1911 Glasgow Tradeston by-election

The Glasgow Tradeston by-election was a Parliamentary by-election held on 6 July 1911. ^[1] It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.

The constituency was created in 1885 and elected Liberal Archibald Corbett as their MP from then until he retired from the House of Commons in 1911 to take a seat in the House of Lords as 1st Baron Rowallan. Although Tradeston had consistently voted for Corbett, he did not consistently stand under the same label. In 1885 he stood as a Liberal against a Conservative. In 1886 following a split in the Liberal party he stood as a Liberal Unionist against a Liberal. Thereafter this was the normal contest until 1910. He had re-joined the Liberal party in 1908 but he did not win the official Liberal nomination in January 1910. This time standing as an Independent Liberal he scraped a victory against both Liberal and Conservative candidates. Then at the last general election, standing as the official Liberal candidate he won comfortably.

The local Liberal association finally settled on J. D. White to defend the seat. He had been Liberal MP for Dunbartonshire before standing down at the last election. They had considered James Hogge and Junior Minister Charles Masterman, and settled on Masterman before he withdrew to contest the 1911 Bethnal Green South West by-election. ^[2] The new Unionist candidate was Conservative John Henry Watts, who had opposed James Keir Hardie at Merthyr Tydfil at the general election.

The turnout was substantially down on the general election, meaning that while White won the seat for the Liberals with a massive swing of 17.6%, he received fewer votes than Corbett had.

Due to the outbreak of war, the subsequent general election did not take place until 1918. The Unionist Henderson was the endorsed candidate of the Coalition Government and won comfortably. After losing Glasgow Tradeston, White briefly joined the Labour party and stood as a Labour candidate on two occasions.

Detailed election results

General election Dec 1910: Glasgow Tradeston ^[3] Electorate

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Archibald Corbett	4,811	60.5	+28.7
	Liberal Unionist	Archibald Pollock Main	3,137	39.5	+6.5
Majority			1,674	21.0	N/A
Turnout			7,948	82.7	-4.3
	Liberal gain from Independent Liberal		Swing	N/A

Glasgow Tradeston by-election, 1911 ^[3] Electorate

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	J. D. White	3,869	78.1	+17.6
	Conservative	John Henry Watts	1,086	21.9	-17.6
Majority			2,783	56.2	+35.2
Turnout			4,955
	Liberal hold		Swing	+17.6

General election 14 December 1918: Glasgow Tradeston ^[4] Electorate 35,960

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Vivian Henderson	12,250	63.2	+41.3
	British Socialist Party	James Dunlop MacDougall	3,751	19.4	New
	Liberal	J. D. White	3,369	16.4	-71.7
Majority			8,499	43.8	N/A
Turnout			19,370	53.9	-28.8
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	+33.4

References

1. Craig, F.W.S. (1987). Chronology of British Parliamentary By-elections 1833–1987. Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 105.
2. Liberal Nationalisms: Empire, State, and Civil Society in Scotland and Quebec By James Kennedy
3. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1916
4. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig, F.W.S. (1974)