1944 in the United Kingdom

Incumbents

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

  Events

• January – Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service officially formed
• 21–22 January – World War II: start of Operation Steinbock, a nocturnal Luftwaffe bombing offensive chiefly targeted at the Greater London area. On this attack, few aircraft reach the target area.
• 10 February – PAYE system of tax collection introduced.
• 20 February – World War II: destroyer HMS Warwick is torpedoed by German submarine U-413 off Trevose Head, Cornwall, sinking in 6 minutes with the loss of 66 men, over half her crew.
• 26 February – World War II: last heavy air-raids on London.
• 10 March – lifting of prohibition on married women working as teachers.
• 28 April – World War II: Allied convoy T4, forming part of amphibious Exercise Tiger in Start Bay off the Devon coast, is attacked by E-boats, resulting in the deaths of 749 American servicemen from LSTs.
• 29 May – thunderstorms lead to severe flooding, particularly around Holmfirth.
• 5 June – World War II: final preparations for the Normandy landings take place in the south of England. Group Captain James Stagg correctly forecasts a brief improvement in weather conditions over the English Channel which will permit the following day's landings to take place. The BBC transmits coded messages to underground resistance fighters in France warning that the invasion of Europe is about to begin.
• 6 June – World War II: D-Day for the Normandy landings: 155,000 Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy in France, beginning Operation Overlord and the Invasion of Normandy.

• 13 June – World War II: the first V-1 flying bomb attack on London takes place. Eight civilians are killed in the blast. The bomb earns the nickname "doodlebug".
• 15 July – World War II: Park Street riot in Bristol, a confrontation between black G.I.s and U.S. Military Police.
• Summer – Ministry of Works builds the first demonstration temporary prefab houses designed for postwar reconstruction.
• 3 August – the Education Act, promoted by Rab Butler, creates a Tripartite System of secondary education in England and Wales with Secondary Modern, Technical, and Grammar schools, entrance being determined in most cases by the results of the Eleven plus exam.
• 12 August - World War II: the V-1 flying bomb campaign against London by the Germans reaches its 60th day, with more than 6,000 deaths, 17,000 injuries and damage or destruction to around 1 million buildings.
• 20 August – American Liberty ship is wrecked off the Nore in the Thames Estuary with around 1,400 tonnes of explosives on board, never recovered.
• 21 August – Dumbarton Oaks Conference opens in Washington, D.C.: American, British, Chinese, French and Soviet representatives meet to plan the foundation of the United Nations.
• 7 September – the Belgian government leaves the UK and returns to Belgium following the liberation of Brussels on 3 September.
• 8 September – World War II: the first V-2 rocket attack on London takes place, striking in the Chiswick district of the city and resulting in the deaths of three people.
• 17 September – World War II: restrictions imposed by the Blackout are relaxed.
• 25 September - World War II: V-2 rockets aimed at Ipswich and Norwich by the Germans miss their targets by a distance.
• 9 October – fourth Moscow Conference: Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin begin a nine-day conference in Moscow to discuss the future of Europe.
• 23 October – the Allies recognise Charles de Gaulle's cabinet as the provisional government of France.

• 12 November – World War II: sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz by RAF Lancaster bombers.
• 22 November – release of Laurence Olivier's Henry V, the first work of Shakespeare filmed in colour.
• 25 November – World War II: a V-2 rocket destroys the Woolworths store in New Cross Road, south east London, killing 168, the highest death toll from one of these weapons. More than 100 people survive with injuries.
• 27 November – RAF Fauld explosion: between 3,450 and 3,930 tons of ordnance explodes at an underground storage depot in Staffordshire leaving about 75 dead and a crater 1,200 metres across and 120 metres deep, one of the largest explosions in history and the largest on UK soil.
• 3 December – World War II: the Home Guard is stood down.
• 19 December – Council of Industrial Design established.
• 24 December – World War II: fifty German V-1 flying bombs, air-launched from Heinkel He 111 bombers flying over the North Sea, target Manchester, killing at least 27 and injuring more than 100 in the Oldham area.

  Undated

• Housing Act makes arrangements for postwar provision of adequate housing for all who need it.
• The 1944 Summer Olympics, scheduled for London, are not held due to World War II.

  Publications

• H. E. Bates' novel Fair Stood the Wind for France.
• Joyce Carey's novel The Horse's Mouth.
• Agatha Christie's novels Towards Zero and Death Comes as the End.
• L. P. Hartley's novel The Shrimp and the Anemone, first in the Eustace and Hilda trilogy.
• F. W. Hayek's economic text The Road to Serfdom.
• C. S. Lewis's theological dream vision The Great Divorce.
• W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor's Edge.
• L. T. C. Rolt's book Narrow Boat.
• G. M. Trevelyan's book English Social History: a survey of six centuries from Chaucer to Queen Victoria.

