1881 in the United Kingdom

1881 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1879 | 1880 | 1881 | 1882 | 1883

Sport

1881 English cricket season

1880–81 in English football

Events from the year 1881 in the United Kingdom.

Contents 1 Incumbents 2 Events 3 Publications 4 In fiction 5 Births 6 Deaths 7 References 8 See also

Incumbents

• Monarch — Queen Victoria
• Prime Minister — William Ewart Gladstone, Liberal

Events

• 1 January — Postal orders issued for the first time in Britain.^[1]
• 17–18 January — Blizzard over southern parts of Britain.^[2]
• 18 January — First Boer War: British forces defeated at the Battle of Laing's Nek.^[3]
• 8 February — First Boer War: British forces defeated at the Battle of Schuinshoogte.
• 27 February — First Boer War: British forces defeated at the Battle of Majuba Hill.^[3]
• 1 March — The Cunard Line's SS Servia, the first steel ocean liner, is launched.^[3]
• 27 March — In Basingstoke, antagonism between the Salvation Army and supporters of the licenced trade becomes so great that the Riot Act is read and troops are called in to restore order.^[4]
• 31 March — Edward Rudolf founds the 'Church of England Central Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays' (now The Children's Society).^[5]
• 3 April — Census in the United Kingdom.
• 5 April — The Treaty of Pretoria gives the Boers self-government in the Transvaal under a theoretical British oversight.^[3]
• 9 April — Old Carthusians F.C. beat Old Etonians 3–0 in the FA Cup Final at The Oval, the last time it will be played between two amateur sides.^[6]
• 18 April — The Natural History Museum is opened in London.^[7]
• 19 April — Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, becomes the Conservative Leader in the House of Lords following the death of Benjamin Disraeli.^[3]
• 23 April — First performance of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience at the Opera Comique in London.^[3]
• 27 April — British troops leave Afghanistan.^[1]
• 1 May — Childers Reforms of the army begin to reorganise the infantry into multi-battalion regiments.
• 26 July — First publication of the London Evening News.^[3]
• August — The Sunday Closing (Wales) Act prohibits the sale of alcohol in Wales on a Sunday. This is the first Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom since the 1542 Act of Union whose application is restricted to Wales.^[8]
• 16 August — A tribunal is set up under the Second Irish Land Act to examine excessive rents.^[3]
• 26 September — Godalming becomes the first town to have its streets illuminated by electric light (hydroelectrically generated).^[9]
• 10 October — The Savoy Theatre opens and is the first electrically lit building in London.^[3]
• 13 October — Charles Stewart Parnell imprisoned for to his part in land agitation in Ireland.^[3]
• 14 October — The Eyemouth disaster ("Black Friday"): a severe storm strikes the Berwickshire coast of Scotland; 189 fishermen die.^[10]
• 16 October — The People newspaper founded.^[11]
• 22 October — Tit-Bits weekly digest magazine founded by George Newnes.^[12]

Publications

• Henry James' novel The Portrait of a Lady.
• Talbot Baines Reed's school story The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's begins serialisation in The Boy's Own Paper.
• Joseph Henry Shorthouse's novel John Inglesant.^[13]
• New Testament in the Revised Version of The Bible.^[14]

In fiction

• Sherlock Holmes and Dr John H. Watson first meet at Bart’s Hospital, London, prior to the events narrated in Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet (1887) commencing on 4 March.

Births

• 9 January — Lascelles Abercrombie, poet and critic (died 1938)
• 9 March — Ernest Bevin, labour leader, politician, and statesman (died 1951)
• 25 March — Mary Webb, writer (died 1927)
• 1 August — Rose Macaulay, novelist (died 1958)
• 6 August — Alexander Fleming, researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 1955)
• 20 August — Edgar Guest, poet (died 1959)
• 12 September — Daniel Jones, phonetician (died 1967)
• 16 September — Clive Bell, art critic (died 1964)
• 17 September — Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, soldier (died 1955)
• 15 October
  • William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1944)
  • P. G. Wodehouse, writer (died 1975)

Deaths

• 5 February — Thomas Carlyle, writer and historian (born 1795)
• 19 April — Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1804)
• 24 May — Samuel Palmer, artist (born 1805)

References

See also

Years in the United Kingdom Years in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 Years in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012