Events from the year 1949 in the United Kingdom.
Incumbents
Monarch – George VI
Prime Minister – Clement Attlee (Labour) Parliament – 38th
Events
January – Mass Observation carries out a national survey into the sexual behaviour and attitudes of 4,000 British people, "Little Kinsey". The results remain largely unpublished for over fifty years. 1 January Peacetime conscription in the United Kingdom is regularised under the National Service Act 1947. Men aged 18–26 in England, Scotland and Wales are obliged to serve full-time in the armed forces for 18 months. The British Nationality Act 1948 comes into effect, creating the status of "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies", superseding the shared status of "Commonwealth citizen". 4 January – of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage. 28 January – Lynskey tribunal on corruption in public life reports, leading to the resignation of John Belcher as an MP. 31 January – Book at Bedtime makes its debut on the BBC Light Programme. 1 February – Women's Auxiliary Air Force renamed as the Women's Royal Air Force. 15 March – Post-war rationing of clothes ends. 25 March – Laurence Olivier's film Hamlet (1948) becomes the first British film to win a 'Best Picture' Oscar. 28 March – Astronomer Fred Hoyle coins the term Big Bang during a BBC Third Programme radio broadcast. 1 April – The Marquess of Bath opens Longleat House to paying visitors, the first privately owned stately home to be opened. 4 April – Britain signs the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO. 12 April – The first women appointed King's Counsel in England: Rose Heilbron and Helena Normanton. 20 April Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst goes up the Yangtze River to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of the Mao's communist forces. Under heavy fire, it runs aground off Rose Island. After an aborted rescue attempt on 26 April, it anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the communist forces to let the ship leave drag on for weeks, during which time its cat, Simon, raises the crew's morale. The first Badminton Horse Trials are held at Badminton House in Gloucestershire. 24 April – Wartime rationing of sweets and chocolate ends, but is reinstituted shortly thereafter as shortages return. 26 April – Ealing comedy film Passport to Pimlico makes its premiere in London. 28 April – The 1949 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference issues the London Declaration, enabling India (and, thereafter, any other nation) to remain in the Commonwealth despite becoming a republic, creating the position of 'Head of the Commonwealth' (held by the ruling British monarch), and renaming the organisation from 'British Commonwealth' to 'Commonwealth of Nations'. 29 April – The News Review reveals that neither the English public school Selhurst College nor its headmaster H. Rochester Sneath exist, but are a hoax created by Humphry Berkeley the previous year. 30 April – 1949 FA Cup Final: Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. win the FA Cup for the first time in 41 years, and the third time in their history, with a 3–1 win over Leicester City at Wembley Stadium. April – Manchester Mark 1 computer operable at the University of Manchester. May – Council for Wales and Monmouthshire set up as a government advisory body, first meets. 1 May – The gas industry is nationalised. 3 May – Parliament passes the Ireland Act guaranteeing the position of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom as long as a majority of its citizens want it to be. The government also recognises the existence of the Republic of Ireland. 6 May – EDSAC, the first practicable stored-programme computer, runs its first programme at Cambridge University. 10 May – First self-service launderette opens, in Queensway (London). 11 May – Christopher Fry's verse drama The Lady's Not for Burning premieres in London. 7–25 June – Dock strike forces the government to use troops to unload goods. 8 June – George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is published in London by Secker & Warburg. 16 June – Ealing comedy film Whisky Galore! released. 21 June – Ealing comedy film Kind Hearts and Coronets released. 27 July – Maiden flight of the British-built de Havilland Comet, the world's first passenger jet, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. 30 July – Legal Aid and Advice Act establishes a much-extended system of Legal aid in England and Wales (with the Legal Aid and Solicitors (Scotland) Act applying similarly in Scotland). 31 July – Captain Kerans of HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army both sides of the Yangtze River and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day. 22 August – T. S.