1936 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

• Monarch
• * George V
• * Edward VIII
• * George VI
• Prime Minister – Stanley Baldwin
• Parliament – 37th

  Events

• 13 January – GPO Film Unit documentary Night Mail, incorporating poetry by W. H. Auden and music by Benjamin Britten, is premiered at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.
• 20 January – King George V dies at Sandringham House, Norfolk, aged 70. His eldest son, The Prince Edward, Prince of Wales succeeds as King Edward VIII.
• 21 January – King Edward VIII breaks royal protocol by watching the proclamation of his own accession to the throne from a window of St. James's Palace, in the company of the still-married Wallis Simpson.
• 6–16 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, and win 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medals.
• 5 March – first test flight of the Supermarine Spitfire.
• 11 April – Billy Butlin opens his first Butlins holiday camp, Butlins Skegness in Skegness, Lincolnshire. It is officially opened by Amy Johnson.
• 18 April – Ordnance Survey begins the retriangulation of Great Britain with its first triangulation station near Cold Ashby, Northamptonshire.
• 17 May – barquentine Waterwitch is laid up at Par, Cornwall, the last square rigged ship to trade under sail alone in British ownership.
• 22 May – J. H. Thomas resigns from politics for leaking Budget proposals.
• 27 May – the leaves Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York.
• 3 July
• * Short Empire flying boat makes first flight, from Rochester, Kent.
• * Fred Perry wins his third successive men's singles tennis title at The Championships, Wimbledon, the last British player to win this title until 2013. This year he also wins his third U.S. National Championship, the last Grand Slam victory for a British men's player until 2012, and turns professional.
• 16 July – George McMahon tries to shoot King Edward VIII during the Trooping the Colour ceremony.
• 24 July – the General Post Office introduces the speaking clock.
• 27 July – opening of new swimming pool at Morecambe, claimed to be the largest open-air example in Europe.
• 28 July – Great Britain wins the 1936 International Lawn Tennis Challenge at Wimbledon, the last British victory in what becomes the Davis Cup until 2015.
• 31 July – Public Health Act empowers local authorities to make byelaws regulating building construction.
• 1–16 August – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Berlin and win 4 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze medals.
• 6 August – an underground explosion at Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery in South Yorkshire kills 58.
• 26 August – signing of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty which requires the withdrawal of British troops and recognises Egypt as a sovereign state.
• 31 August – Elizabeth Cowell becomes the first female British television presenter making a broadcast from Alexandra Palace.
• 8 September – arson attack on a bombing school building at Penyberth on the Llŷn Peninsula as part of the Tân yn Llŷn campaign led by Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine and D.J. Williams of the Welsh nationalist group Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru.
• 30 September – official opening of Pinewood Studios.
• 4 October – Battle of Cable Street between Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists and anti-fascist demonstrators.
• 5–31 October – Jarrow March: 207 miners march from Jarrow to London in a protest against unemployment and poverty.
• 20 October – Prime minister Stanley Baldwin confronts King Edward VIII about his relationship with Wallis Simpson.
• 27 October – Wallis Simpson divorces Ernest Aldrich Simpson, removing the legal barrier to her marrying Edward VIII.
• 2 November – BBC launch world's first regular television service, initially alternating between the 240-line Baird electromechanical and the Marconi-EMI all-electronic 405-line television systems.
• 6 November – Terence Rattigan's comedy French Without Tears premieres in London.
• 12 November – Alan Turing's paper "On Computable Numbers" is formally presented to the London Mathematical Society, introducing the concept of the "Turing machine".
• 16 November – King Edward VIII informs Stanley Baldwin of his intention to marry Wallis Simpson. Baldwin responds by informing the King that any woman he married would have to become Queen, and the British public would not accept Wallis Simpson as Queen. The King tells Mr Baldwin that he is prepared to abdicate if the government opposes his marriage.
• 25 November – the King tells Stanley Baldwin that he would be prepared to conduct a morganatic marriage with Mrs Simpson, which would allow him to carry on as King but not install Mrs Simpson as Queen. Stanley Baldwin informs him that this would not be accepted either.
• 27 November – Stanley Baldwin raises the issue of a morganatic marriage in the Cabinet, where it is rejected outright.
• 30 November – the Crystal Palace is destroyed in a fire.
• December – Henry Hallett Dale wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Otto Loewi "for their discoveries relating to chemical transmission of nerve impulses".
• 1 December – Alfred Blunt, Bishop of Bradford, makes a speech which inadvertently leads to the abdication crisis becoming public in the British media.
• 2 December – Stanley Baldwin confirms in a meeting with the King that a morganatic marriage would not be accepted, and in order to marry Mrs Simpson the King would have to abdicate.
• 9 December – a KLM Douglas DC-2 airliner crashes in Purley shortly after takeoff from Croydon Airport, killing 14 with just two survivors.
• 10 December – abdication crisis: the King signs an instrument of abdication at Fort Belvedere in the presence of his three brothers, The Duke of York, The Duke of Gloucester and The Duke of Kent.
• 11 December
• * Parliament passes His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936, providing the legislative authority for the King to abdicate.
• * The King performs his last act as sovereign by giving royal assent to the Act.
• * Prince Albert, Duke of York, becomes King, ruling as King George VI.
• * The abdicated King Edward VIII, now the Prince Edward, makes a broadcast to the nation explaining his decision to abdicate. He leaves the country for Austria.
• * The Oireachtas of the Irish Free State passes the Constitution Act 1936, removing most powers from the office of Governor-General of the Irish Free State, and the Executive Authority Act 1936 assenting to the abdication and restricting the power of the monarch in relation to Ireland to international affairs.
• 25 December – Princess Alexandra of Kent, daughter of The Duke and Duchess of Kent, is born in London. This will be the last royal birth attended by the Home Secretary.

