1870 in the United Kingdom
UK-related events during the year of 1870
Events from the year 1870 in the United Kingdom .
Incumbents
Events
28 January
5 March – first ever (unofficial) international football match, England v Scotland , takes place under the approval of the Football Association at The Oval , London .
10 May – Jem Mace wins the boxing championship of the world, defeating fellow Englishman Tom Allen at Kenner , near New Orleans .[ 3]
19 May – the Home Government Association is established in Ireland by Isaac Butt to argue for devolution for Ireland and repeal of the Act of Union 1800 .[ 4]
late Spring – Army Enlistment Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 67) allows reduction in length of enlistment to the British Army as part of the Cardwell Reforms .[ 5] 2 June – competitive examination for entry to the British civil service introduced.[ 6]
8 June – the final splice to the first telegraph submarine cable to India is made off Porthcurno , Cornwall .
23 June – Keble College, Oxford , opens, the first new college of the University of Oxford in more than a century.
2 August – official opening of the Tower Subway beneath the River Thames in London , the world's first underground passenger "tube" railway.[ 7] wrought iron tunnelling shield devised by Peter W. Barlow and James Henry Greathead .[ 8]
4 August – British Red Cross established as the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War by Lord Wantage .[ 7]
9 August
27 August – White Star 's first ocean liner RMS Oceanic is launched by Harland and Wolff in Belfast .[ 9]
7 September – masted turret ship HMS Captain capsizes off Cape Finisterre , less than 5 months after commissioning, due to design flaws, with the loss of 481 lives.
1 October – postcards and halfpenny postage stamps introduced by the Post Office .[ 7]
19 October – SS Cambria (1869) is wrecked on Inishtrahull (Ireland) with the loss of 179 lives.[ 10]
Undated – the David Greig grocery chain begins with a store in London.
Publications
Births
7 January – Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart , English judge and politician, 7th Lord Chief Justice of England (died 1943)
25 January – Fred Spiksley , footballer (died 1948)
5 February – C. E. Brock , painter and illustrator (died 1938)
8 February – Millie Hylton , actress, dancer and male impersonator (died 1920)[ 13]
12 February – Marie Lloyd , music-hall singer (died 1922)
4 March – Thomas Sturge Moore , poet, author and artist (died 1944)
17 March – Horace Donisthorpe , entomologist (died 1951)
9 May – Harry Vardon , golfer (died 1937)
27 May – Lionel Palairet , cricketer (died 1933)
4 August – Harry Lauder , Scottish entertainer (died 1950)
11 August – Tom Richardson , cricketer (died 1912)
12 August – Hubert Gough , general (died 1963)
22 August – Bertram Fletcher Robinson , journalist, editor and author (died 1907)
1 September – Leopold Wharton , English-born American film director (died 1927)
22 September – Charlotte Cooper , tennis player (died 1966)[ 14]
21 October – Horace Hood , admiral (killed in action 1916)
22 October – Lord Alfred Douglas , minor Uranian poet best remembered as a lover of writer Oscar Wilde (died 1945)
30 October – Lawrence Grant , film actor (died 1952 in the United States)
18 November – P. Morley Horder , architect (died 1944)
18 December – Saki (H. H. Munro), short-story writer (killed in action 1916)
Doncaster , racehorse (died 1892)
Deaths
2 January – Ignatius Bonomi , architect and surveyor (born 1787)
9 January – Elizabeth Sackville-West, Countess De La Warr , peeress (born 1795)
20 January – Sir George Seymour , admiral of the fleet (born 1787)
25 January – Janet Taylor , mathematician and navigational instrument maker (born 1804)
30 March – William Hale , inventor (born 1797)
25 April – Daniel Maclise , historical painter (born 1806)
6 May – Sir James Young Simpson , physician and researcher (born 1811)
14 May – Thomas Dale , Anglican priest, Dean of Rochester (born 1797)
17 May – David Octavius Hill , Scottish painter and pioneer photographer (born 1802)
24 April – Louisa Stuart Costello , miniature-painter, poet, historical novelist and travel writer (born 1799)
9 June – Charles Dickens , novelist (born 1812)
27 June – George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon , diplomat and statesman (born 1800)
12 September – Eleanora Atherton , philanthropist in Manchester (born 1782)
25 September – John Braithwaite , engineer, inventor of the first steam fire engine (born 1797)
6 October – James Giles , painter (born 1801)
11 October – Margaret Waters , serial killer, hanged (born 1835)
21 October – Charles George James Arbuthnot , general (born 1801)
8 December – Thomas Brassey , railway contractor (born 1805)
9 December – Patrick MacDowell , sculptor (born 1799)
28 December – Philip Hardwick , architect (born 1792)
References
^ Blake, Richard. The Book of Postal Dates, 1635–1985 . Caterham: Marden. p. 15. ^ "Loss of City of Boston, Halifax to Liverpool, 1870" . The Ships List . Archived from the original on 11 May 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008 .^ Mace, Ralph. "Jem Mace, Champion of the World" . Retrieved 9 August 2010 . ^ a b Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History 422–423 . ISBN 0-304-35730-8 ^ Ensor, R. C. K. (1936). "England 1870–1914". The Oxford History of England, 14 . Oxford University Press. p. 16.
^ a b Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 291–292. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2 ^ a b c d Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0 ^ Smith, Denis (2001). Civil Engineering Heritage: London and the Thames Valley . Thomas Telford. pp. 22–23. ISBN 0-7277-2876-8 ^ Othfors, Daniel (15 March 2018). "Oceanic (I)" . The Great Ocean Liners . Retrieved 16 May 2021 . ^ "The Wreck of the Cambria" . The New York Times . Retrieved 5 November 2012 .^ With sheet 108, covering south-west Northumberland. Hewitt, Rachel (2011) [2010]. Map of a Nation: a biography of the Ordnance Survey . London: Granta. p. 305. ISBN 978-1-84708-254-1
^ Cox, Michael, ed. (2004). The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature ISBN 0-19-860634-6 ^ Gänzl, Kurt (2001). The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre: Gi-N ISBN 9780028655734 ^ "Olympedia – Charlotte Cooper" . www.olympedia.org . Retrieved 20 July 2021 .
