Appleby by-election, 1905

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Appleby by-election, 1905
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←  1900 2 March 1905 1906  →

  1905 Leif Jones (Elliott & Fry).jpg
Candidate Leif Jones George Noble
Party Liberal Conservative
Popular vote2,9222,702
Percentage52.048.0
MP before election

Richard Rigg
Liberal

Subsequent MP

Leif Jones
Liberal

The Appleby by-election was a Parliamentary by-election. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.

Appleby was a parliamentary constituency in the former county of Westmorland in England. It existed for two separate periods: from 1295 to 1832, and from 1885 to 1918.

A parliamentary by-election occurs in the United Kingdom following a vacancy arising in the House of Commons. They are often seen as a test of the rival political parties' fortunes between general elections.

House of Commons of the United Kingdom lower house in the Parliament of the United Kingdom

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster. Officially, the full name of the house is the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. Owing to shortage of space, its office accommodation extends into Portcullis House.

Contents

Vacancy and electoral history

Richard Rigg had been Liberal MP for the seat of Appleby since the 1900 General Election. Rigg aged only 23, had a large majority of 11.4%. This was a surprise, since Appleby had previously returned only Conservatives since 1885. The result at the last election was as follows:

Richard Rigg (British politician) British Liberal Party politician who defected to the Conservatives

Richard Rigg was a British Liberal Party politician who defected to the Conservatives.

Rigg Richard Rigg.jpg
Rigg
General Election 1900 [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%±
Liberal Richard Rigg 2,83555.7
Conservative Joseph Savory 2,25644.3
Majority57911.4
Turnout 5,091
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing

Rigg resigned from the Liberal party on 25 November 1904 because he found himself in agreement with the Conservative government on so many key issues.

Candidates

When Rigg announced his resignation from the Liberal Party he also announced his intention to resign his seat and seek re-election as a Conservative. [2] However, the local Conservative Association had already selected 46-year-old Major George Noble as their candidate to re-gain the seat at the next general election. Noble was the heir to his father's baronetcy. He had been educated at Harrow School and Sandhurst Military Academy. He was in the 13th Hussars, fought at Lucknow and served in the South African War being invalided home in 1901. [3] Noble was not willing to stand down and allow Rigg a straight fight against a new Liberal candidate. Rigg thus found himself in a difficult situation. The Conservatives had already chosen a candidate and the Liberals were selecting his replacement. Faced with this dilemma, he decided not to resign his seat but to go abroad. He claimed that the “ruffianism” of Liberals angry at his defection of the party had made him ill, and he went to an unnamed continental health resort to recover. [4]

Leif Jones Leif Jones postcard.jpg
Leif Jones

On 14 December 1904, the local Liberal Association selected 42-year-old Leif Jones as their new candidate to hold the seat. Born Leifchild Stratten Jones on 16 January 1862 in St Pancras, London, the fifth of the six children of the Reverend Thomas Jones (1819–1882), an Independent clergyman, formerly of Morriston, Swansea, and Jane Jones, daughter of John Jones of Dowlais. His older siblings were David Brynmor (b. 1851), Annie, John Viriamu (b. 1862) and Irvonwy; his younger brother was Morlais Glasfryn. His brothers David Brynmor Jones and John Viriamu Jones would both achieve prominence in public life. In 1867, when Leifchild was five years old, his mother died, and in 1869 his father left London, for health reasons, moving firstly back to Swansea (1870–1877) and afterwards to Melbourne, Australia (1877–1880), where Leifchild was educated at Scotch School. Afterwards Leifchild became a student at Trinity College, Oxford. [5] He was Private Secretary to the Countess of Carlisle, a prominent prohibitionist campaigner. [6] As a temperance campaigner Leif Jones was sometimes referred to as 'Tea-leaf Jones'. He was an experienced candidate having previously fought Westminster in 1892, Leeds Central in 1895 and Manchester South in 1900. He started to work the constituency even though Rigg had yet to resign from parliament.

Leif Jones British politician

Leifchild Stratten Leif-Jones, 1st Baron Rhayader, PC, known as Leif Jones before his elevation to the peerage in 1932, was a British Temperance movement leader and Liberal politician.

