1996 in the United Kingdom

1996 in the United Kingdom
Events from the year 1996 in the United Kingdom.
This year is noted for the Dunblane Massacre, the divorces of the Duke and Duchess of York (Andrew and Sarah) and of the Prince and Princess of Wales (Charles and Diana) and the birth of Dolly the sheep.
Incumbents
Monarch – Elizabeth II
Prime Minister – John Major (Conservative)
Parliament – 51st
Events
January
10 January – Terry Venables announces that he will resign as manager of the England national football team after this summer's European Championships, which will be hosted in England.
13 January – NUM leader Arthur Scargill announces that he is defecting from the Labour Party to set up his own Socialist Labour Party.
19 January
The first MORI poll of 1996 shows Labour still comfortably ahead of the Conservatives with a showing of 55% and a lead of 26 points.
Ian and Kevin Maxwell, sons of the late media mogul Robert Maxwell, are cleared of fraud at the Old Bailey after a trial lasting eleven days.
23–26 January – Much of Britain is struck with sub-zero temperatures and snowstorms. Schools and transport are disrupted.
February
4 February – First two passenger train operating companies begin operation of their service franchises as part of the privatisation of British Rail: South West Trains (part of the Stagecoach Group) and Great Western Trains (management buyout).
5 February – The first genetically modified food products go on sale in the UK.
9 February
The Provisional Irish Republican Army carry out the Docklands bombing in London, a truck bomb which kills two men (whose bodies are discovered the following day) and injures 39 people. This incident ends the 17-month ceasefire in Northern Ireland.
The Parole Board announces that Moors Murderer Myra Hindley could soon be transferred to an open prison. Hindley, 53 and in her thirtieth year of imprisonment, is currently being held at Durham Prison, but if Home Secretary Michael Howard backs the Parole Board's recommendation, Hindley could soon be transferred to a prison with a more relaxed regime.
13 February – Take That, the most successful British band of the 1990s, announce that they are splitting up.
15 February – A report on the Arms-to-Iraq affair is critical of government ministers.
18 February – An IRA bomb explodes on a bus in Central London, killing the transporter, Edward O'Brien, and injuring eight other people, including the driver.
19–20 February – Approximately 1,000 passengers are trapped in the Channel Tunnel when two Eurostar trains break down due to electronic failures caused by snow and ice.
22 February – Conservative MP Peter Thurnham announces his resignation from the House of Commons, reducing the Conservative Government's majority to just two seats. Resignations and by-election defeats have cost the Conservatives nineteen seats since the general election just under four years ago.
28 February
The Princess of Wales (Diana) agrees to give the Prince of Wales (now Charles III) a divorce, more than three years after separating.
Sandra Gregory, a British teacher, is sentenced to 25 years in prison in Thailand for drug smuggling, three years after her arrest at Bangkok Airport. Her co-accused, Robert Lock, is cleared of the same charge and returns home.
March
13 March – A gunman kills sixteen children, a teacher and himself in the Dunblane massacre. The killer is quickly identified as 43-year-old former scout leader Thomas Hamilton. It is the worst killing spree in the United Kingdom since the Hungerford massacre in 1987.
20 March
Home Secretary Michael Howard unveils plans to give courts the power to hand down heavier prison sentences, including sending burglars to prison for at least three years after a third offence and all drug dealers to prison for at least six years. The plans spark controversy, with some critics pointing out that it will increase the prison population by at least 20%.
United Kingdom BSE outbreak: Secretary of State for Health Stephen Dorrell announces a link between the potentially-fatal variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and the eating of beef infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
22 March – The European Union prohibits exports of British beef because of the BSE crisis.
29 March – Three British soldiers are sentenced to life imprisonment in Cyprus for the abduction, attempted rape and manslaughter of Danish woman Louise Jensen. The three soldiers are Allan Ford from Birmingham, Justin Fowler from Falmouth and Jeffrey Pernell from Oldbury.
April
1 April – The Local Government etc. (Scotland) and Local Government (Wales) Acts of 1994 come into effect, creating new unitary authorities.
