1942 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch – George VI
• Prime Minister – Winston Churchill
• Parliament – 37th

  Events

• 1 January
• * An underground explosion at Sneyd Colliery in the North Staffordshire Coalfield kills 55.
• * Book Production War Economy Agreement comes into force.
• 9–29 January – 1942 Betteshanger miners' strike in the Kent Coalfield.
• 10 January – World War II: Liverpool Blitz ends with German bombs dropped in the Stanhope Street area of the city, with nine people dying and many more suffering injuries. Among the houses destroyed in the bombing is the former home of Adolf Hitler's half-brother Alois. Four more people die as a result of their injuries the following day.
• 26 January – World War II: First United States troops for the European Theatre arrive in the UK, at Belfast.
• 29 January – radio programme Desert Island Discs first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme, presented by Roy Plomley. Vic Oliver is the first castaway. The programme will still be running 75 years later.
• January – Mildenhall Treasure discovered by ploughman Gordon Butcher in Suffolk.
• February–April – Liverpool Chinese seamen strike for improved pay.
• 7 February – soap rationing introduced.
• 15 February – World War II: General Arthur Percival's forces surrender to the Japanese at the Battle of Singapore.
• 19 February – Clement Attlee is appointed first Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 25 February – Princess Elizabeth registers for war service.
• April – Women's Timber Corps set up.
• 5 April – World War II: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon. Royal Navy Cruisers and are sunk southwest of the island.
• 9 April – World War II: Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon ; Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast.
• 23 April
• * World War II: Exeter becomes the first city bombed as part of the "Baedeker Blitz" in retaliation for the British bombing of Lübeck.
• * Exeter-born William Temple is enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury in succession to Cosmo Gordon Lang.
• 24 April – Barnburgh Main Colliery collapse: 4 killed.
• 25–27 April – World War II: "Baedeker Blitz" – Bath Blitz: three bombing raids on Bath kill 417; among the buildings destroyed or badly damaged the Assembly Rooms are gutted.
• 5 May–6 November – World War II: Battle of Madagascar; British commander Robert Sturges leads the invasion of Vichy French-held Madagascar.
• 6 May – The Radio Doctor makes his first BBC radio broadcast giving avuncular health care advice.
• 30 May – World War II: First RAF "thousand bomber raid" sets off to carry out the bombing of Cologne in Germany.
• 15 June – propaganda film The Next of Kin is commercially released by Ealing Studios.
• July–August – J. Arthur Rank's Odeon Cinemas purchase UK sites of Paramount Cinemas.
• July
• * Military scientists begin testing of anthrax as a biological warfare agent on the Scottish island of Gruinard.
• * Total evacuation of Stanford Training Area on Breckland in Norfolk.
• 10 July – the patriotic Academy Award-winning drama film Mrs. Miniver, starring Greer Garson, is released in London.
• 11 August – traffic admitted onto the new Waterloo Bridge across the River Thames in London.
• 19 August – World War II: British and Canadian troops conduct the Dieppe Raid.
• 25 August – Dunbeath air crash: Prince George, Duke of Kent, brother of George VI, is among 14 killed in a military air crash near Caithness, Scotland.
• 30 August–2 September – World War II: At the Battle of Alam el Halfa in Egypt, General Montgomery leads the Eighth Army to victory over Field Marshal Rommel's Afrika Korps.
• September – The Brains Trust first broadcast under this title on BBC Home Service radio.
• 12 September – World War II: British transport ship RMS Laconia torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in the Atlantic, west of Africa, with the loss of around 2,000 lives, mainly Italian prisoners of war.
• 13 September – World War II:
• * The RAF and the Soviet Air Force bomb oil wells and refining facilities at Ploeşti in Romania causing extensive damage.
• * The RAF carries out its 100th bombing raid on the German city of Bremen.
• 17 September – Noël Coward's film In Which We Serve premieres.
• 23 September
• * The British Council of Churches, an ecumenical organisation, is established, as is the Council of Christians and Jews.
• * World War II: British forces capture the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo.
• 2 October
• * British cruiser Curaçao collides with troopship off the coast of Donegal and sinks: 338 drown.
• * World War II: Japanese troopship Lisbon Maru sinks following a torpedo attack the previous day by submarine off the coast of China: 829 are killed, mostly British prisoners of war who are being held onboard.
• 5 October – Oxford Committee for Famine Relief founded.
• 9 October – the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act passed by the Parliament of Australia formalises Australian autonomy from the U.K.
• 23 October – World War II: British and Commonwealth forces launch a major attack against German and Italian forces in the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt.
• 25 October – the milk ration is cut to two and a half pints a week.
• 29 October – a public meeting presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury and with international political figures in attendance at the Royal Albert Hall in London registers outrage over The Holocaust.
• 30 October – World War II: British sailors board German submarine U-559 as it sinks in the Mediterranean and retrieve its Enigma machine and codebooks.
• 31 October – World War II: Canterbury is bombed by the German Luftwaffe, apparently in reprisal for an RAF 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne.
• 4 November – World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein effectively ends with Erwin Rommel forced to order German forces to retreat this evening in the face of pressure from General Montgomery's Eighth Army. Clearing up operations continue until 11 November.
• 8 November – World War II: British and American troops invade French North Africa in Operation Torch.
• 13 November – World War II: Allied troops recapture Tobruk.
• 17 November – World War II: Admiral Max Horton takes over from Percy Noble as Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches, with responsibility for the safety of Atlantic convoys.
• 1 December – publication of the Beveridge Report into social insurance.
• 7 December – World War II: British commandos conduct Operation Frankton, a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.
• 16 December – the Trade Union Congress backs the Beveridge Report.
• 30 December – British insurance companies attack the Beveridge Report.
• World War II – Maunsell Forts erected in the Thames Estuary.

