Events from the year 1924 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – George V
• Prime Minister - Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) (until 16 January), Ramsay MacDonald (Labour) (starting 22 January, until 4 November), Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) (starting 4 November)
• Parliament
  • 33rd (starting 8 January, until 9 October)
  • 34th (starting 2 December)

Events

• 1 January – Meteorological Office issues its first broadcast Shipping Forecast, at this time called Weather Shipping.^[1]
• 10 January – British submarine HMS L24 sinks in a collision in the English Channel – 43 dead.
• 15 January – the world's first radio play, Danger by Richard Hughes, is broadcast by the British Broadcasting Company from its studios in London.
• 22 January – Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government. This follows Stanley Baldwin's resignation after his government loses a vote of no confidence in the debate on the King's Speech.^[2]
• 23 January – Margaret Bondfield becomes the first woman to be appointed a government minister.^[3]
• 25 January–4 February – Great Britain and Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France and win 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.
• February
  • Baldwin establishes the Conservative Consultative Committee, the first organised Shadow Cabinet.^[4]
  • John Logie Baird, working in Hastings, sends rudimentary television pictures over a short distance.^[5]
• 1 February – the United Kingdom recognises the Soviet Union.^[6]
• 5 February – hourly Greenwich Time Signal from Royal Greenwich Observatory is broadcast for the first time.^[2]
• 18 February – commissioning of HMS Hermes (95), the Royal Navy's first purpose-designed aircraft carrier.
• 28 March – first BBC broadcast from Plymouth (station 5PY).

First UK Commemorative stamps

• 23 April – first broadcast by King George V, opening the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Stadium.^[7]
• 26 April
  • Harry Grindell Matthews demonstrates his "death ray" in London but fails to convince the War Office.
  • Footwear retailer Charles Clinkard opens the doors to its first shop, in Middlesbrough.
• May – Royal Fine Art Commission appointed to advise the government on matters concerning the built environment.
• 4 May–27 July – Great Britain and Ireland compete at the Olympics in Paris and win 9 gold, 13 silver and 12 bronze medals.
• 30 May – Russell case decided on appeal to the House of Lords, which rules there is no admissible evidence of adultery against dress designer Christabel Russell, thus not a ground for divorce from her (now-separated) husband John Russell, 3rd Baron Ampthill, so paving the way for legitimising their son, despite medical evidence of her being a virgin.^[8]
• 3 June – Gleneagles Hotel opens in Scotland.^[9]
• 8 June – George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen "going strong for the top" of Mount Everest by teammate Noel Odell at 12:50 PM. The two mountaineers are never seen alive again.
• 7 July – Harold Abrahams wins 100m gold at the Paris Olympics in a time of 10.6 seconds.
• 11 July – Eric Liddell wins 400m gold at the Paris Olympics in a new world record time of 47.6 seconds.
• 7 August – Housing (Financial Provisions) Act provides government subsidy for the building of houses to rent, principally by local authorities.^[10]
• 13 August – Campbell Case: The government forces charges of incitement to mutiny against communist newspaper editor J. R. Campbell to be dropped leading to its defeat in a vote of no confidence against the MacDonald ministry in the House of Commons.
• 27 August – first Southport Flower Show opens.^[11]
• 30 August – Britain accepts the Dawes Plan for receiving German war reparations.^[4]
• 14 September – first BBC broadcast from Belfast (station 2BE).
• 24 October – the Foreign Office releases the Zinoviev Letter which is published in the following morning's Daily Mail. This purports to be a directive from Grigory Zinoviev, head of the Communist International in Moscow, to the Communist Party of Great Britain.
• 25 October – authorities of the British Raj in India arrest Subhas Chandra Bose and jail him for the next two and half years.
• 29 October – 1924 general election is won by the Conservative Party under Stanley Baldwin.^[6] Among the new members of parliament is 30-year-old future Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, the new Conservative MP for Stockton-on-Tees (born in Chelsea to a British father and an American mother).^[12]
• 2 November – the Sunday Express becomes the first newspaper to publish a crossword.^[2]
• 22 November – Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster erected.
• 24 December – 1924 Imperial Airways de Havilland DH.34 crash: Imperial Airways biplane G-EBBX crashes at Purley shortly after takeoff from Croydon Airport, killing all eight people on board, the new line's first fatal accident,^[13] leading to the first UK public inquiry into a civil aviation accident.

