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UK-related events during the year of 1885
Events from the year 1885 in the United Kingdom .
Incumbents
Events
Theatre poster for
The Mikado
Original
Blackpool Tramway car
January –
Socialist League formed as a breakaway from the
Social Democratic Federation by
William Morris ,
Eleanor Marx and others.
17 January –
Mahdist War : British victory at the
Battle of Abu Klea .
24 January
26 January – Mahdist War: in
Sudan , following the
Siege of Khartoum , British and
Egyptian forces are defeated by the
Mahdist
Sudanese . The British commander
Charles George Gordon is killed.
[2]
4 February – The National Association for Employment of Reserve and Discharged Soldiers (modern-day
RFEA – The Forces Employment Charity ) is set up to help ex-military personnel find civilian jobs.
23 February – The executioner at
HM Prison Exeter fails after several attempts to
hang
John 'Babbacombe' Lee , sentenced for the murder of his employer Emma Keyse; Lee's sentence is commuted to
life imprisonment .
26 February – The
Berlin Conference concludes with the major European powers including the United Kingdom establishing their spheres of influence in the "
scramble for Africa ".
[2]
14 March –
Gilbert and
Sullivan 's comic opera
The Mikado opens at the
Savoy Theatre in London.
[3]
26 March – First legal
cremation in England: widowed painter
Jeanette Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles",
[4] is cremated by the Cremation Society at
Woking Crematorium in Surrey.
31 March – The United Kingdom establishes a
protectorate over
Bechuanaland .
29 April – Women are permitted to take the
University of Oxford entrance examination for the first time.
[5]
5 June –
Niger River basin becomes a British protectorate.
[1]
8 June –
Second defeat of the Gladstone ministry :
William Ewart Gladstone 's
Liberal government is defeated in a vote of no confidence on the budget
[6] following criticism of the fall of Khartoum and violence in
Ireland .
9 June – Gladstone resigns
[6] and
Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury forms a new
Conservative government.
[2]
18 June –
Clifton Hall Colliery disaster: an explosion kills 178 in
Salford .
24 June –
Lord Randolph Churchill becomes
Secretary of State for India .
25 June –
Redistribution of Seats Act improves
apportionment of seats in the House of Commons.
26 June –
John Everett Millais granted a
baronetcy ,
[7] the first artist to accept a
hereditary title (
G. F. Watts refuses for a second time).
6–9 July –
Eliza Armstrong case : Campaigning journalist
W. T. Stead publishes a series of articles in the
Pall Mall Gazette entitled
The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon exposing the extent of female
child prostitution in
London .
[2]
20 July –
The Football Association recognises professional players in England.
[5]
22 July –
Caister Lifeboat capsizes: 8 of 15 crew are killed.
7 August –
Criminal Law Amendment Act passes through
Parliament , raising the
age of consent from 13 to 16, and thereby outlawing child prostitution. The
Labouchere Amendment to the Act outlaws "gross indecency" between males.
[2]
August –
National Vigilance Association established "for the enforcement and improvement of the laws for the repression of criminal vice and public immorality".
[8]
12 September
Bury F.C. , formed in a meeting between the Bury Wesleyans and Bury Unitarians Football Clubs, play at
Gigg Lane for the first time, beating a
Wigan team 4–3.
Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord , the all-time largest margin of victory in professional football.
29 September – Opening of the
Blackpool tramway , the first to be electrically powered.
[5]
30 September – A British force abolishes the
Boer republic of
Stellaland and adds it to
British Bechuanaland .
October –
Third Burmese War begins.
[2]
3 October –
Millwall F.C. is founded by workers on the
Isle of Dogs in London as Millwall Rovers.
23 November –
1885 United Kingdom general election : Liberals under Gladstone hold the largest number of seats, but Salisbury remains Prime Minister with the support of the
Irish Party .
[1]
28 November – British occupy
Mandalay ;
[1]
Burma annexed to
British India .
