1855 in the United Kingdom explained

Events from the year 1855 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Monarch – Victoria
Prime Minister – George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (Coalition) (until 30 January); Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Whig) (starting 6 February)

Events

9 January – the Earl of Aberdeen loses a vote of no confidence against his government over the management of the Crimean War.
22 January – French political exile Emmanuel Barthélemy is hanged after being convicted of murdering a London man. Barthélemy had previously killed a fellow Frenchman in the last fatal duel in England, but had only been convicted of manslaughter on that occasion.
29 January – Aberdeen resigns as Prime Minister.
5 February – Viscount Palmerston becomes Prime Minister.
8 February – the Devil's Footprints, a series of mysteriously hoof-like marks, appear in the snow in Devon and continue throughout the countryside for over 100miles.
19 February – bread riots in Liverpool break out.^[1]
28 February – Society of the Holy Cross (SSC) established as an association of Anglo-Catholic priests with a mission to the urban poor under the mastership of Charles Lowder.
11 April – the first pillar boxes in London are installed, at the suggestion of Rowland Hill.^[2]
18 April – The Bowring Treaty is signed between the UK and the kingdom of Siam, allowing foreigners to trade freely in Bangkok.^[3]
15 May – Great Gold Robbery from a train between London Bridge and Folkestone.^[4]
15 June – stamp duty is removed from newspapers creating mass market media in the UK.^[5]
29 June – The Daily Telegraph newspaper begins publication in London.^[2]
16 July – Australian colonies granted self-governing status.^[5]
31 July – Limited Liability Act protects investors in the event of corporate collapse.^[5]
3 September – last Bartholomew Fair in London.^[6]
9 September – Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55) (Crimean War): Sevastopol falls to the British and their allies.
17 October – Henry Bessemer files his patent for the Bessemer process for the production of steel.^[7]
17 November – explorer David Livingstone discovers Victoria Falls in Africa.^[2]
22 December – Metropolitan Board of Works established in London.

Undated

James Clerk Maxwell unifies electricity and magnetism into a single theory, classical electromagnetism, thereby showing that light is an electromagnetic wave.
The London School of Jewish Studies opens as the Jews' College, a rabbinical seminary, in London.
Last minting of the fourpence coin (groat) for use in the U.K.
The island of Samson, in the Isles of Scilly, is evacuated.^[8]

Publications

Samuel Orchart Beeton's weekly The Boys' Own Magazine (begins publication January).
Mrs Archer Clive's novel Paul Ferroll.^[9]
Serialisation of Charles Dickens' novel Little Dorrit.
Mrs Gaskell's novel North and South.
Charles Kingsley's novel Westward Ho!^[5]
William Makepeace Thackeray's novel The Newcomes.
Anthony Trollope's novel The Warden.^[5]
The Ancient Music of Ireland, including the first published version of the Londonderry Air.

Births

21 January – Henry B. Jackson, admiral (died 1929).
1 May – Marie Corelli, novelist (died 1924).
23 May – Isabella Ford, socialist, feminist, trade unionist and writer (died 1924).
2 June – Archibald Berkeley Milne, admiral (died 1938).
28 August – Alexander Bethell, admiral (died 1932).
17 December – Frank Hedges Butler, wine merchant and founding member of the Aero Club of Great Britain (died 1928).

Deaths

3 January – Julius Hare, theological writer (born 1795).
10 January – Mary Russell Mitford, novelist and dramatist (born 1787).
25 January – Dorothy Wordsworth, poet and diarist (born 1771).
20 February – Joseph Hume, doctor and politician (born 1777).
27 February – Bryan Donkin, engineer and inventor (born 1768).
3 March – Copley Fielding, watercolour landscape painter (born 1787).^[10]
31 March – Charlotte Brontë, author (born 1816).^[11]
13 April – Sir Henry De la Beche, geologist (born 1796).
15 April – William John Bankes, MP, explorer and Egyptologist (born 1786; died in Venice).
5 May – Sir Robert Inglis, 2nd Baronet, politician (born 1786).
23 May – Charles Robert Malden, explorer (born 1797).
28 June – Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan, commander of British forces in the Crimean War (born 1788).
6 July – Andrew Crosse, 'gentleman scientist', pioneer experimenter in electricity and poet (born 1784).^[12]
8 July – Sir Edward Parry, Arctic explorer (born 1790).
30 August – Feargus O'Connor, political radical and Chartist leader (born 1794 in Ireland).
4 September – Emma Tatham, poet (born 1829).
18 September – James Finlay Weir Johnston, chemist (born 1796).
27 September – John Adamson, antiquary and expert on Portuguese (born 1787)
3 December – Robert Montgomery, poet (born 1807).
18 December – Samuel Rogers, poet (born 1763).
20 December – Thomas Cubitt, master builder (born 1785).

Notes and References

News: Bread Riots in Liverpool. The Sun. London. 20 February 1855. 1.
Book: Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 0-14-102715-0. 2006.
Book: Ingram, James C. . Economic Change in Thailand 1850-1970 . Stanford University Press . 1971 . California. 34 . registration .
Book: Hanrahan, David C.. The First Great Train Robbery. London. Robert Hale. 2011. 978-0-7090-9040-3.
Book: Palmer, Alan. Palmer . Veronica. 1992. The Chronology of British History. Century Ltd. London. 274–276. 0-7126-5616-2.
Cavendish. Richard. London's Last Bartholomew Fair: September 3rd, 1855. History Today. 55. 9. 52. 2005.
Book: van Dulken, Stephen. Inventing the 19th Century: the great age of Victorian inventions. London. British Library. 2001. 0-7123-0881-4. 30–1.
http://www.iknow-cornwall.co.uk/tourist_information/west_cornwall/isles_of_scilly/tresco_annet_scilly.htm Tourist information
Book: Leavis, Q. D.. Q. D. Leavis. Fiction and the Reading Public. 2nd. London. Chatto & Windus. 1965.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/anthony-vandyke-copley-fielding-182 Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding 1787–1855
Web site: Charlotte Brontë British author . Encyclopedia Britannica . 17 April 2019 . en.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/philosophy-and-religion/other-religious-beliefs-biographies/andrew-crosse Crosse, Andrew (1784-1855)