1937 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1937 in the United Kingdom.

The coronation of King George VI took place on 12 May, after he had ascended to the throne at the end of the previous year.

Incumbents

* Monarch – George VI
* Prime Minister - Stanley Baldwin (Coalition) (until 28 May), Neville Chamberlain (Coalition) (starting 28 May)
* Parliament – 37th

Events

* 1 January – safety glass in vehicle windscreens becomes mandatory in the United Kingdom.
* 25 February – UK première of the historical film ''Fire Over England'', providing the first pairing of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
* 8 March – Prince Edward, the former King Edward VIII, is created Duke of Windsor.
* 19 March – Regency Act 1937 provides for the minority, incapacity or absence abroad of any future monarch.
* 12 April – Frank Whittle ground-tests the world's first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby.
* 27 April – National Maritime Museum opened at Greenwich in former Royal Hospital School premises.
* April – nickel-brass twelve-sided threepence coin first introduced.
* May – the Georgian Group is set up as part of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in England.
* 1–27 May – London's bus drivers and conductors go on strike.
* 12 May – Coronation of George VI and Elizabeth takes place at Westminster Abbey, London. The BBC makes its first outside broadcast covering the event. The newly formed social research organisation Mass Observation makes its first survey of social attitudes on this day.
* 23 May – nearly 4000 Basque (and other) child refugees of the Spanish Civil War arrive at Southampton.
* 27 May – George VI passes letters patent denying the style of ''Royal Highness'' to the wife and descendants of the Duke of Windsor.
* 28 May – Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister after Baldwin's retirement.
* 3 June – the Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson in the Château de Candé.
* 1 July
** Ministers of the Crown Act 1937 for the first time formally recognises the offices of Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the Leader of the Opposition and provides them with official salaries (in addition to their stipends as MPs).
** The 999 emergency telephone number is introduced.
* 2 July – Holditch Colliery Disaster, a coal mining accident in Chesterton, Staffordshire, in which thirty men die following a fire and explosions.
* 6 July – Littlewoods, the pools company formed fourteen years ago by Liverpool businessman John Moores, expands to create a department store in Blackpool, Lancashire.
* 7 July – Peel Commission proposes partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states.
* 23 July – Matrimonial Causes Act adds insanity and desertion to infidelity as legitimate grounds for divorce.
* 28 July – assassination attempt on King George VI in Belfast by the Irish Republican Army.
* 4 August – return of the British Graham Land Expedition from Antarctica.
* 27 August – Benjamin Britten's string orchestral work ''Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge'', Op. 10, receives its concert première at the Salzburg Festival, bringing the composer to international attention.
* 7 September – Witley Court in Worcestershire is gutted by fire.
* 30 September – last issue of ''The Morning Post'' newspaper before it is absorbed by ''The Daily Telegraph''.
* October–December – Croydon typhoid outbreak of 1937: 341 cases of typhoid fever (43 fatal) result from a polluted well.
* 6 October – the fictional character 'Mrs. Miniver' first appears in the column on domestic life written by 'Jan Struther' for ''The Times''.
* 16 October – Jimmy McGrory plays his last match with Celtic F.C., achieving a United Kingdom record of 550 goals scored during his senior career.
* 4 December – the first issue of children's comic ''The Dandy'', including the character Desperate Dan, is published.
* 10 December
** Nobel Prizes announced:
*** Lord Robert Cecil wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
*** George Thomson wins the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Clinton Davisson "for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals".
*** Walter Haworth wins half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C".
** Castlecary rail crash: an express on the Edinburgh to Glasgow line collides into the rear of a local train standing at Castlecary in the snow, due primarily to a signalman's error; 35 are killed.
* 16 December – the musical '' Me and My Girl'' opens in the West End Victoria Palace Theatre; the dance number "The Lambeth Walk" becomes popular.
* December – the Hawker Hurricane enters service with the Royal Air Force as its first monoplane fighter aircraft (with No. 111 Squadron at Northolt).
* Undated – Kensal House in Ladbroke Grove, London, two low-rise blocks of modernist flats for the working class designed by Maxwell Fry, is completed as a prototype for modern urban living.

Publications

* 21 May – Penguin Books sixpenny paperback non-fiction imprint with a 2-volume edition of Bernard Shaw's ''The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism''.
* Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels ''Dumb Witness'' and ''Death on the Nile''.
* A. J. Cronin's medical novel ''The Citadel''.
* C. S. Forester's first Horatio Hornblower novel ''The Happy Return''.
* David Jones' World War I epic ''In Parenthesis''.
* George Orwell's social reportage and political polemic ''The Road to Wigan Pier''.
* J. R. R. Tolkien's children's fantasy novel ''The Hobbit''.

Births

* 1 January
**Anne Aubrey, actress
** John Fuller, poet and author
* 2 January – Terence Rigby, actor (died 2008)
* 7 January – Ian La Frenais, English screenwriter and producer
* 8 January – Shirley Bassey, Welsh-born singer
* 9 January
** Malcolm Cecil, jazz bassist and record producer (died 2021)
** Michael Nicholson, journalist and author (died 2016)
* 14 January – Ken Higgs, English cricketer (died 2016)
* 18 January – John Hume, Northern Irish SDLP politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 2020)
* 19 January – Ian Samwell, rock guitarist, singer-songwriter and record producer (died 2003)
* 27 January – John Ogdon, pianist (died 1989)
* 29 January – Jeff Clyne, jazz bassist (died 2009)
* 30 January – Vanessa Redgrave, actress
* 10 February – Anne Anderson, Scottish physiologist (died 1983)
* 11 February – Ian Gow, Member of Parliament for Eastbourne (assassinated by the IRA 1990)
* 12 February – Roland Boyes, Labour politician (died 2006)
* 16 February – Peter Hobday, radio presenter and journalist (died 2020)
* 17 February – Peter Beet, general practitioner and railway preservationist (died 2005)
* 21 February – Jilly Cooper, novelist
* 25 February – Tom Courtenay, actor
* 16 March – Ben Aris, actor (died 2003)
* 22 March – Foo Foo Lammar, drag queen (died 2004)
* 6 April
** Angus Grossart, businessman (died 2022)
** Terrence Hardiman