Publications

• Michael Arlen's novel The Green Hat.^[18]
• Agatha Christie's novel The Man in the Brown Suit.
• E. M. Forster's novel A Passage to India.
• Margaret Kennedy's novel The Constant Nymph.
• A. A. Milne's poem collection When We Were Very Young.
• Mary Webb's novel Precious Bane.
• P. C. Wren's novel Beau Geste.^[18]

Births

• 1 January – John Warner, actor (died 2001)
• 3 January – Doug Ellis, entrepreneur and football club chairman (died 2018)
• 5 January – Eric Cheney, motorcycle designer (died 2001)
• 7 January – Geoffrey Bayldon, actor (died 2017)
• 8 January – Ron Moody, actor (died 2015)
• 12 January – Francis Coleman, orchestral conductor (born in Canada; died 2008)
• 13 January – Ivor Stanbrook, politician (died 2004)
• 19 January – Henry Herbert, 7th Earl of Carnarvon, peer and racing manager (died 2001)
• 21 January – Benny Hill, comedian and actor (died 1992)
• 22 January – Betty Lockwood, Baroness Lockwood, English academic and politician (died 2019)
• 23 January – David Macpherson, 2nd Baron Strathcarron, hereditary peer and motoring expert (died 2006)
• 27 January – Brian Rix, farceur and mental disability campaigner (died 2016)
• 5 February – Anthony Besch, opera and theatre director (died 2002)
• 9 February – George Guest, organist and choirmaster (died 2002)
• 14 February – Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, peeress (died 2017)
• 24 February – Lionel Dakers, organist (died 2003)
• 29 February – Steve Llewellyn, rugby union player (died 2002)
• 2 March – William Howie, Baron Howie of Troon, politician (died 2018)
• 3 March – John Woodnutt, actor (died 2006)
• 5 March – Peter Lasko, German-born art historian (died 2003)
• 7 March – Eduardo Paolozzi, sculptor (died 2005)
• 8 March – Anthony Caro, sculptor (died 2013)
• 10 March – Angela Morley, composer and conductor, known as Wally Stott (died 2009)
• 12 March – Mary Lee Woods, mathematician and computer programmer (died 2017)
• 19 March – Mary Wimbush, actress (died 2005)
• 24 March – Henry Alfred Symonds, soldier (died 1994)
• 28 March – Freddie Bartholomew, actor (died 1992)
• 30 March – Alan Davidson, food writer (died 2003)
• 2 April – Denis Rooke, industrialist and engineer (died 2008)
• 3 April – Peter Hawkins, actor, voice artist (died 2006)
• 8 April – Anthony Farrar-Hockley, army general and military historian (died 2006)
• 12 April
  • Walter Hayes, journalist (died 2000)
  • F. N. Souza, Indian-born artist (died 2002)
• 13 April – Mary Spiller, horticulturist and teacher (died 2019)
• 14 April
  • Robert Stewart, textile designer (died 1995)
  • Philip Stone, actor (died 2003)
  • Mary Warnock, moral philosopher (died 2019)
• 15 April
  • Rikki Fulton, actor and comedian (died 2004)
  • Neville Marriner, conductor and violinist (died 2016)
• 20 April
  • Leslie Phillips, comic actor (died 2022)
  • Jack Slipper, detective (died 2005)
• 22 April – Peter Cathcart Wason, psychologist (died 2003)
• 23 April – Norman Painting, actor (died 2009)
• 24 April
  • Clement Freud, writer, radio personality and politician (died 2009)
  • Clive King, writer (died 2018)
• 1 May – Dennis Main Wilson, broadcast comedy producer (died 1997)
• 3 May – Ken Tyrrell, racing driver (died 2001)
• 7 May – James Learmonth Gowans, immunologist (died 2020)
• 10 May – Edward Thomas Hall, scientist (died 2001)
• 11 May
  • Antony Hewish, radioastronomer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (died 2021)
  • Jackie Milburn, footballer (died 1988)
• 12 May – Tony Hancock, comedian (died 1968)
• 14 May – Kenneth V. Jones, composer, conductor and music teacher (died 2020)
• 17 May – Francis Tombs, Baron Tombs, industrialist and politician (died 2020)
• 19 May – Sandy Wilson, composer (died 2014)
• 20 May – Peter Shore, politician (died 2001)
• 23 May – Michael McCrum, academic (died 2005)
• 24 May – Vincent Cronin, historical writer and biographer (died 2011)
• 25 May – Gordon Smith, footballer (died 2004)
• 28 May
  • Edward du Cann, Conservative politician (died 2017)
  • Reginald Eyre, politician (died 2019)
• 1 June – John Tooley, opera administrator (died 2020)
• 2 June
  • Peter Halliday, actor (died 2012)
  • Timothy Moxon, actor (died 2006)
• 3 June – Ken Armstrong, English association football player (died 1984)
• 5 June – Rodney Diak, actor (died 2007)
• 6 June – John Ambler, businessman (died 2008)
• 8 June – Iain Glidewell, lawyer and judge (died 2016)
• 9 June
  • Tony Britton, actor (died 2019)
  • Donald J. West, psychiatrist and parapsychologist (died 2020)
• 17 June
  • Edward Downes, orchestral conductor (died 2009)
