The 1917 Wisbech by-election was a by-election held on 14 December 1917 for the British House of Commons constituency of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire.
The election was caused by the death of sitting Liberal MP, the Hon. Neil Primrose MC, the son of the former Liberal prime minister Lord Rosebery on 15 November 1917. [1] Primrose died of wounds received in battle at Gezer during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign.
The Liberals selected Colin Coote, a serving officer in the Gloucestershire Regiment [2] who was granted leave to contest the election. [3] Being their partners in the coalition government of David Lloyd George, the Unionists also supported Coote’s nomination and no other candidates came forward.
Accordingly, Coote was returned unopposed. At 24 years of age, he was one of the youngest members of the House.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Liberal | Colin Coote | Unopposed | N/A | N/A | |
| National Liberal hold | |||||
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, 1st Earl of Midlothian, was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from March 1894 to June 1895. Between the death of his father, in 1851, and the death of his grandfather, the 4th Earl of Rosebery, in 1868, he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny.
Edward Montagu Cavendish Stanley, Lord Stanley, was a British Conservative politician. The eldest son of the 17th Earl of Derby, he held minor political office before being appointed Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs in 1938, sitting in the cabinet alongside his brother Oliver Stanley. However, Stanley died only five months after this appointment, aged 44; his eldest son, Edward John Stanley, later succeeded to the earldom in his stead.
Albert Edward Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery, 2nd Earl of Midlothian,, styled Lord Dalmeny until 1929, was a British liberal politician who briefly served as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1945. He was the Member of Parliament for Midlothian from 1906 to 1910. He became the Earl of Rosebery and Midlothian in 1929 and was thus a member of the House of Lords until his death.
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Wisbech is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was created upon the abolition of an undivided Cambridgeshire county constituency in 1885 and was itself abolished in 1918.
Neil James Archibald Primrose was a British Liberal politician and soldier. The second son of Prime Minister Lord Rosebery, he represented Wisbech in parliament from 1910 to 1917 and served as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1915 and as joint-Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from 1916 to 1917. He died from wounds received in action in Palestine in 1917.
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