Events from the year1885 in the United Kingdom.

• Monarch –Victoria
• Prime Minister –William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal) (until 9 June);Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative) (starting 23 June)

• January –Socialist League formed as a breakaway from theSocial Democratic Federation byWilliam Morris,Eleanor Marx and others.
• 17 January –Mahdist War: British victory at theBattle of Abu Klea.
• 24 January
  • Irish terrorists damageWestminster Hall and theTower of London with dynamite.^[1]
  • Edge Hill College opens inLiverpool.
• 26 January – Mahdist War: inSudan, following theSiege of Khartoum, British andEgyptian forces are defeated by theMahdistSudanese. The British commanderCharles George Gordon is killed.^[2]
• 4 February – The National Association for Employment of Reserve and Discharged Soldiers (modern-dayRFEA – The Forces Employment Charity) is set up to help ex-military personnel find civilian jobs.
• 23 February – The executioner atHM Prison Exeter fails after several attempts tohangJohn 'Babbacombe' Lee, sentenced for the murder of his employer Emma Keyse; Lee's sentence is commuted tolife imprisonment.
• 26 February – TheBerlin Conference concludes with the major European powers including the United Kingdom establishing their spheres of influence in the "scramble for Africa".^[2]
• 14 March –Gilbert andSullivan's comic operaThe Mikado opens at theSavoy Theatre in London.^[3]
• 26 March – First legalcremation in England: widowed painterJeanette Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles",^[4] is cremated by the Cremation Society atWoking Crematorium in Surrey.
• 31 March – The United Kingdom establishes aprotectorate overBechuanaland.
• 29 April – Women are permitted to take theUniversity of Oxford entrance examination for the first time.^[5]
• 5 June –Niger River basin becomes a British protectorate.^[1]
• 8 June –Second defeat of the Gladstone ministry:William Ewart Gladstone'sLiberal government is defeated in a vote of no confidence on the budget^[6] following criticism of the fall of Khartoum and violence inIreland.
• 9 June – Gladstone resigns^[6] andRobert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury forms a newConservative government.^[2]
• 18 June –Clifton Hall Colliery disaster: an explosion kills 178 inSalford.
• 24 June –Lord Randolph Churchill becomesSecretary of State for India.
• 25 June –Redistribution of Seats Act improvesapportionment of seats in the House of Commons.
• 26 June –John Everett Millais granted abaronetcy,^[7] the first artist to accept ahereditary title (G. F. Watts refuses for a second time).
• 6–9 July –Eliza Armstrong case: Campaigning journalistW. T. Stead publishes a series of articles in thePall Mall Gazette entitledThe Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon exposing the extent of femalechild prostitution inLondon.^[2]
• 20 July –The Football Association recognises professional players in England.^[5]
• 22 July –Caister Lifeboat capsizes: 8 of 15 crew are killed.
• 7 August –Criminal Law Amendment Act passes throughParliament, raising theage of consent from 13 to 16, and thereby outlawing child prostitution. TheLabouchere Amendment to the Act outlaws "gross indecency" between males.^[2]
• August –National Vigilance Association established "for the enforcement and improvement of the laws for the repression of criminal vice and public immorality".^[8]
• 12 September
  • Bury F.C., formed in a meeting between the Bury Wesleyans and Bury Unitarians Football Clubs, play atGigg Lane for the first time, beating aWigan team 4–3.
  • Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord, the all-time largest margin of victory in professional football.
• 29 September – Opening of theBlackpool tramway, the first to be electrically powered.^[5]
• 30 September – A British force abolishes theBoer republic ofStellaland and adds it toBritish Bechuanaland.
• October –Third Burmese War begins.^[2]
• 3 October –Millwall F.C. is founded by workers on theIsle of Dogs in London as Millwall Rovers.
• 23 November –1885 United Kingdom general election: Liberals under Gladstone hold the largest number of seats, but Salisbury remains Prime Minister with the support of theIrish Party.^[1]
• 28 November – British occupyMandalay;^[1]Burma annexed toBritish India.

• early –John Kemp Starley ofCoventry demonstrates the firstRoversafety bicycle, the first practical example of the modern bicycle.^[9]
• A modern pedestalflush toilet is demonstrated by Frederick Humpherson of the Beaufort Works,Chelsea.^[10]
• Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association established to provide charitable assistance.
• Soap manufacturerLever Brothers founded.^[2]
• Completion ofSway Tower inHampshire, England, designed byAndrew Peterson using concrete made withPortland cement. It remains the world's tallest non-reinforced concrete structure.^[11][12]
• "Glasgow Boys" painters first exhibit collectively, at theGlasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.
• Stanhope Forbes'Newlyn School paintingA Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach.

• Richard Francis Burton'sThe Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments.
• Dictionary of National Biography begins publication under the editorship ofLeslie Stephen.
• A. V. Dicey's textIntroduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution.
• H. Rider Haggard's novelKing Solomon's Mines.^[2]
• George Meredith's novelDiana of the Crossways.^[2]
• Daniel Owen's long novelHunangofiant Rhys Lewis, Gweinidog Bethel, the first written inWelsh.
• Walter Pater's novelMarius the Epicurean.^[2]
• Old Testament in theRevised Version of TheBible.^[13]
• The Lady, "a journal for gentlewomen", is first published (19 February).

• 21 January –Duncan Grant, painter (died 1978)
• 24 January –Marjory Stephenson, biochemist (died 1948)
• 25 January –William Wand,Bishop of London (died 1977)
• 26 January –Harry Ricardo, mechanical engineer (died 1974)
• 16 February –Will Fyffe, Scottish music hall entertainer (died 1947)
• 25 February –Princess Alice of Battenberg (died 1969)^[14]
• 7 March –John Tovey, admiral of the fleet (died 1971)
• 11 March –Malcolm Campbell, land and water racer (died 1948)
• 1 May –A. V. Alexander, politician (died 1965)
• 6 June –Roy Fedden, aircraft engine designer (died 1973)
• 9 June –John Edensor Littlewood, mathematician (died 1977)
• 22 June –James Maxton, Scottish socialist, leader of the Independent Labour Party (died 1946)
• 18 August –A. E. J. Collins, cricketer and soldier (died 1914)
• 11 September –D. H. Lawrence, novelist (died 1930)

• 26 January –Charles George Gordon, general (killed in battle) (born 1833)
• 1 February –Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, inventor (born 1850)
• 15 March –Jane Williams (Ysgafell), writer (born 1806)
• 18 March –Sir Thomas Bazley, 1st Baronet, industrialist and politician (born 1797)
• 20 March –Christopher Wordsworth, Anglican bishop and Biblical commentator (born 1807)
• 22 March – SirHarry Parkes, diplomat (born 1828)
• 8 April –Susanna Moodie, writer on Canada (born 1803)
• 5 June – SirJulius Benedict, composer and conductor (born 1804 in Germany)
• 12 June –Fleeming Jenkin, engineer (born 1833)
• 6 July –Henry Corry Rowley Becher, lawyer, politician and author (born 1817)
• 28 July – SirMoses Montefiore, Jewish financier and philanthropist (born 1784 in Italy)
• 8 August –Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax, politician (born 1800)
• 11 August –Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, man of letters and politician (born 1809)
• 30 August –Thomas Thornycroft, sculptor (born 1815)
• 1 October –Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, politician and philanthropist (born 1801)
• 9 October –John Bowes, art collector (born 1811)
• 26 November –Thomas Andrews, chemist (born 1813)

• 1885 in the United Kingdom
• Years of the 19th century in the United Kingdom
• 1885 by country
• 1880s in the United Kingdom
• 1885 in Europe

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