The Banbury by-election, 1922 was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Banbury on 22 June 1922. The seat had become vacant upon the appointment of the sitting Coalition Liberal MP, Sir R Rhys-Williams, to become Recorder of Cardiff. This was an office of profit under the Crown and in accordance with the constitutional requirements of the day Rhys-Williams was obliged to resign his seat and fight a by-election.
A by-election, also spelled bye-election, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections.
Banbury, also informally known as Banbury and North Oxfordshire or simply North Oxfordshire, is a constituency in Oxfordshire created in 1553 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Victoria Prentis of the Conservative Party.
The Liberal Party was one of the two major parties in the United Kingdom with the opposing Conservative Party in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The party arose from an alliance of Whigs and free trade-supporting Peelites and the reformist Radicals in the 1850s. By the end of the 19th century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone. Despite being divided over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to government in 1905 and then won a landslide victory in the following year's general election.
No candidate from any other party came forward to challenge Rhys-Williams however and he was returned unopposed. [1] Rhys-Williams continued as MP for Banbury until the general election in November 1922 when he stood down from Parliament to concentrate on his judicial responsibilities.
The 1922 United Kingdom general election was held on Wednesday 15 November 1922. It was the first general election held after most of Ireland left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by the Conservatives led by Bonar Law, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by J. R. Clynes, and a divided Liberal Party.
