Events from the year 1852 in the United Kingdom.

Incumbents

Monarch - Victoria of the United Kingdom

Prime Minister - John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Liberal (until 23 February), Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, Conservative (until 19 December), George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Peelite

Events

17 January - United Kingdom recognises the independence of the Transvaal.

14 February - The Great Ormond Street Hospital in London admits its first patient.

1 March - Archibald William Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

1 April - Start of the Second Burmese War.

21 June - Trial of Cardinal John Henry Newman for the defamation of Giacinto Achilli opens in London. Newman was convicted on 25 June.

4 November - General election won by the Conservative Party under Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby.

11 November - New Palace of Westminster opens in London.

Publications

Roget's Thesaurus.

Serialisation of Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House.

William Makepeace Thackeray's novel The History of Henry Esmond.

Births

4 May - Alice Liddell, schoolgirl inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (d. 1934)

12 September - Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1928)

28 September - John French, 1st Earl of Ypres, World War I field marshal (d. 1925)

2 October - William Ramsay, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1916)

Deaths

4 September - William MacGillivray, naturalist and ornithologist (born 1796)

14 September - Augustus Pugin, architect (born 1812)

14 September - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, general and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1769)

21 November - Mary Berry, writer (born 1763)

27 November - Augusta Lovelace, early computer pioneer (born 1815)