1838 in the United Kingdom UK-related events during the year of 1838
Events from the year 1838 in the United Kingdom .
Incumbents
Events
10 January – A fire destroys Lloyd's Coffee House and the Royal Exchange in London .[ 1]
20 January – With a daily average of −11.9 °C (10.6 °F), this day sees the coldest daily Central England temperature value on record.[ 2]
17 March – Four of the pardoned Tolpuddle Martyrs return to England, arriving at Plymouth.[ 3]
4–22 April – The paddle steamer SS Sirius (1837) makes the Transatlantic Crossing to New York from Cork in eighteen days, though not using steam continuously.[ 4]
8–23 April – Isambard Kingdom Brunel 's paddle steamer SS Great Western (completed on 31 March) makes the Transatlantic Crossing to New York from Avonmouth in fifteen days, inaugurating a regular steamship service.[ 5]
8 April – The National Gallery first opens to the public in the building purpose-designed for it by William Wilkins in Trafalgar Square , London.
1 May – Jenners department store established as drapers in Princes Street , Edinburgh .[ 6]
9 May – Royal Agricultural Society of England founded.
21 May – Chartism : The People's Charter is launched by members of the London Working Men's Association at a mass meeting on Glasgow Green calling for universal suffrage for male voters.[ 5] [ 7]
31 May – Battle of Bossenden Wood : In Kent , self-declared Messiah John N. Thom , calling himself "Sir William Courtenay", and a band of around 35 agricultural labourers are surrounded by soldiers of the 45th Regiment of Foot sent to arrest them following the earlier murder of a policeman. Thom and ten followers, together with an officer and a constable, are killed in what is sometimes described as the last battle on English soil.[ 8]
4 June – The first section of the Great Western Railway , engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opens from London Paddington station to Maidenhead .[ 9]
18 June – The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway opens, the first line across England.[ 10]
28 June – The Coronation of Queen Victoria takes place at Westminster Abbey .[ 11] Lord Melbourne denies her the traditional medieval banquet due to budget constraints and critics refer to it as "The Penny Crowning".[ 12] Imperial State Crown is remade for her.
July – Chichester Theological College is founded by Bishop William Otter in West Sussex as the first such college of the Anglican Communion in England .
4 July – Huskar Pit disaster in the South Yorkshire Coalfield results in the deaths by drowning of 26 children working underground in the mine aged 7 to 17.[ 13]
4 August – The Court Journal prints a rumour that Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton is going to host a great jousting tournament at his castle in Scotland . A few weeks later, he confirms this.[ 14]
6 August – The Polytechnic Institution , Britain's first polytechnic , opens in Regent Street , London.[ 15]
16 August – The Tin Duties Act converts the tin coinage taxation system of the mines of Devon and Cornwall into an annual payment to the Duchy of Cornwall.
7 September – Grace Darling rescues nine survivors from the wreck of the paddle steamer SS Forfarshire (1834) off the Farne Islands .[ 11]
17 September – The opening of the London and Birmingham Railway throughout, the first trunk line in England.[ 16] [ 17]
18 September – Anti-Corn Law League founded by Richard Cobden and John Bright in Manchester .[ 11]
24 September – "Monster meeting" on Kersal Moor , Salford , in support of Chartism .
1 October – First Anglo-Afghan War begins when Lord Auckland , Governor-General of India , issues a manifesto from Simla giving Britain's reasons for intervening in Afghanistan .[ 16]
Undated
Ongoing
Publications
Births
6 February – Henry Irving , actor (died 1905)
9 February – Evelyn Wood , field marshal, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1919)
12 March – William Henry Perkin , chemist (died 1907)
13 April – J. D. Sedding , ecclesiastical architect (died 1891)
14 April – John Thomas , Welsh photographer (died 1905)
20 July – Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet , statesman and historian (died 1928)
30 September – Emily Soldene , comic opera singer-manager and gossip columnist (died 1912)
25 October – Annie Hall Cudlip , novelist, journalist and editor (died 1918)
3 December – Octavia Hill , social reformer (died 1912)
20 December – Edwin Abbott Abbott , theologian and author (died 1926)
Deaths
13 January – John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon , Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1751)
5 February – Thomas Creevey , politician (born 1768)
17 February – John Bonham-Carter , politician and barrister (born 1788)
4 March
19 March – Sir Edward Barnes , British Army officer and governor of Ceylon (born 1776)
21 March – George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie , colonial Governor (born 1770)
24 March – Thomas Attwood , composer (born 1765)
11 May – Thomas Andrew Knight , horticulturalist (born 1759)
19 May – Richard Colt Hoare , antiquarian, artist, traveller and archaeologist (born 1758)
20 May – William Stephenson , Geordie printer, publisher, auctioneer, poet and songwriter (born 1797)
19 July – Christmas Evans , Welsh Nonconformist minister (born 1766)
25 August – William Annesley, 3rd Earl Annesley , noble and Member of Parliament (born 1772)
18 September – Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington , Member of Parliament (born 1752)
15 October – Letitia Elizabeth Landon , poet and novelist (born 1802)
7 November – Anne Grant , Scottish poet and author (born 1755)
16 November – Robert Cutlar Fergusson , lawyer and politician (born 1768)
10 December – Augustus Earle , painter (born 1793)
22 December – John Villiers, 3rd Earl of Clarendon , Member of Parliament (born 1757)
References
^ Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher (1995). The London Encyclopaedia . Macmillan. p. 287. ISBN 0-333-57688-8 ^ CET Record-Breakers. ^ Loveless, James; Brine, James; Standfield, John; Standfield, Thomas (1838). A Narrative of the sufferings of J. Loveless, J. Brine, and T. & J. Standfield, four of the Dorchester Labourers; displaying the horrors of transportation, written by themselves ^ "Steamship Curaçao" . Archived from the original on 24 December 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2011 .^ a b "Icons, a portrait of England 1820–1840" . Archived from the original on 22 September 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2007 .^ A Hundred Years in Princes Street 1838-1938 . Edinburgh: Jenners. 1938.^ "Where History Happened: Chartism" . History Extra . BBC . 12 May 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2014 .^ "Battle of Bosenden Wood" . Hernhill Parish. Retrieved 26 October 2011 .^ MacDermot, E. T. (1964). History of the Great Western Railway . London: Ian Allan. ^ Whittle, G. (1979). The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway . Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7855-4 ^ a b c Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0 ^ Anstruther, Ian (1963). The Knight and the Umbrella: an Account of the Eglinton Tournament – 1839 . London: Geoffrey Bles Ltd. p. 1.^ Gallop, Alan (2003). Children of the Dark: Life and Death Underground in Victorian England . ^ Girouard, Mark (1981). The Return to Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman . Yale University Press. p. 92.^ "University of Westminster" . London: Beginnings Project. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2011 .^ a b Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 262– 263. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2 ^ Reed, M. C. (1996). The London & North Western Railway: a history . Penryn: Atlantic. ISBN 0-906899-66-4 ^ "A Very Peculiar Preacher: James Banyard" . Rochford District Community Archive . Retrieved 7 November 2020 .^ Creighton, Charles (1894). A History of Epidemics in Britain