8 April – Opera singer Donald Adams dies of a brain tumour in Norwich, aged 67.
16 April – South East Staffordshire by-election: In a 22-point swing, Labour wins the Staffordshire South East seat from the Conservative Party at a by-election, cutting the Conservative Government's majority to just three seats almost exactly four years after they began the current term of Parliament with a 21-seat majority.
17 April – The Duke and Duchess of York are divorced after ten years of marriage and four years after their separation.
May
2 May
The Conservatives lose 578 seats in local council elections, while Labour increases its total number of councillors nationally to almost 11,000.
The Football Association announces that Glenn Hoddle, the current Chelsea manager, will succeed Terry Venables as manager of the England national football team after next month's European Championships, which England is hosting for the first time.
5 May – Manchester United win the FA Premier League title for the third time in four seasons.
11 May – Manchester United win the FA Cup for a record ninth time by beating Liverpool 1–0 and become the first team to win the double of the league title and FA Cup twice.
17 May – Timothy Morss and Brett Tyler are found guilty of the murder of Daniel Handley, who disappeared near his London home in October 1994 and whose body was found near Bristol five months later. The Old Bailey trial judge sentences them to life imprisonment and recommends that neither of them is ever released.
20 May – Actor and comedian Jon Pertwee dies aged 76 of a heart attack in Connecticut, United States, shortly after the release of the Doctor Who television film.
30 May
the Duke and Duchess of York complete their divorce proceedings. The former Duchess loses the title HRH and becomes Sarah, Duchess of York.
Sara Thornton, a Warwickshire woman who was jailed for life in 1990 for the murder of her abusive husband Malcolm the previous year, is released from prison after the Court of Appeal reduces her conviction to manslaughter.
June
8 June – The European Football Championships begin in England, with the host nation drawing 1–1 with Switzerland in the opening game.
13 June – The parliament of Guernsey, Channel Islands, votes to legalise abortion 86 years after it was outlawed.
15 June – A bombing takes place in Manchester.
England and Scotland meet for the first time in a major football tournament when they play their group match at Euro '96. England win the match 2–0.
16 June – Launch of The Planet on Sunday, a new Sunday tabloid focusing on environmental issues. Publication of the newspaper ceases after one edition because the owner is unhappy with its content.
19 June – The government selects the Greenwich Peninsula site on the banks of the River Thames as the location for the Millennium Dome exhibition which is set to open for the year 2000.
21 June – The latest MORI poll shows the Conservatives on 31%, their best showing for three years, but they are still 21 points behind Labour with just under a year to go before the next general election is due to be held.
26 June – England's hopes of being European champions of football for the first time are ended with a penalty shootout defeat to Germany after a 1–1 draw in the semi-final.
30 June – Germany wins the European Championship final with a 2–1 victory over the Czech Republic at Wembley.
July
5 July – Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at the Roslin Institute.
8 July – The Spice Girls' debut single Wannabe is released.
12 July – South African President Nelson Mandela visits the UK.
15 July – A Provisional Irish Republican Army unit plotting to disrupt the London electricity supply is arrested in Operation AIRLINES.
18 July – Howard Hughes, 31, is found guilty of the murder of Sophie Hook in Llandudno, North Wales, twelve months ago. He is sentenced to life imprisonment at Chester Crown Court and the trial judge Mr Justice Curtis recommends that he is never released.
19 July–9 August – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and win 1 Gold, 8 Silver and 6 Bronze medals. The only gold medal is won by Matthew Pinsent and Steve Redgrave in rowing (men's coxless pair).
30 July – Alan Shearer becomes the most expensive footballer in the world in a £15,000,000 transfer from Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United F.C.
August
9 August – Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of the turbojet engine, dies of cancer at his home in Columbia, Maryland, United States, aged 89.
14 August – Unemployment has fallen to 2,126,200 – its lowest level since the summer of 1991.
28 August – The Prince and Princess of Wales (Charles and Diana) complete their divorce proceedings after fifteen years of marriage. Their separation was first announced nearly four years ago. The former Princess of Wales loses her style of Royal Highness and assumes the style Diana, Princess of Wales.
September
September
Ford launches its new Ka city car, which makes use of a shortened Fiesta chassis. A revamped Mondeo goes on sale next month.
Launch of the second generation Nissan Primera, built at Nissan's Sunderland factory.
BBC Two shows the first episode of lifestyle reality television show Changing Rooms.