St Pancras, London area of central London, England

St Pancras is an area of Central and North West London. For many centuries the name was used for various officially designated areas, but it is now used mainly for the railway station and for upmarket venues in the immediate locality, having been largely superseded by other place names including Kings Cross and Somers Town.

London Capital of the United Kingdom

London is the capital and largest city of the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile (80 km) estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles (2.9 km2) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow closely its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

Rigg returned to England in February 1905, and resigned his seat on 11 February 1905 by becoming Steward of the Manor of Northstead. [7] He told the Annual Dinner of the Carlisle Conservative Club "I am proud to be one of you now ... I have the satisfaction of feeling that what I have done was conscientious and right." [4] He had also decided not to contest the subsequent by-election.

Members of Parliament (MPs) sitting in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom are technically not permitted to resign their seats. To circumvent this prohibition, MPs who wish to resign can ask to be appointed to an "office of profit under the Crown", disqualifying them from sitting as MPs. While offices of profit are no longer disqualifying in general, various offices that no longer have duties associated with them still cause disqualification from and vacation of the seat.

Campaign

Polling Day was fixed for 2 March 1905, just 19 days after Rigg's resignation. The weather during the campaign saw rain and snow. Jones launched his campaign by condemning the Chinese Labour Act, the Education Act 1902 and Joseph Chamberlain's fiscal proposals. [8] The main national issue at the time was the decision of the Unionist Government to abandon free trade to advocate the introduction of tariff reform. Noble launched his campaign by not fully endorsing Chamberlain's tariff reform programme, stating he was opposed to any fiscal scheme that would raise the price of food. [9]

Education Act 1902 education-related UK parliament act of 1902

The Education Act 1902, also known as the Balfour Act, was a highly controversial Act of Parliament that set the pattern of elementary education in England and Wales for four decades. It was brought to Parliament by a Conservative government and was supported by the Church of England, opposed many by Nonconformists and the Liberal Party. The Act provided funds for denominational religious instruction in voluntary elementary schools, most of which were owned by the Church of England and the Roman Catholics. It reduced the divide between voluntary schools, which were largely administered by the Church of England, and schools provided and run by elected school boards, and reflected the influence of the Efficiency Movement in Britain. It was extended in 1903 to cover London.

Result

The Liberals held the seat from the Conservatives:

Jones 1905 Leif Jones (Elliott & Fry).jpg
Jones
Appleby by-election, 1905 [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%±
Liberal Leif Jones 2,92252.0
Conservative George Noble 2,70248.0
Majority2204.0
Turnout 5,624
Liberal hold Swing

Even though women did not have the vote, disappointed Tories blamed them for their defeat. “There can be no shadow of doubt,” declared Josceline Bagot, Conservative MP for neighbouring Kendal, “that Major Noble’s defeat was caused by the efforts of wives who feared the introduction of protection.” A month after the by-election, Noble wrote to Appleby Conservatives that “his health had failed” and his doctors had sent him on vacation to Gibraltar and Tangier.

Aftermath

In October 1905 Noble had made the long-expected announcement that he would not stand, blaming “my own shortcomings as a candidate”. The Conservatives chose a new candidate but Jones clung on to the set by just 3 votes:

General Election 1906 [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%±
Liberal Leif Jones 2,89450.0
Conservative Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice 2,89150.0
Majority30.0
Turnout 5,785
Liberal hold Swing

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Liberal Year Book 1908
  2. ↑ "There is to be another by-election, this time in." Times [London, England] 25 November 1904: 7. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 3 February 2015.
  3. ↑ ‘NOBLE, Sir George (John William)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 3 February 2015
  4. 1 2 "When election fever gripped Appleby". Cumberland and Westmorland Herald. 12 March 2005. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  5. ↑ thepeerage.com Leifchild Stratten Leif-Jones, 1st and last Baron Rhayader
  6. ↑ Entry on Leif Jones in Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: Volume I.
  7. ↑ Department of Information Services (9 June 2009). "Appointments to the Chiltern Hundreds and Manor of Northstead Stewardships since 1850" (PDF). House of Commons Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  8. ↑ "Election Intelligence." Times [London, England] 15 December 1904: 6. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 3 February 2015.
  9. ↑ "Election Intelligence." Times [London, England] 18 February 1905: 10. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 3 February 2015.
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