1898 in the United Kingdom

1898 in the United Kingdom:

Other years

1896 | 1897 | 1898 (1898) | 1899 | 1900

Individual countries of the United Kingdom

England | Ireland | Scotland | Wales

Sport

1898 English cricket season Football: England | Scotland

Events from the year 1898 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch — Victoria
• Prime Minister — Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative)

Events

• 12 February — The electric car belonging to Henry Lindfield of Brighton runs away on a hill in Purley, Surrey and hits a tree; thus he becomes the world's first fatality from an automobile accident on the public highway.
• 15 February — The World Figure Skating Championships are held in London.
• 8 April — Mahdist War: British and Egyptian victory at the Battle of Atbara.
• 9 June — Signature of the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory with Qing Dynasty China leasing Hong Kong for 99 years.
• 14 June — Treaty with France establishes borders between French colonies and Nigeria and the Gold Coast.
• 23 June — Royal Army Medical Corps formed within the British Army.
• 6 July — Guglielmo Marconi conducts a test radio telegraph transmission for Lloyd's between Ballycastle, County Antrim, and Rathlin Island, Ireland.
• 19 July — French novelist Émile Zola arrives in London to escape imprisonment for criminal libel over his open letter J'accuse on the Dreyfus affair.
• 12 August — Elected county and district councils established in Ireland.
• 23 August — The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, sets sail from London.
• 2 September — Mahdist War: At the Battle of Omdurman, British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeat Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, thus establishing British dominance in the Sudan. During the battle, the 21st Lancers make what will be the last ever British cavalry charge and win three VCs. There are 47 deaths among the British and their allies (28 British) and at least 9,700 amongst their opponents.
• 3 September — Southampton F.C. move into their new stadium, The Dell and Nottingham Forest F.C. move into their new City Ground.
• 10 September — Sunderland A.F.C. move into their new stadium at Roker Park.
• 18 September — Fashoda Incident: A powerful flotilla of British gunboats arrives at the French-occupied fort of Fashoda on the White Nile, leading to a diplomatic stalemate until French troops are ordered to withdraw on 3 November.
• 14 October — Atlantic Transport Line's SS Mohegan sinks on The Manacles off Cornwall with the loss of 106 of the 197 on board.
• 16 November — Harrods department store in Knightsbridge install the first (stepless) escalator in the UK.

Undated

• Defendants in English law permitted to give sworn evidence.
• North Petherton becomes the first town in England to install Acetylene lighting.
• William Ramsay and Morris Travers discover the noble gases neon, krypton, xenon and argon.
• Folk-Song Society founded.

Publications

• J. Meade Falkner's children's adventure Moonfleet.
• Thomas Hardy's collection Wessex Poems and Other Verses.
• Maurice Hewlett's historical novel Forest Lovers.
• Ebenezer Howard's tract To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, influencing the Garden city movement.
• Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw.
• Fred T. Jane's reference work Jane's All the World's Fighting Ships.
• Theodore Watts-Dunton's romantic novel Aylwin.
• H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds.
• Oscar Wilde's poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
• Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary begins publication.

Births

• 9 January — Gracie Fields, singer and comedian (died 1979)
• 28 February — Hugh O'Flaherty, Irish Catholic priest (died 1963)
• 26 April — John Grierson, documentary filmmaker (died 1972)
• 6 June — Ninette de Valois, born Edris Stannus, Irish dancer and founder of The Royal Ballet, London (died 2001)
• 3 July — Donald Healey, motor engineer and race car driver (died 1988)
• 4 July — Gertrude Lawrence, actress (died 1952)
• 30 July — Henry Moore, sculptor (died 1986)
• 1 September — Violet Carson, actress and entertainer (died 1983)
• 29 November — C. S. Lewis, author (died 1963)
• 27 December — W. C. Sellar, humourist (died 1951)

Deaths

• 14 January — Lewis Carroll, writer, mathematician (born 1832)
• 16 January — Charles Pelham Villiers longest-serving MP in the British House of Commons (born 1802)
• 18 January — Henry George Lidell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford (born 1811)
• 1 March — George Bruce Malleson, officer and author (born 1825)
• 15 March — Henry Bessemer, engineer and inventor (born 1813)
• 16 March — Aubrey Beardsley, artist (born 1872)
• 19 May — William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister (born 1809)
• 3 June — Samuel Plimsoll, politician and social reformer (born 1824)
• 17 June — Edward Burne-Jones, painter and designer (born 1833)
• 2 November — George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (born 1826)
• 20 November — Sir John Fowler, civil engineer (born 1817)