1830s A short Historical Back drop of Victorian Britain -
Slavery is abolished in the British Empire - Charles Dickens -
Oliver Twist is published - London to Birmingham line opens
starting the railway boom - George IV dies and is succeeded by
William IV - Queen Victoria's coronation William Webb Ellis
receives his MA degree at Oxford. Thomas Hughes author of "Tom
Brown's School days" started at Rugby School. In 1839 at
Cambridge University, an old Rugbeian, Mr Arthur Pell (a
Cambridge under graduate who later became a member of
Parliament) got a rugby team together. The Old Rugbeians
challenged the Old Etonians to a game of football and
controversy at the Rugbeians' use of hands led to
representatives of the major public schools meeting to draw up
the 'Cambridge Rules'. At Rugby School, the 1839 School House
team was the first side to adopt a uniform. All their players
wore red velvet caps during a match that Princess Adelaide
daughter of the duke of Saxe-Meiningen (wife of the future King
William IV), is th