  Publications

• "Flying Officer X" 's short story collection The Greatest People in the World.
• "BB"'s children's story The Little Grey Men.
• Enid Blyton's children's story Five on a Treasure Island, first in The Famous Five series.
• Joyce Carey's novel To Be a Pilgrim.
• Agatha Christie's novels The Body in the Library, Five Little Pigs and The Moving Finger.
• T. S. Eliot's poem Little Gidding, last of the Four Quartets.
• Richard Hillary's wartime autobiography The Last Enemy.
• C. S. Lewis' novel The Screwtape Letters.
• Alker Tripp's text Town Planning and Road Traffic.
• Evelyn Waugh's novel Put Out More Flags.

  Births

January – April

• 3 January – John Thaw, English actor
• 5 January – Jan Leeming, TV presenter and newsreader
• 8 January
• * Robin Ellis, English actor
• * Stephen Hawking, English cosmologist
• * George Passmore, English artist
• 19 January – Michael Crawford, English singer and actor
• 21 January – George Foulkes, Labour MP and peer
• 31 January – Derek Jarman, English director and writer
• 1 February – Terry Jones, Welsh actor, writer and director
• 2 February – Graham Nash, English musician
• 11 February – Charles Townsend Harrison, British art historian
• 27 February – Mike Bailey, British footballer
• 28 February – Brian Jones, English rock musician
• 9 March – John Cale, Welsh composer and musician
• 13 March – Geoffrey Hayes, English television presenter and actor
• 25 March – Richard O'Brien, English actor and writer
• 27 March
• * Michael Jackson, English writer about beer
• * John Sulston, English molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• * Michael York, English actor
• 28 March
• * Neil Kinnock, Welsh-born statesman
• * Mike Newell, British film director
• 1 April
• *Brian Binley, businessman and politician
• *Roderick Floud, historian and academic
• 5 April – Peter Greenaway, Welsh filmmaker
• 8 April – Roger Chapman, English rock singer
• 8 April – Tony Banks, Baron Stratford, Labour Party MP and Minister for Sport
• 12 April – Bill Bryden, Scottish-born theatre director
• 19 April – David Fanshawe, English composer

  May – August

• 4 May – Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, Baron Bruce-Lockhart, politician
• 8 May
• * Norman Lamont, politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer
• * Terry Neill, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
• 12 May – Ian Dury, British musician
• 13 May – Jeff Astle, British footballer
• 18 May
• * Nobby Stiles, English footballer
• 24 May – Fraser Stoddart, Scottish-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• 25 May – Brian Davison, rock drummer
• 2 June – Tony Buzan, popular psychologist
• 9 June – Ossie Clark, fashion designer
• 10 June – Gordon Burns, television presenter
• 18 June
• *Pat Hutchins, English illustrator and writer
• *Paul McCartney, English musician and composer
• 20 June
• *Andrew Graham, economist and academic
• *Valerie Myerscough, mathematician and astrophysicist
• 24 June
• * Mick Fleetwood, English drummer
• * Dustin Gee, British comedian
• 1 July – Julia Higgins, polymer scientist
• 4 July – Prince Michael of Kent
• 17 July - Peter Sissons, English newsreader and journalist
• 23 July – Myra Hindley, English murderer
• 26 August – Dennis Turner, British politician

  September – December

• 7 September – Richard Block, co-founder of B&Q Ltd.
• 15 September – Philip Harris, entrepreneur and educationist
• 17 September – Des Lynam, Irish-born TV sports presenter
• 18 September – Alex Stepney, footballer and coach
• 27 September
• * Tessa Blackstone, English academic administrator, public servant and Labour politician
• * Alvin Stardust, born Bernard Jewry, English pop singer
• 26 October – Bob Hoskins, English actor
• 28 October – Freddie Williams, Scottish businessman
• 7 November – Jean Shrimpton, English fashion model and actress
• 23 November – Jane Lumb, English fashion model and actress
• 24 November
• * Billy Connolly, Scottish comedian
• * Craig Thomas, Welsh thriller writer
• 29 November – Michael Craze, English actor
• 2 December – Dennis Kirkland, English television producer
• 4 December
• * Tim Boswell, farmer and politician
• * Gemma Jones, English character actress
• 31 December – Andy Summers, English rock musician

  Deaths

• 16 January – Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third eldest son of Queen Victoria
• 10 March – Sir William Henry Bragg, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 16 April – Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, granddaughter of Queen Victoria
• 23 May – C. R. Ashbee, designer
• 7 June – Alan Blumlein, electronics engineer
• 18 June – Sutherland Macdonald, tattoo artist
• 22 July
• * Gilbert Joyce, Bishop of Monmouth
• * Conrad Noel, vicar and socialist
• 28 July – Flinders Petrie, Egyptologist
• 10 August – Bob Kelso, Scottish footballer
• 25 August – Prince George, Duke of Kent, fourth eldest son of George V
• 4 December – Hugh Malcolm, Scottish Royal Air Force officer, posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross
• 22 December – E. H. Jones, Welsh army officer, educationist and writer