5 September – Matthew Harding, vice-chairman of Chelsea FC, makes a £1,000,000 donation to the Labour Party – the largest donation made to the party by any individual.
20 September – Jockey Willie Carson is injured by a horse at Newbury, Berkshire.
October
2 October – Lawyer and politician John Taylor is made a Life Peer as Baron Taylor of Warwick, the first black Conservative peer.
7 October – The Thiepval barracks bombing in Lisburn (Northern Ireland) injures many people, including a soldier who later dies from his injuries.
12 October – The Conservative government's majority has dwindled to a single seat following the defection of Peter Thurnham to the Liberal Democrats.
13 October
Racing driver Damon Hill wins the Japanese Grand Prix thus, clinching the Drivers' World Championship.
The Queen opens Durham's new Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street, the first new purpose-built first-class county cricket ground in the UK for over 100 years.
16 October – The government announces plans to make possession of handguns illegal in the UK, following the Dunblane massacre.
November
3 November – Barry Porter, Conservative MP for Wirral South, dies of cancer aged 57.
8 November – With the next general election, no more than six months away, Labour still look set for a return to power after eighteen years in opposition, but the Conservatives have cut their lead to seventeen points in the latest MORI opinion poll – one of the narrowest gaps seen between the two leading parties in any opinion poll over the last three years.
13 November – The Stone of Scone is taken away from King Edward's Chair in Westminster Abbey, its location since 1296, and returned to Scotland.
18 November – Channel Tunnel fire – The Channel Tunnel is closed when a truck on a transporter wagon catches fire, disrupting Eurotunnel Shuttle and Eurostar services.
24 November – BBC One airs The Simpsons for the first time with There's No Disgrace Like Home being the first episode.
30 November – The Stone of Scone is installed in Edinburgh Castle 700 years after it was removed from Scotland by King Edward I of England.
December
7 December – Sir John Gorst, 68-year-old Conservative MP for Hendon North in London, resigns the party whip, leaving the Conservative Party without a majority in the House of Commons.
10 December
James Mirrlees wins the Nobel Prize in Economics jointly with William Vickrey "for their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information".
Harold Kroto wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley "for their discovery of fullerenes".
11 December – Comedian Willie Rushton dies aged 59 in hospital in Kensington, London, of a heart attack, ten years after jokingly predicting it.
18 December – Unemployment has fallen below 2,000,000 for the first time in almost six years, four years since it peaked at nearly 3,000,000 during the recession. Despite the strong economic recovery and falling unemployment, the Conservatives are still trailing behind Labour in the opinion polls, a stark contrast to their performance at the last election, where they retained power despite Britain being in recession.
Undated
Remaining provincial branches of the Bank of England, at Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol, are closed.
More than 4% of the UK population (some 2,500,000 people) now have internet access.
New car sales in the United Kingdom are above 2,000,000 for this year, a level last seen in 1990.
Panathlon Foundation is formed by Ashley Iceton.
Publications
Iain M. Banks's novel Excession.
Seamus Deane's novel Reading in the Dark.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels Feet of Clay and Hogfather; and his Johnny Maxwell novel Johnny and the Bomb.
Graham Swift's novel Last Orders.
Meera Syal's semi-autobiographical novel Anita and Me.
