List of Famous people who died in 1940

Marie Louis Adolphe Guillaumat was a French Army general during World War I.

Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, was a British physicist and writer involved in the development of, and holder of key patents for, radio. He identified electromagnetic radiation independent of Hertz's proof and at his 1894 Royal Institution lectures, Lodge demonstrated an early radio wave detector he named the "coherer". In 1898 he was awarded the "syntonic" patent by the United States Patent Office. Lodge was Principal of the University of Birmingham from 1900 to 1920.

Frank White was the eighth Governor of North Dakota from 1901 to 1905. He was a Republican who also served as Treasurer of the United States from 1921 to 1928.

Beekman Winthrop was an American lawyer, government official and banker. He served as Governor of Puerto Rico from 1904 to 1907, as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in 1907–1909, and Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1909–1913.

David Alexander Edward Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford and 10th Earl of Balcarres,, styled Lord Balcarres or Lord Balniel between 1880 and 1913, was a British Conservative politician and art connoisseur.

Edgar Holmes Adams was an American competition diver and swimmer, numismatic scholar, author, coin collector and dealer.

Evandro Serafim Lobo Chagas, was a Brazilian physician and biomedical scientist specializing in tropical medicine. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, the eldest son of Carlos Chagas (1879-1934), noted physician and scientist who discovered Chagas disease, and brother of Carlos Chagas Filho (1910-2000), also a noted physician and scientist who was president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

István Thomán was a Hungarian piano virtuoso and music educator. He was a notable piano teacher, with students including Béla Bartók, Ernő Dohnányi and Georges Cziffra. His six-volume Technique of Piano Playing is still in use today.