  Births

January – June

• 4 January – Angela Harris, Baroness Harris of Richmond, politician
• 9 January – Jimmy Page, guitarist
• 27 January
• * Mairead Corrigan, Northern Irish activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• * Nick Mason, English drummer
• 28 January – John Tavener, English composer of religious music
• 3 February – Dave Davies, British musician
• 8 February – Tony Minson, virologist and academic
• 13 February – Jerry Springer, English-born television host
• 14 February – Alan Parker, English film director
• 17 February – Karl Jenkins, Welsh composer
• 24 February – Nicky Hopkins, English rock keyboardist
• 27 February – Roger Scruton, English philosopher
• 1 March – Roger Daltrey, English rock singer
• 7 March – Ranulph Fiennes, English adventurer
• 11 March – Don Maclean, British comedian
• 21 March – Mike Jackson, English soldier
• 3 April – Derek Higgs, English banker and businessman
• 6 April – Felicity Palmer, English soprano
• 12 April – Lisa Jardine, née Bronowski, Renaissance historian and polymath
• 16 April – Sue Clifford, environmentalist and academic, co-founder of Common Ground
• 23 April – Timothy Garden, Baron Garden, RAF pilot and politician
• 26 April – Richard Bradshaw, orchestral conductor
• 27 April – Michael Fish, British TV weatherman
• 5 May
• * Roger Rees, Welsh actor
• * John Rhys-Davies, Welsh actor
• 8 May – Gary Glitter, English singer and convicted sex offender
• 12 May – Sara Kestelman, British actor
• 20 May – Joe Cocker, English singer
• 25 May – Frank Oz, English puppeteer and film director
• 28 May – Patricia Quinn, Northern Irish actress
• 24 June
• * Jeff Beck, musician
• * John "Charlie" Whitney, rock guitarist
• 1 June – Colin Blakemore, neurobiologist and academic
• 1 June - Robert Powell, Actor
• 3 June – Peter Bonfield, businessman
• 11 June – Alan Howarth, Baron Howarth of Newport, English politician, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries

  July – December

• 21 July – Tony Scott, English film director
• 27 July – Tony Capstick, English comedian, actor and musician
• 27 July – Matthew Robinson, English television and film producer, director and writer
• 2 August – Jim Capaldi, British drummer, singer and songwriter
• 11 August – Ian McDiarmid, Scottish actor
• 15 August – R. A. W. Rhodes, political scientist and academic
• 26 August – Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, member of the British royal family
• 28 August – Ray Lowry, cartoonist
• 31 August – Roger Dean, English graphic artist
• 4 September – Tony Atkinson, economist
• 4 September - Dave Bassett, Football Manager
• 13 September – Jacqueline Bisset, English film actress
• 15 September – Graham Taylor, English footballer and football manager
• 20 September - Paul Madeley, English footballer
• 22 September – Frazer Hines, British actor
• 26 September – Anne Robinson, British television host
• 30 September – Jimmy Johnstone, Scottish footballer
• 9 October – John Entwistle, English bassist
• 15 October – David Trimble, Northern Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• 28 October – Ian Marter, British actor
• 10 November – Tim Rice, lyricist, writer and broadcaster
• 25 November – Sylvia Gore, footballer
• 6 December – Jonathan King, British music producer and convicted sex offender
• 9 December – Neil Innes, English comedian and musician
• 14 December – Denis Thwaites, English professional footballer murdered in the 2015 Sousse attacks
• 20 December – Anton Rippon, journalist and author
• 21 December – Bill Atkinson, English footballer

  Deaths

• 1 January – Edwin Lutyens, architect
• 19 January – Emily Winifred Dickson, gynaecologist
• 19 March – Mary Paley Marshall, economist
• 13 April – Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale, sportsman after whom the brand Lonsdale is named
• 8 May – Ethel Smyth, composer and a leader of the women's suffrage movement
• 28 July – Ralph H. Fowler, astronomer and physicist
• 19 August – Henry Wood, conductor
• 13 September – W. Heath Robinson, cartoonist and illustrator
• 23 October – Charles Glover Barkla, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 26 October
• * The Princess Beatrice, last surviving child of Queen Victoria
• * William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 14 November – Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Air Chief Marshal, dies in aviation accident in France
• 22 November – Arthur Stanley Eddington, astrophysicist
• 30 November – Roy Emerton, actor