  Date unknown

• K6 red telephone box introduced, together with GPO 'Jubilee concession' to provide one in every village with a post office.
• Peter Jones in London, designed by William Crabtree, is completed as a pioneering example in the UK of glass curtain wall architecture.

  Publications

• The Left Book Club is founded by Stafford Cripps, Victor Gollancz, John Strachey and Harold Laski.
• Eric Ambler's novel The Dark Frontier.
• W. H. Auden’s poems Look, Stranger!.
• A. J. Ayer's philosophical study Language, Truth, and Logic.
• Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels The A.B.C. Murders, Murder in Mesopotamia and Cards on the Table.
• T. S. Eliot's Collected Poems 1909-35, including "Burnt Norton", first of the Four Quartets.
• Djuna Barnes's novel Nightwood.
• The Geographers' Map Co.'s first A to Z Atlas and Guide to London and the Suburbs.
• Aldous Huxley's novel Eyeless in Gaza.
• Michael Innes’ novel Death at the President’s Lodging.
• John Maynard Keynes' book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.
• F. R. Leavis’ critical work Revaluation: tradition & development in English poetry.
• A. E. W. Mason's historical adventure novel Fire Over England.
• H. J. Massingham's English Downland and Hugh Quigley's The Highlands of Scotland, first in Batsford's The Face of Britain series.
• Lancashire: cradle of our prosperity and Warwickshire: Shakespeare's country, first in The King's England series edited by Arthur Mee.
• George Orwell's novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying.
• Michael Roberts edits the anthology The Faber Book of Modern Verse.
• Dylan Thomas’ Twenty-five Poems, including "And death shall have no dominion".
• W. B. Yeats edits the anthology The Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892–1935.

