Events from the year1880 in the United Kingdom.

• Monarch –Victoria
• Prime Minister –Benjamin Disraeli (Conservative) (until 21 April),William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal) (starting 23 April)

• January–March – great fog continues to engulfLondon.^[1]
• 21 January – an undergroundfiredampexplosion at Fair Lady Pit,Leycett, in theNorth Staffordshire Coalfield, kills 62coal miners.^[2][3]
• 31 January – training frigateHMSAtalanta leavesBermuda bound forFalmouth but is lost in the Atlantic with all 281 on board.
• 2 February – the first successful shipment of frozenmutton from Australia arrives in London aboard the SSStrathleven.^[4]
• 8 March – theConservative Party lose thegeneral election to theLiberal Party.^[5]
• 19 March – Rev.Sidney Faithorn Green is imprisoned for over 2 years inLancaster Castle and will be deprived of his parish in Manchester as a result of proceedings under thePublic Worship Regulation Act 1874.
• 3 April –Gilbert and Sullivan'scomic operaThe Pirates of Penzance has itsLondon debut at theOpera Comique on theStrand.^[6]
• 18 April –William Ewart Gladstone succeedsBenjamin Disraeli asPrime Minister. This is Gladstone's second term as prime minister.^[5]
• 19 April –Second Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at theBattle of Ahmed Khel.
• 20 April –Victoria University chartered and incorporatesOwens College, Manchester.
• 20 May – foundation stone laid forTruro Cathedral inCornwall, the first to be built on a new site since the 13th century.^[7]
• 15 July – an underground firedamp explosion atRisca Colliery in theCrosskeys district ofMonmouthshire kills 120 coal miners^[8][9] and 69 horses.^[10]
• 27 July – Second Anglo-Afghan War: Afghan victory at theBattle of Maiwand.
• 2 August –Time in the United Kingdom:Greenwich Mean Time adopted as the legal standard throughout Great Britain by the Statutes (Definition of Time) Act.^[11]
• 26 August –Elementary Education Act ("Mundella's Act") enforces school attendance up to the age of ten in England and Wales.^[12]
• 1 September – Second Anglo-Afghan War: British victory at theBattle of Kandahar.
• 6–8 September – firstcricketTest match held in Britain.^[6]
• 8 September – an underground explosion atSeaham Colliery,County Durham, kills 164 coal miners.^[13]
• October – Irish tenantsostracise landholder's agentCharles Boycott.^[6]
• 29 October –Wells lifeboat disaster:RNLIlife-boatEliza Adams ofWells-next-the-Sea,Norfolk,capsizes on service; 11 of 13 crew lost.^[14]
• 17 November – theUniversity of London awards the first degrees to women.^[11]
• 27 November – Rev.Richard Enraght is imprisoned for 49 days in Warwick Prison and deprived of his parish in Birmingham as a result of proceedings under thePublic Worship Regulation Act 1874.
• 10 December – an underground firedamp explosion at Naval Steam Colliery,Penygraig, in theRhondda, kills 101 coal miners.^[15]
• 15 December – first performance of a play byHenrik Ibsen in English,The Pillars of Society (under the titleQuicksands) at theGaiety Theatre, London.^[16]
• 16 December
  • High Court of Justice reorganised into theChancery,Queen's Bench and theProbate, Divorce and Admiralty Divisions, with abolition of theCommon Pleas andExchequer Divisions.
  • TheBoers declare independence inTransvaal triggering theFirst Boer War.
• 20 December – First Boer War: British forces defeated in theaction at Bronkhorstspruit.
• 24 December – first festival ofNine Lessons and Carols devised byEdward White Benson, at this timeBishop of Truro.^[17]

• Foundation of theDavid Greig provision merchant chain in London.
• A. & R. Scott begin producing the predecessor ofScott's Porage Oats inScotland.^[18]

• Benjamin Disraeli's novelEndymion.
• Amelia Edwards' novelLord Brackenbury.
• Thomas Hardy's novelThe Trumpet-Major.

• 28 January –Herbert Strudwick, cricketer (died 1970)
• 8 February –Arthur Greenwood, politician (died 1954)
• 17 February –Reginald Farrer, botanist (died 1920)
• 1 March –Lytton Strachey, biographer and critic, member of the Bloomsbury Group (died 1932)^[19]
• 6 March –Jameson Adams, Antarctic explorer, Royal Navy officer and civil servant (died 1962)
• 17 April –Leonard Woolley, archaeologist (died 1960)
• 30 April –Charles Exeter Devereux Crombie, cartoonist (died 1967)
• 25 May –Alf Common, footballer (died 1946)
• 21 June –Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, economist (died 1941)
• 12 August –Radclyffe Hall, author and poet (died 1943)
• 13 August –Mary Macarthur, trade unionist (died 1921)
• 23 August –Wyndham Standing, English actor (died 1963)
• 16 September –Alfred Noyes, poet (died 1958)
• 22 September –Christabel Pankhurst, suffragette (died 1958)
• 23 September –John Boyd Orr, physician and biologist, recipient of theNobel Peace Prize (died 1971)
• 15 October –Marie Stopes, birth control advocate, suffragette and palaeontologist (died 1958)
• 28 October –Saxon Sydney-Turner, civil servant, eccentric, member of the Bloomsbury Group (died 1962)
• 2 November –John Foulds, classical music composer (died 1939)
• 9 November –Giles Gilbert Scott, architect (died 1960)
• 10 November –Jacob Epstein, American-born sculptor (died 1959)
• 25 November –Elsie J. Oxenham, children's novelist (died 1960)

• 27 January –Edward Middleton Barry, architect (born 1830)
• 2 February –Sir George Hamilton Seymour, diplomat (born 1797)
• 3 April –John Laing, bibliographer and Free Church of Scotland minister (born 1809)
• 12 April –Joseph Brown, Roman Catholic bishop (born 1796)
• 6 May –Charles Meredith, Welsh-born politician in Tasmania (born 1811)
• 10 May –John Goss, church composer (born 1800)
• 27 May –Alfred Swaine Taylor, toxicologist, "father of British forensic medicine" (born 1806)
• 30 May –James Planché, dramatist (born 1796)
• 12 July –Tom Taylor, dramatist and journalist (born 1817)
• 15 August –Adelaide Neilson, actress (born 1848)
• 22 August –Benjamin Ferrey, architect (born 1810)
• 9 September –Charles Lowder, Anglican priest prominent inAnglo-Catholicism and humanitarian (born 1820)^[20]
• 18 September –Sir Fitzroy Kelly, lawyer and politician, last Chief Baron of the Exchequer (born 1796)
• 23 September –Geraldine Jewsbury, novelist and woman of letters (born 1812)
• 25 September –John Tarleton, admiral (born 1811)
• 5 October –William Lassell, astronomer (born 1799)
• 30 November –Jeanette Threlfall, hymnwriter (born 1821)
• 22 December –George Eliot (Mary Ann Cross), novelist and woman of letters (born 1819)
• 31 December –John Stenhouse, Scottish chemist (born 1809)

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

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from July 2022
• Use British English from January 2013