  • Archibald Hall, Scottish murderer (died 2002)
• 18 June – Thomas Kerr, aerospace engineer (died 2004)
• 21 June – Wally Fawkes, English-born Canadian jazz clarinetist and cartoonist (died 2023)
• 24 June – Anthony Barrowclough, lawyer and government ombudsman (died 2003)
• 27 June – Bob Appleyard, cricketer (died 2015)
• 28 June – Roy Austen-Smith, Royal Air Force officer (died 2021)
• 2 July – Francis Wyndham, English author, literary editor and journalist (died 2017)
• 3 July
  • Gwen Moffat, climber and writer
  • Michael Barrington, actor (died 1988)
• 4 July
  • Eric Cockeram, politician (died 2021)
  • Roy Gibson, Director General of ESRO
• 6 July
  • Brian Stanbridge, air force officer (died 2003)
  • Jon Wynne-Tyson, publisher, writer and animal rights campaigner (died 2020)
• 7 July
  • Gordon Bagier, politician (died 2012)
  • Jean Valentine, codebreaker (died 2019)
• 8 July – Peter Lovell-Davis, publisher and politician (died 2001)
• 10 July – Philip Ward, major-general (died 2003)
• 11 July – Charlie Tully, footballer (died 1971)
• 12 July
  • Eve Branson, philanthropist and child welfare advocate (died 2021)
  • Irene Sutcliffe, actress (died 2019)
• 14 July – James W. Black, Scottish-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2010)
• 15 July
  • Peter Armitage, statistician specialising in medical statistics
  • David Cox, statistician (died 2022)
• 24 July – Vivean Gray, British-born Australian television and film actress (died 2016)
• 24 July – Edward Digby, 12th Baron Digby, peer and Army officer (died 2018)
• 29 July – Arnold Weinstock, businessman (died 2002)
• 31 July
  • Garard Green, actor (died 2004)
  • Mary Holt, politician and judge (died 2021)
• 1 August – John Clive Ward, English-born physicist, "father of the British H-bomb" (died 2000)
• 4 August – Antony Rowe, rower (died 2003)
• 6 August – Winifred Watkins, biochemist (died 2003)
• 7 August
  • Kenneth Kendall, newsreader and presenter (died 2012)
  • Helen Taylor Thompson, social activist (died 2020)
• 10 August – Nancy Buckingham, romance novelist (died 2022)
• 12 August – Derek Shackleton, cricketer (died 2007)
• 15 August – Robert Bolt, playwright and screenwriter (died 1995)
• 20 August – John Ellis Williams, writer (died 2008)
• 21 August – Gerald David Lascelles, nobleman and cousin of Queen Elizabeth II (died 1998)
• 24 August
  • Alyn Ainsworth, musician, singer and conductor (died 1990)
  • Jimmy Gardner, actor (died 2010)
• 26 August – John Peake, English field hockey player (died 2022)
• 30 August – Peter Parker, businessman and railway executive (died 2002)
• 31 August – George Sewell, actor (died 2007)
• 3 September – Bob Coats, economic historian (died 2007)
• 4 September – Joan Aiken, writer (died 2004)
• 10 September – Elizabeth Killick, naval electronics engineer (died 2019)
• 14 September – Paul Dean, Baron Dean of Harptree, politician (died 2009)
• 21 September
  • Edmund Ironside, 2nd Baron Ironside, hereditary peer, naval officer and businessman (died 2020)
  • David Sylvester, art critic (died 2001)
• 22 September
  • Charles Keeping, illustrator (died 1988)
  • Rosamunde Pilcher (née Scott), novelist (died 2019)
• 23 September – Vivien Alcock, children's writer (died 2003)
• 24 September – Lady Mary Whitley, noblewoman (died 1999)
• 30 September
  • David Snow, ornithologist (died 2009)
  • Peter Yarranton, rugby union player (died 2003)
• 7 October – John Hanscomb, politician (died 2019)
• 8 October – John Nelder, statistician (died 2010)
• 17 October – David Butler, academic psephologist (died 2022)
• 24 October
  • Christine Glanville, puppeteer (died 1999)
  • Ullin Place, philosopher and psychiatrist (died 2000)
• 30 October – Norman Bird, actor (died 2005)
• 5 November – John Bowen, playwright and novelist (died 2019)
• 6 November – William Auld, poet and esperantist (died 2006)
• 9 November – John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne, peer and television producer (died 2005)
• 18 November – Alexander Mackenzie Stuart, Scottish judge (died 2000)
• 19 November
  • William Russell, actor
  • Margaret Turner-Warwick, physician and thoracic specialist (died 2017)
• 21 November – Christopher Tolkien, son and editor of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien (died 2020)
• 29 November
  • Margaret Gelling, toponymist (died 2009)
  • Arthur Peacocke, theologian and biochemist (died 2006)
• 4 December – Shirley Paget, Marchioness of Anglesey, public servant and writer (died 2017)
• 5 December – John Keston, actor, singer and masters athlete (died 2022)
• 30 December – Peter Harding, rock climber (died 2007)

