1880 Berwick-upon-Tweed by-election

Last updated

In July 1880, a by-election was held in Berwick-upon-Tweed. The election was triggered by a vacancy caused by Henry Strutt, the Liberal MP, succeeding to the peerage. Strutt had won the seat at the 1880 general election but became Baron Belper upon his father's death in June. Conservative candidate David Milne Home beat Liberal candidate and Lord Advocate John McLaren by a very small margin to regain the seat he had lost at the general election.

Background

Strutt was invited to contest Berwick-upon-Tweed by the Liberal Committee a year before the March 1880 general election. [1] : 41  Both Strutt and the other Liberal candidate, Dudley Marjoribanks, were elected to the two available seats as part of an unexpected national swing towards the Liberals. [1] : 299  [2] On 30 June 1880, Strutt's father died and Strutt inherited his title, [1] : 305  [3] and thus his seat in the House of Lords, disqualifying him from his Commons seat. The writ for a by-election was issued on 6 July and the election was held on 19 July. [3]

The Conservative candidate David Milne Home had previously been an MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed from 1874 to April 1880. [1] : 302  The Liberal candidate was John McLaren, the Lord Advocate. McLaren had lost his seat upon seeking re-election after his appointment in April 1880, being defeated by Conservative Mark MacTaggart-Stewart. [4] The Glasgow Herald noted that "[t]here were very fair prospects for the Liberal cause at Berwick" seeing as the two Conservative candidates had come last at the recent general election. [5] However, Home won the contest by two votes, which The Herald attributed to Liberal voters not turning out and better organisation by the Conservatives. [5]

Berwick-upon-Tweed by-election, 1880 [5]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Captain David Milne Home 584 50.10 +6.4
Liberal Rt. Hon. John McLaren58249.90−6.4
Majority 21.20N/A
Turnout 1,16680.8+0.8 (est)
Registered electors 1,443[ citation needed ]
Conservative gain from Liberal Swing +6.4

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Wickham, Michael John (2002). Electoral politics in Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1832-1885 (PDF) (M.Phil. thesis). Durham University . Retrieved 21 November 2025– via Durham E-Theses Online.
  2. ↑ T. A. Jenkins (1984). "Gladstone, the Whigs and the Leadership of the Liberal Party, 1879-1880". The Historical Journal . 27 (2): 337–360. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00017829.
  3. 1 2 "The Liverpool Parliamentary Vacancy: Probable Date of the Election". Liverpool Daily Post . 22 July 1880. p. 5. Retrieved 21 November 2025– via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ George William Thomson Omond (1912). "McLaren, John"  . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co. On the formation of the Gladstone government (April 1880) he was appointed lord advocate, by way of recognition of his services to the party, but was defeated on seeking re-election by Mark John Stewart (afterwards Sir M. J. Mactaggart Stewart). The like ill-fortune pursued him when he stood for Berwick-on-Tweed in July 1880.
  5. 1 2 3 "Tuesday Morning, July 20". The Glasgow Herald . 20 July 1880. p. 4. Retrieved 21 November 2025– via Newspapers.com.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.