Events from the year 1898 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

• Monarch Queen 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.^[1][2][3]
• 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.^[1]
• 14 June Treaty with France establishes borders between French colonies and Nigeria and the Gold Coast.^[4]
• 23 June Royal Army Medical Corps formed within the British Army.^[5]
• 6 July Guglielmo Marconi conducts a test radio telegraph transmission for Lloyd's between Ballycastle, County Antrim, and Rathlin Island, Ireland.
• 12 August Elected county and district councils established in Ireland.^[4]
• 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.^[1] 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)^[6] and at least 9,700 amongst their opponents.
• 3 September - Southampton F.C. move into their new stadium, The Dell,^[7] and Nottingham Forest F.C. move into their new City Ground.^[8]
• 10 September - Sunderland A.F.C. move into their new stadium at Roker Park.^[9]
• 19 September to 4 November Fashoda incident diplomatic dispute between France and the United Kingdom.

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.^[10]
• 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.
• H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds.
• Oscar Wilde's poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
• Theodore Watts-Dunton's romantic novel Aylwin.
• 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, 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)
• 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)

References

See also