Births
January
3 January – Florence Pugh, actress
4 January – Jade Jones, athlete
5 January – Maxim Baldry, English actor
8 January – Hiram Boateng, footballer
10 January – Lauren McCrostie, actress
11 January – Charlie Coulson, footballer
17 January – Kirsty Hickey, actor, singer and dancer
21 January – Kyle Lander, footballer
23 January – Ruben Loftus-Cheek, footballer
26 January – Tyger Drew-Honey, actor
29 January – Megan Jossa, actress
February
1 February
Josh Bates, motorcycle speedway rider
Dionne Bromfield, singer-songwriter and television presenter
7 February – Nathan Curtis, footballer
14 February – Bethany Firth, swimmer
20 February – Patrick Brough, footballer
21 February – Sophie Turner, actress
March
11 March – William Lenney, YouTuber
12 March – Byron Lawrence, footballer
16 March – Ivan Toney, footballer
17 March – Lydia Lloyd-Henry, actress
19 March – Kaiya Jones, Scottish-born Australian actress
20 March – Charley Hull, golfer
21 March – Adam Ellis, French-born grasstrack and speedway rider
22 March
Jonathan Mason, actor
Izzy Meikle-Small, actress
31 March – Barney Gibson, cricketer
April
3 April – Anna Jobarteh, actress
5 April – Lowri Shone, ballerina
8 April – Lorna Fitzgerald, actress
11 April – Dele Alli, footballer
12 April – Georgia Hall, golfer
17 April – Lorna Fitzgerald, actress
23 April – Charlie Rowe, actor
25 April
Bryn Morris, footballer
Brad Walker, footballer
May
3 May – Danielle Alakija, athlete
15 May – Birdy, musician
16 May – Jermaine Anderson, footballer
31 May – Martha Thomas, footballer
June
1 June – Tom Holland, actor and dancer
4 June – Ruby Harrold, gymnast
11 June – Hakeeb Adelakun, footballer
23 June – Charlie Jones, actor
24 June – Harris Dickinson, actor, writer, and director
27 June – James Forde, actor
28 June – William Miller, actor
30 June – Gregor Ramsay, racing driver
July
9 July – Scott McMann, footballer
11 July – Ross Stewart, footballer
13 July – Ché Adams, footballer
15 July – Mason Bennett, footballer
16 July – Daniel Pearson, actor and presenter
20 July – Martin James Bartlett, pianist
24 July – Jordan McGhee, footballer
26 July
Olivia Breen, athlete
CDawgVA, youtuber
28 July
Anya Chalotra, actress
Samuel Chatto, son of Lady Sarah Chatto and Daniel Chatto
August
2 August – Robert Madge, actor
5 August – Hannah Russell, paralympic swimmer
9 August – Céline Buckens, Belgian-born actress
20 August – Sophie Kamlish, paralympic
22 August
Jessica-Jane Applegate, swimmer
Shannon Flynn, actress
26 August – Tom Harwood, journalist
September
2 September – Hannah Jones, snooker player
11 September – Swarmz, rapper
17 September – Ella Purnell, actress
20 September – Jerome Sinclair, footballer
25 September
Jake Pratt, actor
John Souttar, footballer
28 September – Aiden Moffat, racing driver
October
4 October – Ella Balinska, actress
7 October – Lewis Capaldi, Scottish singer-songwriter
11 October – Hollie Doyle, flat racing jockey
16 October – Sam Thornton, diver
17 October – Princess Marie-Caroline of Liechtenstein
19 October
Daniel Goodfellow, diver
Samuel Honywood, actor
21 October – Alicia Blagg, diver
22 October – Mason Holgate, footballer
25 October – Georgia Lock, actress and presenter
26 October – Rebecca Tunney, gymnast
31 October – Connor Wilkinson, actor
November
11 November – Ryan Kent, footballer
12 November – Alexander Ogilvy, son of James Ogilvy
23 November – James Maddison, footballer
24 November – Harry Lewis, youtuber
28 November – Peter Moore, trombonist
December
9 December – Deji Olatunji, youtuber and brother of KSI
18 December – Devaanshi Mehta, started the Asian Donor Campaign (ADC) (died 2012)
21 December – Ben Chilwell, footballer
26 December – Cassius Taylor, son of Lady Helen Taylor
Full date unknown
Maz Totterdell, singer and songwriter
Nadia Whittome, Labour Member of Parliament
Deaths
January
3 January – Terence Cuneo, artist (born 1907)
6 January
Henry Hopkinson, 1st Baron Colyton, politician and diplomat (born 1902)
