List of Famous people who died in 1939

Brigadier-General Sir Terence Humphrey Keyes, was an officer in the British Indian Army and the Indian Political Service.

Pope Pius XI, born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929. He took as his papal motto "Pax Christi in Regno Christi," translated "The Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ."

Francis Mostyn was a Welsh prelate who served in the Roman Catholic Church as the Archbishop of Cardiff from 1921 until his death in 1939.

Charlotte Despard was an Anglo-Irish suffragist, socialist, pacifist, Sinn Féin activist, and novelist. She was a founding member of the Women's Freedom League, Women's Peace Crusade, and the Irish Women's Franchise League, and an activist in a wide range of political organizations over the course of her life, including among others the Women's Social and Political Union, Humanitarian League, Labour Party, Cumann na mBan, and the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Edmund Heller was an American zoologist. He was President of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums for two terms, from 1935-1936 and 1937-1938.

Franz Schmidt, also Ferenc Schmidt was an Austro-Hungarian composer, cellist and pianist.

Willem Abraham Wythoff, born Wijthoff, was a Dutch mathematician.

Eugene Noble Foss was an American politician and businessman from Massachusetts. Foss controlled a Boston-based industrial ventilation equipment manufacturer, and was active in both the Republican and Democratic parties. He was briefly a member of the United States House of Representatives, and served as the 45th Governor of Massachusetts (1911–13). He was generally pro-business and anti-labor, but was in favor of reduced tariffs, particularly for trade with Canada.

Isaak Izrailevich Brodsky was a Soviet painter whose work provided a blueprint for the art movement of socialist realism. He is known for his iconic portrayals of Lenin and idealized, carefully crafted paintings dedicated to the events of the Russian Civil War and Bolshevik Revolution.