Ayr Burghs by-election, 1904

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Ayr Burghs by-election, 1904
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←  1900 29 January 1904 1906  →

  Joseph Dobbie.png George Younger.jpg
Candidate Joseph Dobbie George Younger
Party Liberal Conservative
Popular vote 3,221 3,177
Percentage 50.3 49.7
MP before election

Charles Orr-Ewing
Conservative

Subsequent MP

George Younger
Conservative

The Ayr Burghs 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. The constituency included the Ayrshire burghs of Ayr and Irvine and the Argyllshire burghs of Campbeltown, Inverary and Oban.

Ayr Burghs was a district of burghs constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1800 and of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1950. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP), using the first-past-the-post voting system.

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

Charles Orr-Ewing had been Unionist MP for the seat of Ayr Burghs since the 1895 General Election. He died of heart failure on 24 December 1903 at the age of 43.

Charles Lindsay Orr-Ewing was a Scottish Tory politician.

Electoral history

The seat had been Unionist since they gained it in 1895. They easily held the seat at the last election, with an increased majority:

General Election January 1900 [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%±
Conservative Charles Orr-Ewing 3,101 55.3
Liberal Edmond Charles Browne 2,511 44.7
Turnout 82.3 -6.6
Majority 590 10.6
Conservative hold Swing

Candidates

The local Unionist Association selected 53-year-old George Younger as their candidate to defend the seat. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy. In 1897, he became chairman of George Younger and Son, the family brewing business. [2]

George Younger, 1st Viscount Younger of Leckie British politician

George Younger, 1st Viscount Younger of Leckie Bt was a British politician.

Edinburgh Academy independent school in Edinburgh, Scotland

The Edinburgh Academy is an independent school which was opened in 1824. The original building, in Henderson Row on the northern fringe of the New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland, is now part of the Senior School. The Junior School is located on Arboretum Road to the north of the city's Royal Botanic Garden.

The local Liberal Association selected 42-year-old Joseph Dobbie as their candidate to gain the seat. He was educated at the Ayr Academy and Edinburgh University and was in favour of social reform. [3]

Joseph Dobbie British politician

Sir Joseph Dobbie was a British Liberal Party politician.

Ayr Academy

Ayr Academy is a non-denominational secondary school situated within the Cragie Estate area at University Avenue in Ayr, South Ayrshire. It is a comprehensive school for children of ages 11–18 from Ayr. Ayr Academy's catchment area covers Newton-on-Ayr, Whitletts and the outlying villages of Coylton, Annbank, and Mossblown. In 2007, the closure of Mainholm Academy resulted in the addition of approximately 100 pupils attending Ayr Academy. As of November 2017, 426 pupils attended Ayr Academy which is the smallest pupil intake numbers in the whole of South Ayrshire. The school's motto, Respice, Prospice, is Latin for "Look Backwards, Look Forwards".

Campaign

Polling Day was fixed for the 29 January 1904, 36 days after the previous MP died.

The most prominent issue of the day was the campaign that leading Unionist, Joseph Chamberlain was running to get his government to introduce protectionist trade measures. His Tariff Reform League made a habit of taking their message to each by-election that occurred. However, the Unionist candidate, George Younger, was a committed supporter of Free Trade rather than Tariff Reform. The league nevertheless set up operations in the constituency to promote the issue which made the Unionist message in the campaign confusing. Younger, unhappy with their presence, got the Unionist Association Chairman to contact Unionist HQ in London to complain. As a result, the Tariff Reform League ceased campaigning and left the constituency. [4]

Joseph Chamberlain British businessman, politician, and statesman

Joseph Chamberlain was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then, after opposing home rule for Ireland, a Liberal Unionist, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the Conservatives. He split both major British parties in the course of his career.

Tariff Reform League

The Tariff Reform League (TRL) was a protectionist British pressure group formed in 1903 to protest against what they considered to be unfair foreign imports and to advocate Imperial Preference to protect British industry from foreign competition. It was well funded and included politicians, intellectuals and businessmen, and was popular with the grassroots of the Conservative Party. It was internally opposed by the Unionist Free Food League but that had virtually disappeared as a viable force by 1910. By 1914 the Tariff Reform League had approximately 250,000 members. It is associated with the national campaign of Joseph Chamberlain, the most outspoken and charismatic supporter of Tariff Reform. The historian Bruce Murray has claimed that the TRL "possessed fewer prejudices against large-scale government expenditure than any other political group in Edwardian Britain".

Result

The Liberals gained the seat from the Unionists:

Ayr Burghs by-election, 1904 [5]
PartyCandidateVotes%±
Liberal Joseph Dobbie 3,221 50.3 +5.6
Conservative George Younger 3,177 49.7 -5.6
Turnout 88.4 +2.1
Majority 44 0.6 11.2
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing +5.6

The Unionist supporting Spectator magazine concluded that "Whichever way we look at the election, it is impossible to dial cover any evidence of Scotland's conversion to Protection." [6]

Aftermath

At the following General Election the Unionists re-gained the seat. The result was:

General Election January 1906 [7]
PartyCandidateVotes%±
Conservative George Younger 3,766 51.8 +2.1
Liberal Joseph Dobbie 3,505 48.2 -2.1
Turnout 90.5 +2.1
Majority 261 3.6 4.2
Conservative gain from Liberal Swing +2.1

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References

  1. ↑ British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
  2. ↑ Who Was Who
  3. ↑ Who Was Who
  4. ↑ The Liberal Magazine (1905).
  5. ↑ British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
  6. ↑ The Spectator, 6 February 1904
  7. ↑ British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
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