* 2012 – Jack Ashley, Baron Ashley of Stoke, British politician and campaigner for disabled rights ( b. 1922 )

* 2012 – Ambrose Weekes, British alglican bishop ( b. 1919 )

* British Services Antarctic Expedition 2012

The size and structure of the British Army is continually evolving, but as of 1 July 2012, the British Army employs ; 107, 340 full-time soldiers ( 103, 590 Regulars, 3, 750 Gurkhas ) and 31, 600 Territorial soldiers for a combined component strength of 138, 500 soldiers.

The table below shows historical personnel trends of the British Army from 1750 to 2012.

In February 2012 an MI5 file on Chaplin was opened to the public which revealed that the FBI had contacted the British secret service to provide them with information which would enable them to ban Chaplin from the US.

In 2012 relations came under strain when Julian Assange, founder of the Wikileaks website, entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London and sought asylum ; Assange had recently lost a legal case against his extradition to Sweden on charges of sexual assault and rape, but when within the embassy he was on diplomatic territory and beyond the reach of the British police.

On 30 August 2012 it was announced that British firm Nyota Minerals was about to become the first foreign company to receive a mining licence to extract gold from an estimated resource of 52 tonnes in western Ethiopia.

* 1901 – Florence Green, British, last surviving veteran of World War I ( d. 2012 )

* 2012 – Robin Corbett, Baron Corbett of Castle Vale, British politician ( b. 1933 )

* 2012 – Florence Green, British, last surviving veteran of World War I ( b. 1901 )

In September, 2012, a British Comedy Society blue plaque, to commemorate Chapman, was unveiled at The Angel pub in Highgate, North London, by Jones, Palin, Barry Cryer and Carol Cleveland.

** Lotus F1 Team, a British Formula One team that started competing in 2012 season

* 1950 – Mary Tamm, British actress ( d. 2012 )

* 2012 – Paul McBride, British lawyer ( b. c. 1965 )

On the 13th of January 2012, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the US will exchange ambassadors with Burma, after a landmark Burmese political prisoner amnesty .< ref > British Broadcasting Corporation ( BBC )– US to exchange ambassadors with Burma, < http :// www. bbc. co. uk / news / world-asia-16554415 >.

* 1917 – Andrew Fielding Huxley, British scientist, Nobel laureate ( d. 2012 )

* The Phoenix ( comics ), a weekly British comic that started in 2012

However, by 2012 the influence of these small British shareholders over the overwhelmingly non-British owners ( mainly the publicly owned French company EDF ) of the firms that generate and distribute power in Britain is negligible.

* British Services Antarctic Expedition 2012 – In the Spirit of Scott

In 2009 the BBC broadcast Cruickshank on Kew: The Garden That Changed the World, a history of the relationship between Kew Gardens, David Attenborough's kingdom of plants 3D ( Aired on Sky Atlantic, and Sky 3D ' June 2012 '), and the British Empire.

Another theory, brought forth in 2012, suggests that the monument was intended to unify the different peoples of the British island.

In January 2012, British MP Tom Watson discovered that a public relations firm Portland Communications, hired by Stella Artois had been removing this fact from Wikipedia.

* In June 2012 started the filming of Twelve Years a Slave ( film ), directed by British director Steve McQueen who also co-wrote the script with John Ridley to adapt Northup's memoir book.

* 2012 – Ekrem Bora, Turkish actor ( b. 1934 )

* 1928 – Henning Moritzen, Danish actor ( d. 2012 )

* 1915 – A. K. Hangal, Indian actor ( d. 2012 )

* 1921 – August Kowalczyk, Polish actor, director, and Holocaust survivor ( d. 2012 )

* 1949 – Ron Palillo, American actor ( d. 2012 )

* 1930 – Ben Gazzara, American actor ( d. 2012 )

* 2012 – Jonathan Frid, Canadian actor ( b. 1924 )

* 2012 – Steven Kanumba Tanzanian actor ( b. 1984 )

* 1945 – Davy Jones, English singer, songwriter and actor ( The Monkees )( d. 2012 )

David Thomas " Davy " Jones ( 30 December 1945 – 29 February 2012 ) was an English recording artist, actor, and businessman, best known as a member of the musical group The Monkees and star of the TV series of the same name.

* 2012 – Davy Jones, English singer, songwriter and actor ( The Monkees ) ( b. 1945 )

* 1938 – James Farentino, American actor ( d. 2012 )

* 1939 – Joy Mukherjee, Indian actor and director ( d. 2012 )

* 1944 – Geoffrey Hughes, English actor ( d. 2012 )

* 1929 – Lehri, Pakistani actor and comedian ( d. 2012 )

* 1934 – Jerry Nelson, American puppeteer and voice actor ( d. 2012 )

* 1949 – Winston Rekert, Canadian actor ( d. 2012 )

* 2012 – Athinodoros Prousalis, Greek actor ( b. 1926 )

* 2012 – Andy Griffith, American actor, director, producer and writer ( b. 1926 )

* 2012 – Hugó Gruber, Hungarian actor ( b. 1938 )

* 2012 – Eric Sykes, English actor, writer, and director ( b. 1923 )

* 1926 – Andy Griffith, American actor, singer, director, producer, and writer ( d. 2012 )

* 2012 – Mouss Diouf, French-Senegalese actor and comedian ( b. 1964 )

* 2012 – Frank Cady, American actor ( b. 1915 )

* 1929 – David Kelly, Irish actor ( d. 2012 )