1852 in the United Kingdom

1852 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1850 | 1851 | 1852 | 1853 | 1854

Sport

1852 English cricket season

Events from the year 1852 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Victoria
• Prime Minister –
  • until 23 February: The Earl Russell (Liberal)
  • 23 February-19 December: The Earl of Derby (Conservative)
  • starting 19 December: The Earl of Aberdeen (Peelite)

Events

• 17 January — United Kingdom recognises the independence of the Transvaal.
• 5 February — Holmfirth Flood caused by collapse of the embankment at Bilberry reservoir in the West Riding of Yorkshire: 81 killed.^[1]
• 11 February — The first British public toilet for women opens in Bedford Street, London.
• 14 February — Great Ormond Street Hospital in London admits its first patient.^[2]
• 21 February — Earl Russell resigns as Prime Minister after his Militia Bill is amended.^[3]
• 23 February — The Earl of Derby forms a minority Protectionist Conservative government.^[3]
• 27 February — Lord Derby appoints Benjamin Disraeli as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
• 1 March — Archibald William Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
• 1 April — Start of the Second Burmese War.
• April — Samuel Orchart Beeton begins publication of The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, the first for women.^[4]
• May — The Museum of Manufactures, predecessor of the Victoria and Albert Museum, is opened in London, initially at Marlborough House.^[5]
• 21 June — Trial of Cardinal John Henry Newman for the defamation of Giacinto Achilli opens in London. Newman is convicted on 25 June.^[6]
• 29 June — Protestant-Catholic riots in Stockport.^[7]
• 30 June — Colony of New Zealand granted its first representative government.^[3]
• 7–31 July — General election: Lord Derby retains power.
• 2 September — The public library in Campfield, Manchester, is the first to offer free lending^[8] under the Public Libraries Act 1850.
• 1 October — Patent Law Amendment Act comes into effect, merging the English, Scottish and Irish patent systems.
• 14 October — Great Northern Railway opens London King's Cross station,^[9] the largest in Europe at this time.^[3]
• 19 October — The last fatal duel on English soil takes place on Priest Hill, between Englefield Green and Old Windsor, between two French political exiles Emmanuel Barthélemy and Frederic Cournet.^[10] Cournet was killed. Barthélemy is tried for murder but only convicted of manslaughter and served a few months in prison. He is hanged two years later after another killing.
• 11 November — New Palace of Westminster opens in London.
• 1 to 30 November – The second-wettest month in the EWP series (wettest until 1903) with an average of 202.5 millimetres (7.97 in).^[11] It beat November 1772 with 200.8 millimetres (7.91 in)
• 17 December — Earl of Derby resigns as Prime Minister, following the defeat of his budget.^[3]
• 28 December — Earl of Aberdeen becomes Prime Minister, leading a Whig-Peelite coalition.^[3]

Undated

• End of the Great Famine (Ireland).^[12] In the period it has lasted since 1845, one million people have emigrated from Ireland. The Irish now make up a quarter of the population of Liverpool, and the same is true of cities on the east coast of North America.
• First Synod of the newly created Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster is held at St Mary's College, Oscott, Birmingham.
• The House of Mercy Anglican sisterhood (which becomes the Community of St John Baptist) is established at Clewer, near Windsor, to minister to reformed prostitutes and other marginalised women.^[13]
• New Model Union the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, Machinists, Smiths, Millwrights and Patternmakers involved in a lockout.
• Nailmakers' Strike in the West Midlands.^[14]

Publications

• Serialisation of Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House.
• Roget's Thesaurus (1st edition).^[15]
• William Makepeace Thackeray's novel The History of Henry Esmond.

Births

• 4 May — Alice Liddell, inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (died 1934)
• 18 April — George Clausen, artist (died 1944)
• 23 August — Arnold Toynbee, economic historian (died 1883)
• 12 September — Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1928)
• 28 September — John French, World War I field marshal (died 1925)
• 2 October — William Ramsay, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1916)
• Kate Vaughan, born Catherine Alice Candelin or Candelon, dancer and actress (died 1903)

Deaths

• 10 February — Samuel Prout, painter (born 1783)
• 4 September — William MacGillivray, naturalist and ornithologist (born 1796)
• 14 September
  • Augustus Pugin, architect (born 1812)
  • Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, general and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1769)
• 21 November — Mary Berry, writer (born 1763)
• 27 November — Ada Lovelace, early computer pioneer and the daughter of Lord Byron (born 1815)

References

1. "Holmfirth — Is there more to it than Last of the Summer Wine?". BBC.
2. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
3. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 272–273. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
4. Beetham, Margaret (2004). "Beeton, Samuel Orchart (1831–1877)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
5. Physick, John (1982). The Victoria and Albert Museum: the History of its Building. Oxford: Phaidon. p. 16.
6. Ward, W. (1912). "10: The Achilli Trial". Life of John Henry Cardinal Newman. London: Longmans, Green and Co. p. 291.
7. "Lord Derby looses bigotry on the streets". The Manchester Guardian. 3 July 1852. Retrieved 2012-07-12.
8. "Anniversary of first public library". BBC News. 5 September 2002. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
9. Jackson, Alan A. (1985). London's Termini. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-8634-4.
10. "The common is steeped in history". Keep Englefield Green — The Heritage. Keepenglefieldgreen.org. Retrieved 2010-05-30.
11. Hadley Center Ranked EWP.
12. Kinealy, Christine (1994). This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845–1852. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. pp. xvi–ii. ISBN 0-7171-4011-3.
13. Mumm, Susan (1999). Stolen Daughters, Virgin Mothers: Anglican Sisterhoods in Victorian Britain. Leicester University Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-7185-0151-9.
14. Fletcher, M.H.W. (1969). Netherton: Edward I to Edward VIII. Dudley Public Libraries. ISBN 0-900911-05-0.
15. "Icons, a portrait of England 1840–1860". Retrieved 2007-09-13.