  Births

• 7 January
• * Hunter Davies, Scottish-born author and journalist
• * Ian La Frenais, English screenwriter and producer
• 12 January – Sir William McAlpine, 6th Baronet, engineering construction executive
• 19 January – Ron Newman, British-American soccer player and manager
• 20 January – Frances Shand Kydd, mother of Diana, Princess of Wales
• 28 January – Bill Jordan, economist and politician
• 29 January – Patrick Caulfield, painter and printmaker
• 7 February – Keith Rowlands, rugby union player
• 9 February – Clive Swift, actor
• 18 February – Philip Jones Griffiths, photojournalist
• 24 February – Lance Reventlow, playboy, entrepreneur and racing driver
• 13 March – Michael Davies, writer on Roman Catholicism
• 26 March – John Malcolm, actor
• 28 March – Peter Mayer, publisher
• 3 April – Tony Garnett, television producer
• 7 April – Peter Eckersley, television producer
• 10 April – John Howell, Olympic long jumper
• 24 April – Vera Rich, poet and translator
• 9 May
• * Terry Downes, middleweight boxer
• * Albert Finney, actor
• * Glenda Jackson, actress and politician
• 13 May – Matt Simpson, poet
• 15 May – Ralph Steadman, caricaturist
• 16 May – Roy Hudd, comedy performer
• 23 May
• * Tom Burlison, footballer and trade unionist
• * Robert Sangster, racehorse owner
• 27 May – Eric Anderson, Scottish-born teacher, Provost of Eton College
• 2 June – Richard Harries, Baron Harries of Pentregarth, bishop and theologian
• 7 June – Chris Bryant, screenwriter
• 17 June – Ken Loach, film director
• 22 June
• * Dick Huddart, English-Australian professional rugby league footballer
• * Derek Porter, English footballer
• 23 June – Gordon Lewis, Welsh rugby union and professional rugby league footballer
• 24 June – Tony Brown, cricketer and administrator
• 26 June – Robert Maclennan, Scottish politician
• 28 June – Malcolm Harding, English-born Canadian Anglican bishop
• 30 June – Malcolm Hickman, English cricketer
• 3 July – Anthony Lester, barrister and politician
• 5 July – James Mirrlees, Scottish economist and winner of the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
• 7 July – Christopher Mallaby, diplomat
• 8 July – Tony Warren, television screenwriter
• 9 July – Richard Wilson, Scottish actor and director
• 11 July – John Stride, actor
• 16 July – Mary Parkinson, journalist and television presenter
• 26 July – Mary Millar, actress
• 30 July – Ted Rogers, comedian and game show host
• 1 August – Donald Neilson, serial killer known as the "Black Panther"
• 3 August – Edward Petherbridge, actor, writer and artist
• 7 August – Brian Barry, philosopher
• 14 August – Trevor Bannister, actor
• 17 August – Arthur Rowe, Olympic shot putter
• 24 August – A. S. Byatt, novelist and poet
• 3 September – Mike Ellis, hammer thrower
• 10 September – Michael Hartshorn, British-New Zealand organic chemist
• 14 September – Nicol Williamson, actor
• 17 October – Dolores Mantez, actress
• 19 September – Anna Karen, actress
• 21 October – Simon Gray, playwright
• 24 October – Bill Wyman, rock bassist
• 25 October – Martin Gilbert, historian
• 30 October – George Sassoon, scientist and writer
• 2 November – Eddie Colman, footballer
• 8 November – Bob Holman, Christian socialist
• 16 November – Geoffrey Thompson, businessman
• 22 November – John Bird, comic actor
• 23 November – Robert Barnard, writer, critic and lecturer
• 17 December – Tommy Steele, actor and singer
• 22 December – James Burke, broadcaster, science historian, author and television producer
• 25 December – Princess Alexandra of Kent, daughter of The Duke and Duchess of Kent

  Deaths

• 18 January – Rudyard Kipling, writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 20 January – King George V
• 2 March – Princess Victoria, granddaughter of Queen Victoria
• 30 April – A. E. Housman, poet
• 14 May - Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, Field-Marshal
• 14 June – G. K. Chesterton, writer
• 25 July – Sir Henry Wellcome, pharmaceutical entrepreneur and philanthropist
• 21 September – Frank Hornby, inventor, businessman and politician
• 14 October – Edmond Holmes, educationalist, writer and poet
• 2 November – Martin Lowry, chemist
• 10 December – Bobby Abel, cricketer
• 29 December – Lucy, Lady Houston, political activist, suffragette, philanthropist and promoter of aviation