Events from the year 1939 in the United Kingdom. This year sees the start of the Second World War, ending the Interwar period.
Incumbents Monarch – George VI Prime Minister – Neville Chamberlain (Coalition)
Events January–June 2 January – the all-time highest attendance for a British association football league game is set as 118,567 people watch Rangers beat Celtic in an "Old Firm derby" played at Ibrox Park in Glasgow. 16 January – the Irish Republican Army (IRA) begins its S-Plan bombing campaign against public utilities on the British mainland with bombs exploding in London and Manchester (where one person is killed). 23 January – "Dutch War Scare": Admiral Wilhelm Canaris of the Abwehr leaks misinformation to the effect that Germany plans to invade the Netherlands in February, with the aim of using Dutch airfields to launch a strategic bombing offensive against Britain. The "Dutch War Scare" leads to a major change in British policies towards Europe. 4 February – the IRA plants bombs at two London Underground stations, Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square, injuring seven, two seriously. 25 February – the first Anderson shelter (a household air raid shelter) is built in London. 27 February – Borley Rectory, a reputed haunted house in Essex, is destroyed by fire. 31 March – Britain pledges support to Poland in the event of an invasion. 4 April – the Royal Armoured Corps is formed. 11 April – the Women's Royal Naval Service is re-established. 13 April – 11 IRA S-Plan campaign chemical bombs explode in public conveniences in London and Birmingham. 27 April – the Military Training Act (coming into force 3 June) introduces conscription: men aged 20 and 21 must undertake six months military training. May–September – the Sutton Hoo treasure – an Anglo-Saxon ship burial – is excavated. On 28 July the Sutton Hoo helmet is uncovered. The principal treasures are presented to the British Museum by the landowner, Edith Pretty, at this time its largest ever gift from a living donor. 5 May – IRA S-Plan tear gas bombs explode in two Liverpool cinemas, causing 15 injuries, with a further four bombs exploding in Coventry and two in London. 6 May Dorothy Garrod is elected to the Disney Professorship of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge, the first woman to hold an Oxbridge chair. German anti-Nazi Carl Friedrich Goerdeler tells the British government that the German and Soviet governments are secretly beginning a rapprochement, with the aim of dividing Eastern Europe between them. Goerdeler also informs the British of German economic problems which he states threaten the survival of the Nazi regime, and advises that if a firm stand is made for Poland, then Hitler will be deterred from war. 15 May – the film Goodbye, Mr. Chips is released, for which actor Robert Donat will win the Academy Award for Best Actor. 17 May – George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive in Quebec City to begin the first-ever visit to Canada by a reigning British sovereign. 19 May – IRA S-Plan timed incendiary bombs cause fires to break out in eight hotels. 29–30 May – IRA S-Plan magnesium and tear gas bombs explode during Birmingham and Liverpool cinema shows. 1 June – submarine HMS Thetis sinks during trials in Liverpool Bay. 99 men are lost. 7 June – George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit New York City on the first visit to the United States by a reigning British sovereign. 9–10 June – IRA S-Plan letter bombs explode in London, Birmingham and Manchester postboxes and other postal facilities. 14 June–20 August – Tientsin Incident: the Imperial Japanese Army blockades British trading settlements in the north China treaty port of Tientsin. 28 June – the Women's Auxiliary Air Force is created, absorbing the forty-eight RAF companies of the Auxiliary Territorial Service which have been formed since 1938. 30 June – the Mersey Ferry stops running to Rock Ferry.
July–September 1 July – Women's Land Army re-formed to work in agriculture. 8 July – Pan American Airways Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper inaugurates the world's first heavier-than-air North Atlantic air passenger service between the United States and Britain (Southampton). 22 July – royal visit to Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, during which the young Princess Elizabeth first meets her future husband Prince Philip of Greece.Heald, Tim (1991). The Duke: A Portrait of Prince Philip. London: Hodder and Stoughton. . p. 57. 26 July IRA bombs explode at London King's Cross and Victoria stations with severe injuries and one death. Following these attacks, Prevention of Violence legislation is expedited through Parliament. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham, designed by Robert Atkinson, is officially opened by Queen Mary. 5 August – weekly transatlantic flights scheduled by Imperial Airways; suspended in September. 15 August – first personnel of the Government Code and Cypher School move to Bletchley Park. 19 August – Sir Malcolm Campbell sets the water speed record in Blue Bird K4 on Coniston Water. 23 August–2 September – most paintings from the National Gallery in London are evacuated to Wales. 24 August – as details of the previous day's Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact become public, Parliament is recalled several weeks early; the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 gives full authority to defence regulations, Army reservists are called up, Civil Defence workers are placed on alert and the government advises remaining British citizens in Germany to return home. 25 August 1939 Coventry bombing: An Irish Republican Army bicycle bomb explodes in Coventry, killing 5 and injuring 70. In London, police defuse two similar bombs and arrest four terrorists. Two bombs also explode in Liverpool. Chamberlain gives the senior Polish military officer his "ironclad guarantee" of assistance if Poland is attacked by Germany. 30 August – Royal Navy proceeds to war stations. 