Aylesbury by-election, 1899

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The Aylesbury by-election, 1899 was a parliamentary by-election held for the House of Commons constituency of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire on 6 January 1899.

By-elections, also spelled bye-elections, are used to fill elected offices that have become vacant between general elections.

Aylesbury (UK Parliament constituency) Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom

Aylesbury is a constituency created in 1553 — created as a single-member seat in 1885 — represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since 1992 by David Lidington, of the Conservative Party.

Buckinghamshire County of England

Buckinghamshire, abbreviated Bucks, is a county in South East England which borders Greater London to the south east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north east and Hertfordshire to the east.

Contents

Vacancy

The vacancy was caused by the death of the sitting Liberal Unionist MP, Baron Fredinand von Rothschild at the family home which he had built, Waddesdon Manor, on 17 December 1898. [1] Rothschild had held the Aylesbury seat since 1885, first as a Liberal but he later joined the Liberal Unionist exodus over Irish Home Rule and had sat as Liberal Unionist since 1886. [2] [3]

The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain, the party formed a political alliance with the Conservative Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule. The two parties formed the ten-year-long coalition Unionist Government 1895–1905 but kept separate political funds and their own party organisations until a complete merger was agreed in May 1912.

Waddesdon Manor Grade I listed historic house museum in Aylesbury Vale, United Kingdom

Waddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Aylesbury Vale, 6.6 miles (10.6 km) west of Aylesbury. The Grade I listed house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898) as a weekend residence for grand entertaining and as a setting for his collection. The last member of the Rothschild family to own Waddesdon was James de Rothschild (1878–1957). He bequeathed the house and its contents to the National Trust. It is now managed by the Rothschild Foundation chaired by Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild. It is one of the National Trust's most visited properties, with over 467,000 visitors in 2017, with 157,000 visiting the house in 2015. Waddesdon Manor won Visit England's Large Visitor Attraction of the Year category in 2017.

Candidates

Liberal Unionists

At first it appeared that the by-election arising from Rothschild’s death would be contested, although neither the Unionists nor the Liberals had a candidate in the field. The Liberal Unionists were reported as considering asking the Hon. Lionel Walter Rothschild, the son of the late Lord Rothschild, to be their candidate. [4] This proposal met with Rothschild’s approval and the Liberal Unionists held a meeting at Aylesbury Town Hall on the evening of Tuesday 3 January 1899 to formally decide the issue of their candidate. The meeting was chaired by Leopold de Rothschild, the cousin and brother-in-law of the late MP. The meeting was said to be large and was attended, amongst others, by Sir Fortescue Flannery MP and Coningsby Disraeli MP. The meeting agreed to endorse Walter Rothschild as their candidate. Rothschild accepted, announcing he was opposed to Home Rule and to the proposal of the Gladstonians to abolish the House of Lords. He also said he supported the many reforms of a social character put forward by Joseph Chamberlain before his break with the Liberal Party, which now formed an integral part of the Unionist programme. [5]

Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild British politician

Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild,, was a British banker, politician, zoologist and scion of the Rothschild family. As a prominent Zionist leader, he was presented with the famous Balfour Declaration which pledged to a Jewish national home in Palestine. Rothschild was the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 1925 to 1926.

Seat of local government chief administrative building of a municipality

In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre, a guildhall, a Rathaus (German), or a municipal building, is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city or town council, its associated departments, and their employees. It also usually functions as the base of the mayor of a city, town, borough, or county/shire.

Leopold de Rothschild British banker

Leopold de Rothschild, was a British banker, thoroughbred race horse breeder, and a member of the prominent Rothschild family.

Liberals

The local Liberals were initially said to be in favour of approaching George Russell who had formerly been MP for the Aylesbury constituency. [6] Other Carpetbaggers were looking for a seat. The Aylesbury Liberal Association received an unsolicited telegram from a Mr. Mackay Green of George Street, Edinburgh saying he thought the seat could be won in the Radical interest and offering himself as candidate, so long as all expenses were paid. [7] The Liberals had failed to contest the seat at the previous general election in 1895 and in the end they chose not to oppose Rothschild at the by-election. [8]

George W. E. Russell British politician

George William Erskine Russell PC, known as George W. E. Russell, was a British biographer, memoirist and Liberal politician.

Edinburgh City and council area in Scotland

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian, it is located in Lothian on the Firth of Forth's southern shore.

The term "Radical" during the late 18th-century and early 19th-century identified proponents of democratic reform, in what subsequently became the parliamentary Radical Movement.

The result

There being no other nominations therefore, Rothschild was returned unopposed. [9]

Aylesbury by-election, 1899
PartyCandidateVotes%±
Liberal Unionist Hon. Lionel Walter Rothschild UnopposedN/AN/A
Liberal Unionist hold Swing N/A

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References

  1. ↑ The Times, 19 December 1898 p6
  2. ↑ R W Davis, Ferdinand James Anselm de Rothschild; in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online, OUP 2004-13
  3. ↑ F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918; Macmillan Press, 1974 p73
  4. ↑ The Times, 20 December 1898 p4
  5. ↑ The Times, 4 January 1899 p4
  6. ↑ The Times, 20 December 1898 p4
  7. ↑ The Times, 2 January 1899 p5
  8. ↑ F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918; Macmillan Press, 1974 p224
  9. ↑ The Times, 7 January 1899 p6

See also

UK by-election records is an annotated list of notable records from UK Parliamentary by-elections. A by-election occurs when a Member of Parliament resigns, dies, or is disqualified or expelled, and an election is held to fill the vacant seat. A constituency is the seat or division that member represented.

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