1938 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – George VI
• Prime Minister – Neville Chamberlain
• Parliament – 37th

  Events

• 1 January – Sir Alexander Cadogan succeeds Sir Robert Vansittart as permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office.
• 6 January – psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud arrives in London having fled from Vienna in Austria.
• 17 January – Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., is appointed United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
• 14 February – the British naval base at Singapore begins operations.
• 20 February – Anthony Eden resigns as Foreign Secretary, over Chamberlain's policy towards Italy. Lord Halifax takes over.
• 14 March – Chamberlain makes a speech in the House of Commons saying the government "emphatically" disapproves of the Nazi German Anschluss in Austria two days previously but that "nothing could have prevented this action by Germany unless we and others with us had been prepared to use force to prevent it."
• 16 April – Anglo-Italian Treaty: Britain recognises Italian government over Ethiopia, in return for Italian troops withdrawing from Spain.
• 23 April – York Castle Museum opened.
• 25 April – Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement with the Republic of Ireland settles the Anglo-Irish Trade War and agrees to the Royal Navy abandoning the British sovereign bases at the Treaty ports in Ireland.
• 3 May – Empire Exhibition opens in Glasgow.
• 10 May – an underground explosion at Markham Colliery, near Staveley, Derbyshire, kills 79.
• 1 June – the Bren light machine gun comes into service with the British Army.
• 2 June – the children's zoo at London Zoo is opened by Robert and Ted Kennedy, two of the sons of United States ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy.
• 18 June – Women's Voluntary Service founded to assist the Civil Defence Service.
• 3 July – the London and North Eastern Railway's streamlined Class A4 4468 Mallard reaches a speed of 126 mph, the highest certified speed for a steam locomotive.
• 9 July – gas masks are issued to the civilian population.
• 24 June – Test cricket is televised for the first time.
• 11 July–3 October – military installations at the Treaty Ports in the Republic of Ireland are handed over from British control to the Government of Ireland, under terms of the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement ratified by the Eire Act earlier in the year.
• 15 July – Josephine Cox, English novelist.
• 22 July – Britain rejects a proposal from its ambassador in Berlin, Nevile Henderson, for a four power summit on Czechoslovakia consisting of Britain, France, Germany and the U.S.S.R. as London will under no circumstances accept the Soviet Union as a diplomatic partner.
• 30 July – The Beano comic first goes on sale, featuring the character Lord Snooty.
• August – Muslims protest in London about passages they consider disrespectful of their religion in H. G. Wells' A Short History of the World.
• 4 August – major thunderstorm over Devon.
• 13-20 August – Great Britain and the United States contest the inaugural Amateur World Series in baseball, played in the north of England. Britain wins every match.
• 23 August – English cricketer Len Hutton scores a record Test score of 364 runs in a match against Australia.
• 7 September – The Times publishes a lead article which calls on Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany.
• 9 September – Auxiliary Territorial Service, as a women's voluntary service, established.
• 15 September – Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain meets German Chancellor Adolf Hitler in Berchtesgaden in an attempt to negotiate an end to German expansionist policies.
• 21 September – representatives of the British and French governments call on Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš to tell him Britain and France will not fight Hitler if he decides to annex the Sudetenland by force. At home, Winston Churchill warns of grave consequences to European security if Czechoslovakia is partitioned.
• 27 September – is launched at Clydebank; she is the largest ship in the world at this time.
• 29 September – Chamberlain signs the Munich Agreement; and a resolution with Germany determining to resolve all future disputes between the two countries through peaceful means.
• 30 September – Neville Chamberlain returns to the UK from Munich, at Heston Aerodrome memorably waving the resolution signed the day earlier with Germany, and later in Downing Street giving his famous Peace for our time speech. George VI and Queen Elizabeth appear with Chamberlain on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to celebrate the agreement.
• 1 October – Picture Post magazine first published.
• 29 October – City Hall, Norwich, designed in the Art Deco style by C. H. James and S. R. Pierce, is opened.
• 4 November – At a meeting in Epping, Winston Churchill narrowly survives an attempt by fellow Conservative and constituent Sir Colin Thornton-Kemsley to remove him from Parliament.
• 16 November – First reported "attack" of the Halifax Slasher mass hysteria incident.
• 21 November – Apostolic Delegation to Great Britain appointed.
• 1-2 December – first Kindertransport from Berlin to London Liverpool Street station via Harwich.
• 16 December – aircraft carrier is commissioned into the Royal Navy.

  Undated

• J. Arthur Rank purchases Odeon Cinemas.
• First green belts begin to be established in the UK, around Sheffield and London, the latter under terms of the Green Belt Act.
• Little ringed plover first breeds in England.

  Publications

• Elizabeth Bowen's novel The Death of the Heart.
• Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels Appointment with Death and Hercule Poirot's Christmas.
• Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca.
• Graham Greene's novel Brighton Rock.
• Kathleen Hale's children's book Orlando : A Camping Holiday, first in the series featuring the eponymous character.
• C. S. Lewis' novel Out of the Silent Planet.
• George Orwell's memoir Homage to Catalonia.
• Evelyn Waugh's novel Scoop.
• T. H. White's novel The Sword in the Stone, first in the twelve-volume The Once and Future King.
• P. G. Wodehouse's novel The Code of the Woosters.

