About this episode

This episode discusses significant events in 1885, including geopolitical changes and societal developments in South Africa and England.

Welcome back to the History of South Africa podcast with me your host, Des Latham. Episode 283 and it’s 1885. And boy! Do we have a plethora of happenings to report. This is a year before the discovery of gold in the Transvaal, and global events are full of war, innovation, ethnic carnage, economic ups and downs, world firsts, medicine, and a dose of snot and trauma. The year 1885 opened with a strange and ironic trial by fire across England, balancing state-sanctioned progress against lawless destruction. In January, Irish rebels shattered the peace by detonating dynamite inside Westminster Hall and the Tower of London, raining literal fire and brimstone upon the ancient symbols of British authority. Amidst this chaotic violence, a far more orderly kind of incineration took place. That same year, the widowed painter Jeanette Pickersgill of London, a lady "well known in literary and scientific circles," became the first person to be legally cremated in England by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey. It was a classic Victorian paradox: while the state scrambled to suppress the lawless Irish bombs threatening to burn the old order down, it was simultaneously finalizing the…

People in this episode

Host: Des Latham

Topics covered

• history
• geopolitics
• innovation
• war
• society
• culture

Keywords

• 1885
• Transvaal
• Irish rebels
• cremation
• Bechuanaland Protectorate
• Botswana
• Jeanette Pickersgill
• Cremation Society

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cremation Society

Places: Transvaal, Woking, Surrey, Bechuanaland Protectorate, Botswana

More episodes of History of South Africa podcast

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• Episode 282 - The Scramble for Africa Berlin Conference of 1884/5 and Lüderitz becomes German · July 5, 2026 · 24 min
• Episode 281 - The Boers anoint Dinizulu King of the Zulus · June 28, 2026 · 26 min
• Episode 280 - Zibhebhu’s Mandlakazi shatter Cetshwayo’s uSuthu setting off a Zulu Civil War · June 21, 2026 · 32 min
• Episode 279 - Dean Williams and Bishop Merriman compete for Anglican Souls as De Villiers Graaff Ponders · June 14, 2026 · 21 min

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