John Philipps Kenyon, historian (born 1927)
7 January – Seton Lloyd, archaeologist (born 1902)
8 January
Joyce McCartan, Northern Irish community worker and peace activist (born 1929)
Norrie McCathie, Scottish footballer (born 1961); poisoning
9 January – Ronnie Bell, physical chemist (born 1907)
11 January
Harold Walter Bailey, linguist (born 1899)
Eric Hebborn, painter and author (born 1934)
15 January – Richard Cobb, historian and professor (born 1917)
16 January – Harry Potts, footballer and manager (born 1920)
17 January
Charles Madge, poet, journalist and sociologist (born 1912)
Harry Robertson, musician and composer (born 1932)
18 January – John Hope, 1st Baron Glendevon, peer and politician (born 1912)
21 January – Peter Stadlen, pianist (born 1910 in Austria-Hungary)
23 January – Norman MacCaig, poet and teacher (born 1910)
27 January – Barbara Skelton, socialite (born 1916)
29 January – Terence Reese, bridge player and writer (born 1913)
February
6 February
Renee Roberts, actress (born 1908)
Patsy Smart, actress (born 1918)
9 February
Sir George Trevelyan, 4th Baronet, educational pioneer (born 1906)
Sir Stephen Hope Carlill, Royal Navy admiral (born 1902)
Gerald Savory, playwright and screenwriter (born 1909)
10 February – Giovanni Pontiero, scholar (born 1932)
11 February
Cyril Poole, cricketer (born 1921)
Bob Shaw, Northern Irish science fiction writer (born 1931)
14 February
Lady Caroline Blackwood, writer (born 1931)
Eva Hart, fifth-last survivor of the sinking of RMS Titanic (born 1905)
Čeněk Kottnauer, chess player, International Master (1950) (born 1910 in Austria-Hungary)
Bob Paisley, footballer and manager (born 1919)
15 February – Margaret Courtenay, actress (born 1923)
16 February – Kenneth Robinson, politician (born 1911)
17 February – Evelyn Laye, actress (born 1900)
19 February – Brenda Bruce, actress (born 1919)
20 February
Walter Marshall, Baron Marshall of Goring, physicist (born 1932)
Jeffrey Quill, RAF test pilot (born 1913)
22 February – George Christopher Archibald, economist (born 1926)
26 February – John Dalrymple, 13th Earl of Stair, Scottish peer (born 1906)
27 February
Iain Murray, 10th Duke of Atholl, Scottish peer (born 1931)
Pat Smythe, show jumper (born 1928)
March
5 March – Joshua Compston, art curator (born 1970); drug overdose
6 March
Simon Cadell, actor (born 1950)
Douglas Jay, Baron Jay, politician (born 1907)
7 March – Willie Fraser, Scottish footballer (born 1929)
8 March – Jack Churchill, British Army officer (born 1906 in Hong Kong)
11 March
Sir Granville Beynon, physicist (born 1914)
Paul Crossley, English footballer (born 1948)
Sir Charles Oatley, physicist (born 1904)
15 March – Helen Chadwick, sculptor (born 1953)
16 March – Dennis Jennings, English footballer (born 1910)
18 March – Jacquetta Hawkes, prehistoric archaeologist (born 1910)
19 March
W. H. Murray, mountaineer and writer (born 1913)
Alan Ridout, composer (born 1934)
22 March – Ron Hayward, politician (born 1917)
25 March – John Snagge, radio personality (born 1904)
29 March – Gordon Pask, psychologist (born 1928)
30 March – Frederick Miller, paediatrician (born 1911)
April
4 April
Brian Abel-Smith, economist (born 1926)
Winifred Shotter, actress (born 1904)
6 April – Greer Garson, actress (born 1904)
7 April – Berkely Mather, writer (born 1909)
8 April – Donald Adams, actor and opera singer (born 1928)
13 April
George Mackay Brown, Scottish poet and dramatist (born 1921)
Denis Sargan, econometrician (born 1924)
14 April – Mervyn Levy, artist and writer on art (born 1914)
18 April – Mike Leander, songwriter and record producer (born 1941)
19 April – John Martin, spree killer (born 1959); executed in Singapore
20 April – Christopher Robin Milne, author and bookseller (born 1920)
23 April – P. L. Travers, novelist (Mary Poppins) (born 1899 in Australia)
24 April
Donald Cammell, Scottish screenwriter and film director (born 1934); suicide
Preston Lockwood, actor (born 1912)
