1893 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1893 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Victoria
• Prime Minister – William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal)

Events

• 13 January – The Independent Labour Party has its first meeting, in Bradford, under chairman Keir Hardie. ^[1]
• 30 January – Old Head coinage introduced. ^[2]
• 11–19 February – White Star Line SS Naronic sinks without trace in heavy seas on the Liverpool–New York transatlantic passage.
• 10 March – The Government takes control of Uganda from the British East Africa Company. ^[3]
• 10 May – Colony of Natal given self-governing status. ^[3]
• 6 June – Wedding of Prince George, Duke of York, and Princess Mary of Teck at St James's Palace in London.
• 13 June – The first British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship is held, at the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club. ^[1]
• 22 June – HMS Victoria, flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, collides with HMS Camperdown and sinks in ten minutes, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon going down with it.
• 29 June – Unveiling of the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain (with its statue of Anteros), designed by Alfred Gilbert, at Piccadilly Circus in London. ^[4]
• 4 July – An underground explosion at Combs Pit, Thornhill, West Yorkshire, kills 135.
• 12 July – Dundee F.C. is formed in Scotland.
• 10 August – Preston, Lancashire, enters the United Kingdom weather records with the highest five-minute total rainfall of 32mm. As of August 2018, this record remains.
• 6 September – Isinglass completes the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the Epsom Derby, 2,000 Guineas and St Leger.
• 7 September – Featherstone 'Massacre': troops fire on locked-out Yorkshire coal miners, killing two. ^[5]
• 22 September – Elementary Education (School Attendance) Act leads to raising of school leaving age in England and Wales to eleven years. ^[6]
• 13 October – The first students enter St Hilda's College, Oxford, founded for women by Dorothea Beale.
• 28 October – The Royal Navy's first destroyer, HMS Havock, undergoes sea trials. ^[1]
• 26 November – Arthur Conan Doyle surprises the reading public by revealing in the story "The Adventure of the Final Problem", published in the December issue of The Strand Magazine , that his character Sherlock Holmes had apparently died at the Reichenbach Falls on 4 May 1891.
• 28 November – Law case of Browne v Dunn is decided in the House of Lords, a leading case on the conduct of legal cross-examination. ^[7]
• 30 November – University of Wales incorporated by Royal charter. ^[3]
• 5 December – Married Women's Property Act 1893 completes the 19th century process of equalizing property rights for women and men.
• 16 December – Establishment, in Yorkshire, of the Brontë Society, possibly the oldest literary society of this nature, dedicated to establishing what will become the Brontë Parsonage Museum. ^[8]

Undated

• W. Britain invents a process of producing hollow cast lead toy soldiers. ^[9]
• The University of Exeter Debating Society is founded in England as the Exeter Debating Society at the Royal Albert Memorial College.
• The village of Bermuda, Warwickshire, is built.
• Dulwich Hamlet F.C. is founded in London.

Publications

• Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Refugees .
• Beatrice Harraden's novel Ships That Pass in the Night . ^[10]
• Stanley J. Weyman's novel A Gentleman of France. ^[10]

Births

• 12 February – Tom Stephenson, rambler (died 1987)
• 15 January – Ivor Novello, actor and musician (died 1951)
• 5 February – W. E. Johns, writer, creator of Biggles (died 1968)
• 3 March – Ivon Hitchens, painter (died 1979)
• 18 March – Wilfred Owen, soldier and poet (died 1918)
• 3 April – Leslie Howard, film actor (died 1943)
• 9 April – Victor Gollancz, publisher (died 1967)
• 8 May – Teddy Wakelam, English rugby player and sportscaster (died 1963)
• 13 June – Dorothy L. Sayers, author (died 1957)
• 30 June – Harold Laski, political theorist and economist (died 1950)
• 9 July – George Geary, cricketer (died 1981)
• 20 July – George Llewelyn-Davies, one of the 'Lost Boys' who inspired Peter Pan (died 1915)
• 22 August – Wilfred Kitching, 7th General of The Salvation Army (died 1977)
• 7 September – Leslie Hore-Belisha, statesman after whom Belisha beacons are named (died 1957)
• 15 October – Saunders Lewis, Welsh nationalist poet, dramatist and critic (died 1985)
• 21 December – Winifred Nicholson, born Rosa Roberts, impressionist painter (died 1981)
• 23 December – Sholto Douglas, Marshal of the Royal Air Force (died 1969)

Deaths

• 2 January – John O. Westwood, entomologist (born 1805)
• 15 January – Fanny Kemble, actress (born 1809)
• 23 January – William Price, Welsh physician and radical, pioneer of cremation (born 1800)
• 22 February – Lydia Irving, philanthropist, prison visitor (born 1797)
• 18 September – Charles Clay, surgeon (born 1801)
• 18 November – Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury, politician (born 1801)
• 11 December – William Milligan, Scottish theologian (born 1821)

References

1. Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN   0-14-102715-0.
2. "The New Coinage" . The Birmingham Post . 31 January 1893. p. 4.
3. Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 320–321. ISBN   0-7126-5616-2.
4. "The Shaftesbury Memorial, Piccadilly-Circus". The Times . No. 33991. London. 30 June 1893. p. 11.
5. "Featherstone 'Massacre' – 7th September 1893". Wakefield Council. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2010.
6. Berry, George (1970). Discovering Schools. Tring: Shire Publications. ISBN   0-85263-091-3.
7. Browne v Dunn.
8. Lemon, Charles (1993). A Centenary History of the Brontë Society 1893–1993. Haworth: Brontë Society. p. 3.
9. "Britains". Bethnal Green: Museum of Childhood. Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
10. Leavis, Q.D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (2nd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.