[ot]

You are right, but it came to UK through US:

  From the United States, the Ph.D. degree spread to 
  Canada in 1900, and then to the United Kingdom in 1917.

(from Wikipedia)

[enjolras]

Maybe the name Ph. D., but the Ph. D. itself is older in the USA and in Europe. There were Ph. D. in the 19th century both in Europe and in Universities like Yale or Harvard.

[Van_av_Ordning]

Could you clarify? Humboldt University started granting PhDs in the early 19th century, Yale in 1861, so yes, of course there were PhDs in the 19th century.