25 April – John Lorne Campbell, Scottish historian (born 1906)
27 April – Joan Sterndale-Bennett, actress (born 1914)
May
1 May – Eric Houghton, English footballer and manager (born 1910)
2 May
Douglas Houghton, Baron Houghton of Sowerby, politician, last Cabinet minister born in the 19th century (born 1898)
Peter Swales, businessman and football chairman (born 1932)
5 May – Beryl Burton, racing cyclist (born 1937)
6 May – Wally Nightingale, guitarist (born 1956)
7 May
Albert Meltzer, anarchist writer (born 1920)
Howard Smith, diplomat (born 1919)
14 May – Vera Chapman, writer (born 1898)
19 May – Margaret Rawlings, actress (born 1906)
20 May – Jon Pertwee, actor (born 1919)
23 May – Patrick Cargill, actor (born 1918)
24 May
John Abbott, actor (born 1905)
Sir Harry Campion, statistician (born 1905)
25 May – John Morrison, 1st Baron Margadale, peer and politician (born 1906)
29 May – Jeremy Sinden, actor (born 1950)
30 May
John Cameron, Lord Cameron, Scottish judge (born 1900)
Heather Canning, actress (born 1933)
June
2 June – Leon Garfield, children's author (born 1921)
3 June – Peter Glenville, actor and director (born 1913)
7 June – Percy Edwards, animal impersonator (born 1908)
8 June – Phyllis Stedman, Baroness Stedman, politician (born 1916)
15 June
Allenby Chilton, former footballer and football manager (born 1918)
Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 1st Baronet, Scottish soldier, writer and politician (born 1911)
17 June – James Hamilton, disc jockey and journalist (born 1942)
19 June – Vivian Ellis, composer and lyricist (born 1903)
20 June – John Buchan, 2nd Baron Tweedsmuir, peer (born 1911)
21 June – Cyril Holmes, Olympic sprinter (1936) (born 1915)
25 June – Ray Howard-Jones, painter (born 1903)
29 June – Pamela Mason, actress and screenwriter (born 1916)
July
1 July – Alfred Marks, actor and comedian (born 1921)
7 July – Michael McGoldrick, Northern Irish taxi driver (born 1965); murdered
8 July – Ernest Armstrong, politician (born 1915)
9 July – Christopher Casson, actor (born 1912)
12 July – Walter Hassan, automotive engineer (born 1907)
14 July – Richard Ripley, athlete (born 1901)
17 July
Chas Chandler, musician and record producer (born 1938)
Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, landscape architect (born 1900)
19 July – Mervyn Cowie, conservationist (born 1909)
20 July – Colin Mitchell, Army soldier and politician (born 1925)
21 July – Wolfe Morris, actor (born 1925)
22 July – Rob Collins, musician (born 1963); died in a car accident
23 July – Jessica Mitford, author, one of the Mitford sisters (born 1917)
24 July – Jock Wallace, Scottish footballer and manager (born 1935)
27 July – Jane Drew, writer, architect and academic (born 1911)
29 July – Hilary Pritchard, actress (born 1942)
August
4 August – Geoff Hamilton, television presenter (born 1936)
5 August – Frank Marcus, playwright (born 1928)
6 August
Ossie Clark, fashion designer (born 1942); murdered
Charles Hadfield, historian (born 1909)
7 August – Anne Kristen, actress (born 1937)
8 August – Sir Neville Francis Mott, physicist (born 1905)
9 August – Sir Frank Whittle, RAF officer and inventor (born 1907)
10 August – Rex Tucker, television director (born 1913)
12 August – Anthony Parsons, diplomat (born 1922)
14 August – Albert Neuberger, biochemist (born 1908, German Empire)
18 August
Geoffrey Dearmer, poet (born 1893)
Hugo Gryn, rabbi (born 1930)
24 August – Eric Heaton, priest and scholar (born 1920)
27 August – Abram Games, graphic designer (born 1914)
29 August – Phyllis Pearsall, cartographer and creator of the A–Z (born 1906)
September
3 September – Julian Amery, Baron Amery of Lustleigh, politician (born 1919)
4 September – Joan Clarke, cryptanalyst and numismatist (born 1917)
10 September
Ray Coleman, journalist and author (born 1937)
Plantagenet Somerset Fry, historian (born 1931); suicide
11 September – Brenda Forbes, actress (born 1909)
13 September – Jane Baxter, actress (born 1909)
19 September
