The 1915 Merthyr Tydfil by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 25 November 1915 for the British House of Commons constituency of Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorganshire, Wales.
The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Keir Hardie, died on 26 September 1915, aged 59. He had held the seat since the 1900 general election, when he was elected as one of the first two Labour MPs.
Candidates
In May 1915 the Liberals, the Conservatives and Labour had formed a Coalition Government, although the majority[citation needed] of the Labour Party had stayed outside the Government. Furthermore, from August 1914 until June 1918, a war-time electoral truce existed between the three parties; the party holding a seat would not be opposed by the other two at a by-election. The Conservatives and Liberals therefore did not contest the by-election.
Merthyr Tydfil was a miners' seat, and power within the local Labour Party lay within the locally dominant trade union, the South Wales Miners' Federation. The SWMF balloted their members to determine the Labour candidate.
The selection procedure quickly became a battle between competing factions of the Independent Labour Party, played out within the administrative structures of the SWMF. The two principal candidates were James Winstone, the President of the Federation, and Charles Stanton, a miners' agent in the constituency.
Winstone was anti-conscriptionist and pro-Union of Democratic Control. Stanton, on the other hand, was Vice-President of the British Workers League, a 'patriotic labour' group which was anti-socialist and pro-war.[1] Stanton had fought East Glamorganshire as a Labour candidate in December 1910.
The SWMF conducted three successive ballots after which Winstone was narrowly selected.[citation needed]
Results
| Candidate | First ballot[2] | Second ballot[3] | Third ballot: 28 October | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | Votes | Votes | % | ||
| James Winstone | 2,641 | 4,405 | 7,832 | 55.7 | |
| Charles Stanton | 2,699 | 4,838 | 6,232 | 44.3 | |
| John Williams | 2,508 | 4,391 | N/A | N/A | |
| Robert Smillie | 1,816 | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| Enoch Morrell | 1,623 | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| Majority | 1,600 | 11.4 | |||
| Turnout | 14,064 | Unknown | |||
Campaign
Following the result of the selection, Stanton resigned as a miners' agent and fought the election as a pro-war 'National' candidate. He attracted support from the local Liberals and Conservatives on a 'straight war ticket "to fight against the Huns for our homeland."'[4] He was designated as Independent Labour.[5]
The wife of David Watts Morgan, Agent of the No. 1 Rhondda District of the SWMF and to be elected Labour MP for Rhondda East in 1918, supported Stanton, an act he (Morgan) later had to apologise for.[6]
Results
On a reduced turnout, Stanton won the seat with a majority of 4,206 votes.
At the 1918 general election, the Merthyr seat was divided into two single-member constituencies. Stanton fought the Aberdare seat and won it by a larger majority, defeating the pacifist Labour candidate Thomas Evan Nicholas. The British Workers League had transformed itself into the National Democratic and Labour Party and Stanton stood under its label, with the Coalition Coupon.
Votes
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent Labour | Charles Stanton | 10,286 | 62.8 | N/A | |
| Labour | James Winstone | 6,080 | 37.2 | -2.4 | |
| Majority | 4,206 | 25.6 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 16,366 | 67.7 | -13.6 | ||
| Registered electors | 24,192 | ||||
| Independent Labour gain from Labour | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Edgar Rees Jones | 12,258 | 42.2 | +1.2 | |
| Labour | Keir Hardie | 11,507 | 39.6 | +2.9 | |
| Liberal Unionist | J.H. Watts | 5,277 | 18.2 | N/A | |
| Majority | 6,981 | 24.0 | -4.4 | ||
| Majority | 6,230 | 21.4 | -2.7 | ||
| Turnout | 29,042 | 81.3 | -11.7 | ||
| Registered electors | 23,219 | ||||
| Liberal hold | Swing | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
See also
References
- ^ Millman, Brock (2000). Managing domestic dissent in First World War Britain. ISBN 9780714650548. Retrieved 13 January 2012. (Query - did Stanton hold this office in November 1915?[citation needed] The Wikipedia article on the BWL states it was set up in 1916. And Ivor Rees' article on Stanton in the National Library of Wales Journal states that 'Stanton and Ben Tillett ... among others founded the British Workers' National League in March 1916 (with Stanton as a vice-president)'
- ^ "Merthyr vacancy: result of first ballot". The Guardian. 18 October 1915.
- ^ "Merthyr vacancy: result of miners' second ballot". The Guardian. 25 October 1915.
- ^ Rees, Ivor. "Thomas Evan Nicholas 1879-1971" (PDF). N.L.W. Jnl., 35 (2010). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 May 2012. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
- ^ "Charles Butt Stanton, 1873–1946" (PDF). The National Library of Wales. p. 163.
- ^ "Morgan, David Watts (1867–1933)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
- ^ a b Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press Ltd. ISBN 9780333169032. Page 458
Further reading
- Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan.
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This page was last edited on 27 January 2024, at 09:24