Undated
Publications
Births
21 January –
Duncan Grant , painter (died 1978)
24 January –
Marjory Stephenson , biochemist (died 1948)
25 January –
William Wand ,
Bishop of London (died 1977)
26 January –
Harry Ricardo , mechanical engineer (died 1974)
16 February –
Will Fyffe , Scottish music hall entertainer (died 1947)
25 February –
Princess Alice of Battenberg (died 1969)
[14]
7 March –
John Tovey , admiral of the fleet (died 1971)
11 March –
Malcolm Campbell , land and water racer (died 1948)
1 May –
A. V. Alexander , politician (died 1965)
6 June –
Roy Fedden , aircraft engine designer (died 1973)
9 June –
John Edensor Littlewood , mathematician (died 1977)
22 June –
James Maxton , Scottish socialist, leader of the Independent Labour Party (died 1946)
18 August –
A. E. J. Collins , cricketer and soldier (died 1914)
11 September –
D. H. Lawrence , novelist (died 1930)
Deaths
26 January –
Charles George Gordon , general (killed in battle) (born 1833)
1 February –
Sidney Gilchrist Thomas , inventor (born 1850)
15 March –
Jane Williams (Ysgafell) , writer (born 1806)
18 March –
Sir Thomas Bazley, 1st Baronet , industrialist and politician (born 1797)
20 March –
Christopher Wordsworth , Anglican bishop and Biblical commentator (born 1807)
22 March – Sir
Harry Parkes , diplomat (born 1828)
8 April –
Susanna Moodie , writer on Canada (born 1803)
5 June – Sir
Julius Benedict , composer and conductor (born 1804 in Germany)
12 June –
Fleeming Jenkin , engineer (born 1833)
6 July –
Henry Corry Rowley Becher , lawyer, politician and author (born 1817)
28 July – Sir
Moses Montefiore , Jewish financier and philanthropist (born 1784 in Italy)
8 August –
Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax , politician (born 1800)
11 August –
Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton , man of letters and politician (born 1809)
30 August –
Thomas Thornycroft , sculptor (born 1815)
1 October –
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury , politician and philanthropist (born 1801)
9 October –
John Bowes , art collector (born 1811)
26 November –
Thomas Andrews , chemist (born 1813)
References
^
a
b
c
d Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 310–311.
ISBN
0-7126-5616-2 .
^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j Williams, Hywel (2005).
Cassell's Chronology of World History . London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp.
438–440 .
ISBN
0-304-35730-8 .
^ The Hutchinson Factfinder . Helicon. 1999.
ISBN
1-85986-000-1 .
^ "Cremation".
The Times . No. 31405. London. 27 March 1885. p. 10.
^
a
b
c Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006.
ISBN
0-14-102715-0 .
^
a
b
"William Ewart Gladstone" . Archontology.org .
Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 18 September 2023 .
^ "New Honours".
St James's Gazette . London. 26 June 1885. p. 10.
^ Fellion, Matthew; Inglis, Katherine (5 September 2017).
Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control . Montreal: McGill-Queen's Press.
ISBN
9780773551893 .
^
"Icons of Invention: Rover safety bicycle, 1885" . Making the Modern World .
Science Museum (London) .
Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2011 .
^ Eveleigh, David J. (2008). Privies and Water Closets . Oxford: Shire Publications.
ISBN
978-0-7478-0702-5 .
^ James, J. (1997). All about Sway Tower . Lymington: Lymington Museum Trust.
^ Trout, Edwin (October 2002). "Sway Tower: an early example of high-rise concrete construction". Concrete : 64–5.
^ Marlowe, Michael D.
"English Revised Version (1881–1895)" . Archived from
the original on 16 June 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2010 .
^ Smith, Lyn (2012).
Heroes of the Holocaust: Ordinary Britons Who Risked Their Lives to Make a Difference . Ebury Publishing. p. 171.
ISBN
978-0-09-194067-6 .