George Hunt, English footballer (born 1910)
Douglas Hyde, journalist and writer (born 1911)
22 September – Brook Bernacchi, lawyer (born 1922)
23 September – Stuart Piggott, archaeologist (born 1910)
24 September
I. E. S. Edwards, Egyptologist (born 1909)
Mark Frankel, actor (born 1962); accidentally killed
26 September – Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson, chemist (born 1921)
29 September – Leslie Crowther, comedian and TV presenter (born 1933)
30 September – Kenneth Muir, literary scholar (born 1907)
October
3 October – Eustace Roskill, Baron Roskill, lawyer and judge (born 1911)
6 October – Winifred Drinkwater, aviator and aeroplane engineer (born 1913)
8 October – Geoffrey Finsberg, politician (born 1926)
9 October
Nigel Fisher, politician (born 1913)
George F. Kerr, screenwriter (born 1918)
Roy Lewis, writer and small press printer (born 1913)
11 October – Terry Patchett, politician (born 1940)
13 October – Beryl Reid, actress (born 1919)
14 October – William John Hooper, cartoonist (born 1916)
16 October
Sir Anthony Griffin, Royal Navy admiral (born 1920)
Eric Malpass, novelist (born 1910)
17 October
Chris Acland, rock drummer and songwriter (born 1966); suicide
Berthold Goldschmidt, composer (born 1903, German Empire)
Bert Hopwood, motorcycle designer (born 1908)
19 October – John Hillaby, travel writer and explorer (born 1917)
21 October – Eric Halsall, author and television presenter (born 1920)
22 October
John Bauldie, journalist (born 1949); helicopter crash
Matthew Harding, businessman (born 1953); same helicopter crash
24 October
Sir Roderick Barclay, diplomat (born 1909)
Gladwyn Jebb, diplomat and politician (born 1900)
26 October – Derek Tangye, author (born 1912)
28 October – Robert Hankey, 2nd Baron Hankey, peer and diplomat (born 1905)
November
3 November – Barry Porter, politician (born 1939)
6 November – Tommy Lawton, footballer (born 1919)
8 November
Laurence Baxter, statistician (born 1954)
Peter Fowler, physicist (born 1923)
Sydney Selwyn, physician (born 1934)
9 November – Roger Makins, 1st Baron Sherfield, diplomat (born 1904)
10 November – Marjorie Proops, journalist (born 1911)
11 November – Janice Adair, film actress (born 1905)
14 November – Derek Marlowe, playwright, novelist and painter (born 1938)
16 November
Reginald Bevins, politician (born 1908)
Jack Popplewell, playwright (born 1909)
18 November
Douglas Guest, organist and conductor (born 1916)
Charles Hare, tennis player (born 1915)
John Vassall, Soviet spy (born 1924)
21 November – Bernard Rose, organist, soldier and academic (born 1916)
24 November – Sorley MacLean, Scottish Gaelic poet (born 1911)
26 November – Michael Bentine, comedian and comic actor (born 1922)
28 November – Anna Pollak, opera singer (born 1912)
29 November – Denis Jenkinson, motorsports journalist (born 1920)
December
9 December
Mary Leakey, archaeologist (born 1913)
Diana Morgan, playwright and screenwriter (born 1908)
Ivor Roberts-Jones, sculptor (born 1913)
Raphael Samuel, Marxist historian (born 1934)
11 December
Willie Rushton, comedian, actor and cartoonist (born 1937)
W. G. G. Duncan Smith, World War II air ace (born 1914)
13 December
Edward Blishen, author and broadcaster (born 1920)
Sir James Cassels, Army field marshal (born 1907)
Arthur Jacobs, musicologist (born 1922)
15 December – Dave Kaye, pianist (born 1906)
16 December – Quentin Bell, biographer and art historian (born 1910)
17 December – Ruby Murray, Northern Irish singer (born 1925)
18 December – Gwilym Hugh Lewis, World War I air ace (born 1897)
19 December – Ronald Howard, actor and writer (born 1908)
23 December
Ronnie Scott, jazz musician and club owner (born 1927)
Emrys Thomas, Welsh politician (born 1900)
29 December – Alma Birk, Baroness Birk, politician and journalist (born 1917)
30 December – Michael Roberts, historian (born 1908)
See also
List of British films of 1996
References
United Kingdom
Years of the 20th century in the United Kingdom