1861 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1861 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

* Monarch – Victoria
* Prime Minister – Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Liberal)
* Parliament – 18th

Events

* 1 January – first steam-powered merry-go-round recorded, in Bolton.
* 15 February – about 350 convicts held on St Mary's Island at Chatham Dockyard take over their prison in a riot.
* 20 February – storms damage the Crystal Palace in London and cause the collapse of the steeple of Chichester Cathedral.
* 21 to 26 March – major fire in Southwark destroys several buildings.
* 30 March – William Crookes announces his discovery of thallium.
* 7 April – United Kingdom census. The population is more than double that of 1801.
* 12 April – American Civil War breaks out, leading to Lancashire Cotton Famine (1861–1865).
* 13 May – British government resolves to remain neutral in the American Civil War.
* 17 May – Thomas Cook runs the first package holiday from London to Paris.
* July – outbreak of yellow fever onboard paddle frigate HMS ''Firebrand'' in the West Indies kills 52.
* 31 July – Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act codifies company law.
* 6 August – Criminal Law Consolidation Acts (drafted by Charles Sprengel Greaves) granted Royal Assent, generally coming into effect on 1 November. The death penalty is limited to murder, embezzlement, piracy, high treason and to acts of arson perpetrated upon docks or ammunition depots; the age of consent is codified as twelve. The Home Secretary takes over the power to reprieve or commute sentences from the judiciary and Privy Council.
** Accessories and Abettors Act, codifying the law on accessories and abettors.
** Coinage Offences Act, codifying the law on counterfeiting of coins.
** Criminal Statutes Repeal Act.
** Forgery Act, codifying the law on forgery.
** Larceny Act, codifying the law on larceny and related offences.
** Malicious Damage Act, codifying the law on criminal damage.
** Offences against the Person Act, codifying the law on violent offence against the person and abortion and creating the offence of " causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving".
* 27 August – last execution in Britain for attempted murder – Martin Doyle in Chester.
* 16 September – Post Office Savings Bank opens.
* 24 October – HMS ''Warrior'', the world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled armoured battleship is completed and commissioned.
* 8 November – ''Trent'' Affair: Union captained ship USS ''San Jacinto'' intercepts the British mail packet '' Trent'' at sea and removes two Confederate diplomats.
* 25 November – a tenement collapses in the Old Town, Edinburgh, killing 35 with 15 survivors.
* 1 December – ''Trent'' Affair: British government dispatches its response, partly drafted by The Prince Consort.

Undated

* James Clerk Maxwell demonstrates the principle of three-colour photography (''see picture'').
* British Empire establishes bases in Lagos to stop the slave trade.
* Perpetual Truce of Peace and Friendship signed between Bahrain and the U.K.
* The Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, Manchester in Salford is consecrated as the oldest purpose-built Greek Orthodox Church in England.
* Construction commences on Royal Museum in Edinburgh.
* Crimean War Memorial unveiled in London, including sculptures of Other Ranks.
* William Morris founds the influential furnishing company, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.

Publications

* Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.
* Charles Dickens' novel '' Great Expectations'' complete in book form.
* George Eliot's novel '' Silas Marner''.
* F. T. Palgrave's anthology '' Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics'', 1st edition.
* Charles Reade's novel '' The Cloister and the Hearth''.
* Anthony Trollope's novels '' Framley Parsonage'' (book form) and '' Orley Farm'' (serialisation begins).
* Mrs Henry Wood's ' sensation novel' '' East Lynne''.
* The anthology ''Hymns Ancient and Modern''. This includes the setting "Eventide" by the music editor William Henry Monk for the hymn '' Abide with Me''.

Births

* 22 January – Maurice Hewlett, historical novelist, poet and essayist (died 1923)
* 15 February
** Halford Mackinder, geographer (died 1947)
** Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician (died 1947)
* 19 February – Henry Horne, 1st Baron Horne, general (died 1929)
* 23 April – Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, soldier, administrator (died 1936)
* 12 June – William Attewell, cricketer (died 1927)
* 17 June – Sidney Jones, musical comedy composer (died 1946)
* 19 June – Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, soldier (died 1928)
* 20 June – Frederick Hopkins, biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (died 1947)
* 9 July – William Burrell, Scottish shipowner and art collector (died 1958)
* 4 August – Henry Head, neurologist (died 1940)
* 10 August – Almroth Wright, bacteriologist, immunologist (died 1947)
* 2 September – Arthur Beresford Pite, architect (died 1934)
* 23 September – Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, poet and novelist (died 1907)
* 12 October – Agnes Jekyll, née Graham, artist, writer on domestic matters and philanthropist (died 1937)
* 16 October – J. B. Bury, historian (died 1927)
* 23 October – Margaret McKellar, Scottish-born Canadian medical missionary (died 1941)
* 8 November – William Price Drury, novelist, playwright and Royal Marines officer (died 1949)
* 10 November – Amy Levy, novelist and essayist (died 1889)
* 18 December – Lionel Monckton, musical comedy composer (died 1924)
* 19 December – Constance Garnett, née Black, literary translator (died 1946)

Deaths

* 17 January – Fanny Fleming, actress (born 1796)
* 29 January – Catherine Gore, novelist and dramatist (born 1798)
* 6 February – Bulkeley Bandinel, scholar-librarian (born 1781)
* 7 February – John Brown, geographer (born 1797)
* 16 March – Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent, mother of Queen Victoria (born 1786 in Germany)
* 8 April – John Bartholomew, Sr., Scottish cartographer (born 1805)
* 24 April – Sir Hedworth Williamson, 7th Baronet, politician (born 1797)
* 13 June – Henry Gray, anatomist (smallpox) (born 1827)
* 18 June – Eaton Hodgkinson, structural engineer (born 1789)
* 29 June – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet (born 1806)
* 6 July – Sir Francis Palgrave, historian (born 1788)
* 29 July – Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, politician (born 1797)
* 3 September – Ernest Edgcumbe, 3rd Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, politician (born 1797)
* 4 October – Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, noble (born 1812)
* 5 October – William Ranwell, marine painter (born 1797)
* 13 October – Sir William Cubitt, civil engineer (born 1785)
* 21 October – Edward Dickinson Baker, United States Senator from Oregon, 1860–1861 (born 1811 in the U.K.)
* 13 November
** Arthur Hugh Clough, poet (born 1819)
** John Forbes (physician), Sir John Forbes, royal physician (born 1787)
** John Hodgetts-Foley, politician (born 1797)
* 10 December – Thomas Southwood Smith, physician and sanitary reformer (born 1788)
* 14 December – Albert, Prince Consort, spouse of Queen Victoria (born 1819 in Germany)

See also

* 1861 in Scotland

References

{{UK year nav

1861 in the United Kingdom,
Years of the 19th century in the United Kingdom