1922 City of London by-election

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1922 City of London by-election
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
  1918 19 May 1922 1922 (GE)  

Constituency of City of London
Turnout36.96%
 First partySecond party
 
UP
Bowater 4586276615 645365ed26 o (3x4 crop).jpg
Candidate Edward Grenfell Vansittart Bowater
Party Unionist Ind. Unionist
Popular vote10,1146,178
Percentage62.08%37.92%

CityofLondon1918.png
A map of parliamentary constituencies within the County of London at the time of the by-election, with City of London highlighted in red.

MP before election

Arthur Balfour
Unionist

Subsequent MP

Edward Grenfell
Unionist

The 1922 City of London by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 19 May 1922 for the British House of Commons constituency of City of London, which covered the "Square Mile" which was the United Kingdom's traditional financial district.

Contents

The seat had become vacant on the elevation to the peerage of one of the constituency's two Unionist Members of Parliament (MPs), Arthur James Balfour, as the Earl of Balfour.

Balfour had held the seat since a by-election in 1906, following his defeat at Manchester East in the 1906 general election. He had also been prime minister between 1902 and 1905.

Candidates

The Unionist Party selected as its candidate Edward Grenfell, who was a director of the Bank of England. Sir Vansittart Bowater, who had been Lord Mayor of London in 1913, stood as an Independent Unionist.

Result

Turnout was unsurprisingly low in the first contested election in the City since the first 1910 general election. Grenfell won the seat by a convincing margin.

Curiously, Bowater would go on to be elected as the official Unionist candidate at a by-election in 1924, and he and Grenfell would share the representation of the City until 1935.

By-Election 19 May 1922: City of London
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist Edward Grenfell 10,114 62.08 N/A
Ind. Unionist Vansittart Bowater 6,17837.92New
Majority 3,93624.16N/A
Turnout 16,29236.96N/A
Unionist hold Swing N/A

Previous election

General election 14 December 1918: City of London (2 seats)
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
C Unionist Arthur Balfour Unopposed
C Unionist Frederick Banbury Unopposed
Unionist hold
Unionist hold
Cindicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

See also

References