goes to Toyland, the first to introduce the title character; and The Secret Seven, first in the eponymous series.
• Agatha Christie's novel Crooked House.
• H. F. Ellis' humorous collection The Papers of A.J. Wentworth B.A.
• Graham Greene's novella The Third Man.
• Nancy Mitford's novel Love in a Cold Climate.
• George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

  Births

• 7 January – Brian Haw, protester and peace campaigner
• 19 January
• * Robert Palmer, singer
• * Andrew Samuels, psychologist and academic
• 23 January – Joan Walley, politician
• 25 January – Paul Nurse, biologist and Nobel Prize winner
• 29 January – Andy Carter, middle distance runner
• 4 February – Richard Ryder, Baron Ryder of Wensum, broadcaster and politician, Paymaster General
• 16 February – Lyn Paul, pop singer
• 18 February – Charlie Waite, landscape photographer
• 2 March – J. P. R. Williams, Welsh rugby player
• 6 March – Martin Buchan, footballer
• 9 March – Neil Hamilton, Conservative MP, later UKIP politician and Welsh Assembly Member 2016–
• 17 March – Alex Higgins, snooker player
• 28 March – Kevin Lloyd, actor
• 3 April – Richard Thompson, rock guitarist and songwriter
• 8 April – Alex Fergusson, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament 2007–2011
• 24 April – James Paice, farmer and politician
• 25 April – James Fenton, poet
• 29 April – Anita Dobson, actress
• 2 May – Alan Titchmarsh, gardener and television presenter
• 4 May – Lindsey Hughes, historian
• 13 May – Zoë Wanamaker, actress
• 18 May – Rick Wakeman, rock keyboard player and songwriter
• 24 May – Jim Broadbent, actor
• 26 May – Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party leader from 2015
• 29 May – Francis Rossi, rock musician
• 30 May – Bob Willis, cricketer
• 2 June – Heather Couper, astronomer
• 14 June – Jim Lea, rock musician
• 21 June – John Agard, writer
• 22 June – Brian Leveson, judge
• 5 July – Sue Robbie, television presenter
• 7 July – Bob Stewart, colonel and politician
• 15 July – Trevor Horn, pop singer and producer
• 22 July – Geoffrey Durham, entertainer
• 26 July – Roger Taylor, rock drummer
• 6 August – Alan Campbell, clergyman
• 12 August – Mark Knopfler, rock guitarist and singer-songwriter
• 15 August
• *Richard Deacon, sculptor
• *Edward McMillan-Scott, lawyer and politician
• 25 August
• * Martin Amis, novelist
• * Ross Davidson, actor
• 9 September
• * John Curry, figure skater
• * Jolyon Brettingham Smith, composer and radio presenter
• 18 September
• * Mo Mowlam, Labour politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
• * Peter Shilton, footballer
• 19 September – Twiggy, born Lesley Hornby, model
• 14 October – Katy Manning, actress
• 30 October – Arabella Churchill, charity founder
• 1 November – Gerald Ratner, businessman
• 6 November – Nigel Havers, actor
• 24 November
• * Nick Ainger, Labour politician
• * Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer
• 27 November – Brumas, polar bear
• 4 December – Paul Dickenson, hammer thrower
• 12 December
• * Chris Baillieu, rower and lawyer
• * Bill Nighy, actor
• 13 December – Robert Lindsay, actor
• 17 December – Paul Rodgers, rock singer
• 21 December – Nicholas Penny, art historian and academic

  Deaths

• 2 January – Jock McNab, footballer
• 18 April – Will Hay, comedian and actor
• 28 April – Sir Robert Robertson, chemist
• 30 August – Arthur Fielder, cricketer
• 24 October – Thomas Rowland Hughes, writer
• 13 December – John Deans Hope, Liberal politician
• 16 December – George Maitland Lloyd Davies, pacifist politician