  Births

• 1 January – Robert Jankel, businessman, founder of carmaker Panther
• 2 January
• * David Bailey, photographer
• * Ian Brady, serial killer
• 11 January
• * Alastair Morton, railway executive
• * Arthur Scargill, trade union leader
• 20 January
• * Derek Dougan, footballer
• * Bob Friend, newscaster
• 3 February – Geoff Clayton, English cricketer
• 8 February – Margo McLennan, actress
• 17 February – Yvonne Romain, actress
• 26 February – Brian Kilby, marathon runner
• 27 February – Jake Thackray, singer-songwriter
• 28 February – John Bulmer, documentary photographer and filmmaker
• 6 March – Pauline Boty, pop art painter
• 14 March – Eleanor Bron, actress and author
• 18 March – Kenny Lynch, entertainer
• 6 April – Paul Daniels, magician
• 22 April
• * Alan Bond, English-born Australian businessman
• * Adam Raphael, English journalist and editor
• 28 April – Fred Dibnah, steeplejack and television personality
• 3 May – Lindsay Kemp, dance and mime artist
• 9 May – Geoffrey Holland, English civil servant and academic
• 11 May – Bob Scott, ornithologist
• 23 May – Peter Preston, newspaper editor
• 31 May – John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister
• 7 June – Graham Percy, artist
• 18 June – Michael Sheard, actor
• 25 June – James Feast, chemical scientist
• 26 June – Ted Wragg, professor of education
• 27 June – Kathryn Beaumont, actress, voice actress, singer and schoolteacher
• 28 June – Simon Douglas-Pennant, 7th Baron Penrhyn
• 29 June – Peter Wollen, film theorist and filmmaker
• 1 July – Susan Maughan, singer
• 3 July – Ron Fogg, footballer
• 5 July – James Bond, motorcycle speedway rider
• 6 July
• * Tony Lewis, cricketer
• * Stuart Young, cricketer
• 9 July – Faanya Rose, British-American businesswoman, conservationist, philanthropist and explorer
• 10 July – David Hugh Mellor, philosopher
• 11 July – Brian Scarlett, physicist
• 18 July – Ian Stewart, Scottish rock keyboardist
• 19 July – Nicholas Bethell, 4th Baron Bethell, historian and human rights campaigner
• 20 July
• * Roger Hunt, footballer
• * David Pratt, cricketer
• * Diana Rigg, actress
• 22 July – Terence Stamp, actor
• 27 July – Peter Ucko, archaeologist
• 28 July – Ian McCaskill, weather forecaster
• 29 July
• *Christopher Gibbs, antiques dealer
• *Tom Raworth, poet
• 6 August – Rees Davies, historian
• 25 August – Frederick Forsyth, writer
• 30 August – Alf Meakin, track and field athlete
• 31 August – Martin Bell, journalist and independent politician
• 10 September – David Hamilton, radio and TV personality
• 12 September – Michael Leader, actor
• 13 September
• * Angus Douglas-Hamilton, 15th Duke of Hamilton and 12th Duke of Brandon, Scottish peer
• * John Smith, Scottish politician, leader of the Labour Party
• 16 September – Eddie George, financier and Governor of the Bank of England
• 9 October – Denzil Davies, politician
• 20 October – Iain MacMillan, photographer
• 22 October – Derek Jacobi, actor
• 24 October – Michael Graydon, air marshal
• 28 October
• * David Dimbleby, broadcaster
• * Anne Perry, born Juliet Marion Hulme, detective novelist and murderer
• 1 November – Malcolm Laycock, radio presenter and producer
• 12 November
• * Terry McDonald, footballer and coach
• * Richard May, judge
• 27 November – Rodney Bewes, comedy actor
• 4 December – Richard Meade, equestrian
• 9 December – Robin Popplestone, computer scientist
• 10 December – Brian Jones, poet
• 12 December – Felicity Ann d'Abreu, film producer
• 15 December – Michael Bogdanov, theatre director
• 17 December – Carlo Little, drummer
• 21 December – John Quayle, actor
• 22 December – Brian Locking, bassist

  Deaths

• 13 March – Frederick George Jackson, Arctic explorer
• 9 April
• * Archibald Kennedy, 3rd Marquess of Ailsa, aristocrat
• * Sir Thomas Callender, engineer and businessman
• 16 April
• * Steve Bloomer, footballer and manager
• * Bertram Mills, circus manager
• 16 May – Sir Lewis Bayly, admiral
• 9 June – John Broadbent, army officer and politician
• 23 June
• * Clement Edwards, lawyer, journalist and activist
• * William Gillespie, actor
• 4 July – Archibald Berkeley Milne, admiral
• 18 July – Marie of Edinburgh, Queen consort of Ferdinand I of Romania, granddaughter of Queen Victoria
• 12 September – Prince Arthur of Connaught, grandson of Queen Victoria