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| 1937 |
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| Billy Butlin set up the first commercial holiday camp at Skegness, as traveling during annual holidays and regular bank holidays became more popular. | 1 |
| Lewis Ltd. signed the first comprehensive wages agreement in Britain. | 2 |
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| May 28 |
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| Neville Chamberlain became prime minister on the retirement of Stanley Baldwin. Chamberlain had been chancellor of the exchequer. He was confronted at the outset with a most difficult and dangerous European situation, which overshadowed all issues of purely domestic character. Abandoning the rather aimless, opportunist policy of Baldwin, Chamberlain held that peace, in order to be secured, would have to be definitely worked for. He therefore sought to reach agreements with Germany and Italy, even at the expense of considerable concessions. This became known as the policy of appeasement. | 3 |
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| July 8 |
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| Publication of the Peel Report recommending the ending of the Palestine mandate and the division of the country into Arab and Jewish states, Britain to retain a mandate only over Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and a corridor to the sea. Parliament refused to commit itself to this scheme, and the opposition to it on the part of both Jews and Arabs resulted in its reconsideration (See 1936, April). | 4 |
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| July 23 |
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| The Matrimonial Causes Act facilitated divorce proceedings in England and Wales. | 5 |
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| Nov. 17 |
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| Visit of Lord Halifax to Chancellor Hitler at Berchtesgaden. This was the first concrete step in the policy of appeasement. | 6 |
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