1853 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1853 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents [edit]

20 January — The United Kingdom annexes Lower Burma ending the Second Anglo-Burmese War.
4 February — Halifax Permanent Benefit Building Society takes its first deposits.^[1]
18 February — A treaty is signed with the United States concerning international copyright.^[2]
May — The world's first public aquarium is opened in London Zoo.^[3]
6 June — Naval fleet travels to Besika Bay to fend off Russian threats to the Ottoman Empire.^[4]
1 July — First constitution of the Cape Colony provides for a legislative council.^[4]
12 August — Licensing (Scotland) Act (known after its sponsor as the 'Forbes Mackenzie Act') regulates the supply of intoxicating beverages in Scotland.^[5]
September (approx.) — First pillar box on the British mainland erected in Carlisle.^[6]^[7]
31 October–15 May 1854 — Lockout of Preston cotton mill workers seeking reinstatement of ten per cent of their pay; this will be Britain's longest industrial dispute up to this date.^[8]
3 December — Crimean War: a protocol is signed with France, Austria, and Prussia for restoring peace between Russia and Turkey.^[2]
14 December — Palmerston resigns as Home Secretary over demands for parliamentary reform, but changes his mind on 23 December.^[4]

Penal Servitude Act provides for convicted criminals to serve their entire sentence in prison, rather than suffer transportation, and also to be freed on licence.^[9]
Highland Clearances in Skye and Raasay.^[10]
West Australian becomes the first horse to win the English Triple Crown by finishing first in the Epsom Derby, 2,000 Guineas and St Leger.

29 March — Elihu Thomson, engineer and inventor (died 1937)
7 April — Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, member of the royal family (died 1884)
3 June — Flinders Petrie, Egyptologist (died 1942)
5 July — Cecil Rhodes, businessman (died 1902)

19 August — George Cockburn, Naval commander (born 1772)
29 August — Charles James Napier, general and Commander-in-Chief in India (born 1782)
6 September — George Bradshaw, cartographer, printer and publisher (born 1801)

^ Baren, Maurice (1996). How It All Began Up the High Street. London: Michael O'Mara Books. p. 58. ISBN 1-85479-667-4.
^ ^a ^b William L. R. Cates (1863). The Pocket Date Book. Chapman and Hall.
^ Brunner, Bernd (2003). The Ocean at Home. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 99. ISBN 1-56898-502-9.
^ ^a ^b ^c Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 273–274. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
^ Matthew, H. C. G. (2004). "Mackenzie, William Forbes (1807–1862)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17605. Retrieved 2011-06-27. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
^ "Icons, a portrait of England 1840–1860". Archived from the original on 17 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
^ Farrugia, Jean Young (1969). The Letter Box: a history of Post Office pillar and wall boxes. Fontwell: Centaur Press. ISBN 0-900000-14-7.
^ Leigh, J. S. (2008). Preston Cotton Martyrs: the millworkers who shocked a nation. Lancaster: Carnegie. ISBN 978-1-874181-45-3.
^ "Timeline of capital punishment in Britain". Retrieved 2011-02-02.
^ "The Skye and Raasay Clearances — 1853". Scotland's History. BBC. Retrieved 2010-10-10.
^ Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (2nd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.