Events from the year 1838 in the United Kingdom. Incumbents Monarch – Victoria Prime Minister – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (Whig) Foreign Secretary – Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston Parliament – 13th Events 10 January – a fire destroys Lloyd's Coffee House and the Royal Exchange in London. 20 January – with a daily average of , this day sees the coldest daily Central England temperature value on record. 4–22 April – the paddle steamer SS Sirius (1837) makes the Transatlantic Crossing to New York from Cork in eighteen days, though not using steam continuously. 8–23 April – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's paddle steamer SS Great Western (completed on 31 March) makes the Transatlantic Crossing to New York from Avonmouth in fifteen days, inaugurating a regular steamship service. 8 April – the National Gallery first opens to the public in the building purpose-designed for it by William Wilkins in Trafalgar Square, London. 9 May – Royal Agricultural Society of England founded. 21 May – Chartism: The People's Charter is launched by members of the London Working Men's Association at a mass meeting on Glasgow Green calling for universal suffrage for male voters. 31 May – Battle of Bossenden Wood: In Kent, self-declared Messiah John N. Thom, calling himself "Sir William Courtenay", and a band of around 35 agricultural labourers are surrounded by soldiers of the 45th Regiment of Foot sent to arrest them following the earlier murder of a policeman. Thom and ten followers, together with an officer and a constable, are killed in what is sometimes described as the last battle on English soil. 4 June – first section of the Great Western Railway, engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opens from London Paddington station to Maidenhead. 18 June – the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway opens, the first line across England. 28 June – the coronation of Queen Victoria takes place at Westminster Abbey. Lord Melbourne denies her the traditional medieval banquet due to budget constraints, and critics refer to it as "The Penny Crowning". The Imperial State Crown is remade for her. July – Chichester Theological College is founded by Bishop William Otter in West Sussex as the first such college of the Anglican Communion in England. 4 August – the Court Journal prints a rumour that Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton is going to host a great jousting tournament at his castle in Scotland. A few