Deaths

• 2 January – Sabine Baring-Gould, hymnodist, folklorist and novelist (born 1834)
• 15 February – Lionel Monckton, musical comedy composer (born 1861)
• 22 March – Sir William Macewen, Scottish surgeon (born 1848)
• 27 March – Sir Walter Parratt, composer (born 1841)
• 29 March – Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, composer (born 1852)
• 21 April – Marie Corelli, novelist (born 1855)
• 4 May – E. Nesbit, children's novelist and Fabian socialist (born 1858)
• 8/9 June – lost on Everest
  • Andrew Irvine, mountaineer (born 1902)
  • George Mallory, mountaineer (born 1886)
• 23 June – Cecil Sharp, folk-song collector (born 1859)
• 13 July – Alfred Marshall, economist (born 1842)
• 14 July – Isabella Ford, socialist, feminist, trade unionist and writer (born 1855)
• 3 August – Joseph Conrad, novelist (born 1857 in Poland)
• 15 August – Francis Knollys, 1st Viscount Knollys, courtier, Private Secretary to King Edward VII (born 1837)
• 22 August – James Acton, cricketer (born 1848)
• 27 August – Sir William Bayliss, physiologist (born 1860)
• 18 September – F. H. Bradley, philosopher (born 1846)
• 17 October – Hector C. Macpherson, Scottish writer and journalist (born 1851)
• 18 October – Sir Percy Scott, admiral (born 1853)
• 29 October – Frances Hodgson Burnett, English-born American children's novelist (born 1849)
• 10 November – Sir Archibald Geikie, geologist (born 1835)
• 12 November – E. D. Morel, journalist and politician (born 1873 in France)
• 20 November – Ebenezer Cobb Morley, sportsman, "father" of the Football Association (born 1831)
• 24 November – Henry Somerset, 9th Duke of Beaufort, aristocrat (born 1847)
• 26 November – Sir William Acland, 2nd Baronet, admiral (born 1847)
• 31 December – Sir Samuel Knaggs, colonial administrator (born 1856)

See also

• List of British films of 1924

References