1856 in the United Kingdom

Events from the year 1856 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents [edit]

January — The song Glan Rhondda which will become the national anthem of Wales, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Land of My Fathers), is composed by James James with lyrics by his father Evan James, both residents of Pontypridd.^[1]^[2]
29 January — Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.
4 February — The sailing ship Grand Duke is wrecked off St. Govan's Head in Pembrokeshire with the loss of 29 lives.

5 March — Fire destroys Covent Garden Theatre in London.^[3]
31 March — The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War.
9 July — Natal becomes a Crown Colony.^[4]
13 July — An underground explosion at Cymmer Colliery in the Rhondda kills 114.^[5]^[6]^[7]
3 September — The Royal British Bank collapses with debts in excess of £500,000.^[3]
8 October
- The Second Opium War between several western powers, including the United Kingdom, and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
- Free Trade Hall inaugurated in Manchester.
1 November — Anglo-Persian War: War is declared between Britain and Persia in response to a Persian invasion of Afghanistan with the objective of capturing Herat.
November — The first known rules of modern croquet are registered by Isaac Spratt in London.^[8]
1 December — Under the County and Borough Police Act, in any county or area where a police force has not already been established, the Justices of the Peace must from this date take steps to create one according to nationally defined standards.^[9]
2 December — National Portrait Gallery, London, formally established.^[10]
9 December — Bushehr surrenders to the British.

Robert Mushet patents an improvement to the Bessemer process for the production of steel.^[11]
Edward Stanley Gibbons begins the sale of collectable postage stamps in his father's pharmacy in Plymouth, origin of the firm of Stanley Gibbons.^[12]

Mrs Craik's novel John Halifax, Gentleman.^[13]
Charles Reade's novel It is Never too Late to Mend.^[13]
W. H. Smith's pamphlet Was Lord Bacon the Author of Shakespeare's Plays?, the start of Baconian theory.

4 March — Alfred William Rich, watercolour painter and author (died 1921)
8 March — Bramwell Booth, Salvation Army General (died 1929)
12 April — William Martin Conway, art critic and mountaineer (died 1937)
22 June — Henry Rider Haggard, writer (died 1925)
26 July — George Bernard Shaw, playwright (died 1950)
10 August — William Willett, promoter of daylight saving time (died 1915)
18 December — J.J. Thomson, physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1940)
25 December — Samuel William Knaggs, civil servant in the West Indies (died 1924)

17 February — John Braham, opera singer (born 1777)
25 February — George Don, botanist (born 1797)
29 August — Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, Christian writer (born 1778)
30 August
- Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, writer (born 1811)
- John Ross, Arctic explorer (born 1777)

^ "Music-About Wales". Visit Wales. Welsh Assembly Government. 2010. Archived from the original on 6 December 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-03.
^ "Welsh anthem — The background to Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau". BBC Cymru Wales history. BBC Cymru Wales. 1 December 2008. Retrieved 2010-12-03.
^ ^a ^b Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^ Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 276–277. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
^ "Porth & Cymmer". Rhondda Cynon Taf Library Service Heritage Trail. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
^ "Cymmer Colliery disaster". Welsh Coal Mines. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
^ "A Glamorgan Chronology". Retrieved 2010-10-15.
^ Hooper, Max. "Isaac Spratt, a Forgotten Pioneer of Croquet". Croquet History. Hawaii: Maui Croquet Club. Missing or empty |url= (help); |accessdate= requires |url= (help)
^ Friar, Stephen (2001). The Sutton Companion to Local History (rev. ed.). Stroud: Sutton Publishing. p. 243. ISBN 0-7509-2723-2.
^ "Gallery history". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
^ van Dulken, Stephen (2001). Inventing the 19th Century: the great age of Victorian inventions. London: British Library. p. 30. ISBN 0-7123-0881-4.
^ Briggs, Michael (July 2006). "The Story of Stanley Gibbons". Gibbons Stamp Monthly: 52–59. Retrieved 14 January 2011.
^ ^a ^b Leavis, Q.D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (2nd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.