1 September German invasion of Poland. A British ultimatum is delivered to Germany. "Operation Pied Piper": 4-day evacuation of children from London and other major U.K. cities begins. Blackout imposed across Britain. The Army is officially mobilised. The BBC Home Service begins broadcasting but BBC Television shuts down at 12:35 p.m. until 1946. The Administration of Justice (Emergency Provisions) Act reduces the size of juries from 12 to 7 in most cases and abolishes trial by jury in most civil cases. 2 September – British Expeditionary Force headquarters formed. 3 September – World War II: Declaration of war by the United Kingdom on Nazi Germany. Shortly after 11.00, Chamberlain announces this news on BBC Radio, speaking from 10 Downing Street. Twenty minutes later, air raid sirens sound in London (a false alarm). Parliament has a rare Sunday sitting. Chamberlain creates a small war cabinet which includes Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty. General mobilisation of the armed services begins. The signal "Total Germany" is sent to ships. National Service (Armed Forces) Act passed by Parliament introduces National Service for all men aged 18 to 41. British liner becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by between Rockall and Tory Island. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew are killed. In the week beginning today 400,000 pets are euthanised. 4 September – first bombing of Wilhelmshaven in World War II by Royal Air Force Vickers Wellingtons. 5 September – National Registration Act. 9 September – British Expeditionary Force crosses to France. 10 September – British submarine torpedoes and sinks another British submarine, , off the coast of Norway, believing her to be a German U-boat, with the loss of 52 crew. 16 September – the Duke of Windsor is appointed a major-general attached to the British Military Mission to France. 17 September – aircraft carrier is torpedoed and sunk by in the Western Approaches with the loss of 519 crew, the first British warship loss of the War. 18 September – American-born fascist politician William Joyce, at this time holding a British passport, begins broadcasting Nazi propaganda to Britain from Berlin, inheriting the nickname Lord Haw-Haw. 19 September – popular radio comedy show It's That Man Again with Tommy Handley first broadcast on the BBC Home service, following trial broadcasts from 12 July. 24 September – petrol rationing introduced. 26 September – flying from in the North Sea, Lieutenant B. S. McEwen of the Fleet Air Arm scores the first British victory over a German aircraft of the war, shooting down a flying boat. The aircraft carrier comes under air attack but survives. 27 September – first war tax is revealed by the Cabinet, including a significant rise in income taxes. 29 September – national register of citizens compiled to support the introduction of identity cards and rationing. 30 September – Identity cards introduced.
October–December 1 October – call-up proclamation: All men aged 20–21 must register with the military authorities. 7 October – cruiser departs Plymouth in convoy for Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying £2M in gold bar to be used for purchase of military materiel in North America, a predecessor of Operation Fish. 14 October – HMS Royal Oak sunk by a German U-boat in Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands with the loss of 833 crew. 16 October – first enemy aircraft shot down by RAF Fighter Command, a Junkers Ju 88 brought down into the sea by Spitfires following an attack on Rosyth Naval Dockyard in Scotland. 17 October – first bomb lands in the U.K., at Hoy in the Orkney Islands. 21 October – registration of men aged 20 to 23 for National Service begins. 28 October – "Humbie Heinkel": A Heinkel He 111 bomber is the first German aircraft to be shot down on British soil by RAF Fighter Command, near Humbie in East Lothian, Scotland. 30 October – British battleship is unsuccessfully attacked by under the command of captain Wilhelm Zahn off Orkney and is hit by three torpedoes, none of which explode; Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty), Admiral of the Fleet Dudley Pound (First Sea Lord) and Admiral Charles Forbes (Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet) are on board. 4 November – Stewart Menzies is appointed head of the Secret Intelligence Service. 8 November – Venlo Incident: two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans. 23 November – British armed merchantman is sunk in the GIUK gap in an action against the German battleships and . 24 November – British Overseas Airways Corporation formed by merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. effective from 1 April 1940. 4 December strikes a mine (laid by ) off the coast of Scotland and is laid up for repairs until August 1940. German submarine U-36 is torpedoed and sunk by British submarine HMS Salmon off Stavanger, the first enemy submarine lost to a British one during the War. 9 December – first soldier of the British Expeditionary Force killed: Corporal Thomas Priday triggers a French land mine. 12 December – escorting destroyer sinks after a collision with battleship off the Mull of Kintyre in heavy fog with the loss of 124 men. 13 December – the Battle of the River Plate takes place between , , and the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, forcing the latter to scuttle herself on 17 December. 18 December – Battle of the Heligoland Bight: RAF Bomber Command, on a daylight mission to attack Kriegsmarine ships in the Heligoland Bight, is repulsed by Luftwaffe fighter aircraft. December – the Pilgrim Trust establishes a Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts, predecessor of the Arts Council.
Undated Greggs bakery is founded by John Gregg on Tyneside.
Publications H. E. Bates' short story collection My Uncle Silas. Joyce Carey's novel Mister Johnson. James Hadley Chase's thriller No Orchids for Miss Blandish. Agatha Christie's novels Murder Is Easy and And Then There Were None.