1905 Chichester by-election

The Chichester by-election was a Parliamentary by-election. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system. It was held on 2 June 1905 after the incumbent Conservative MP Lord Edmund Talbot was appointed as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury and he was obliged to stand again in a ministerial by-election. It was retained by Talbot.

1905 Chichester by-election
2 June 1905
 
Candidate Talbot Allen
Party Conservative Liberal
Popular vote 4,174 3,762
Percentage 52.6% 47.4%
MP before election

Lord Edmund Talbot
Conservative

 Subsequent MP

Lord Edmund Talbot
Conservative

Vacancy

Lord Edmund Talbot had been Conservative MP for the seat of Chichester since the 1894 Chichester by-election. He was appointed as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury and he was obliged to stand again in a ministerial by-election.

Electoral history

The seat had been Conservative since creation in 1868. Lord Edmund Talbot held the seat at the last election, unopposed:

General election 1900: Chichester [1][2][3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Edmund Talbot Unopposed N/A N/A
Conservative hold

Talbot had always been returned unopposed. The last contest in the constituency came in 1892, when the Conservative out-polled the Liberal by nearly two to one.[1]

Candidates

The local Conservative Association re-selected 50 year-old Lord Edmund Talbot as their candidate to defend the seat. The local Liberal Association selected 33 year-old John Ernest Allen as their candidate to challenge for the seat. Allen was a Barrister-at-law, who had been educated at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities where he gained a Master of Arts.[4]

Campaign

Polling Day was fixed for the 2 June 1905, the day after the 1905 Whitby by-election. On the eve of poll, the Liberals gained Whitby from the Conservatives.[1]

Result

The Conservatives held the seat with their lowest majority since 1885:

Talbot
Chichester by-election, 1905[1][2][5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Edmund Talbot 4,174 52.6 N/A
Liberal John Ernest Allen 3,762 47.4 New
Majority 412 5.2 N/A
Turnout 7,936 73.6 N/A
Conservative hold Swing N/A

Aftermath

At the following General Election, Talbot again held the seat, the result was:

General election 1906: Chichester [2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Lord Talbot 5,197 56.4
Liberal John Ernest Allen 4,023 43.6
Majority 1,174 12.8
Turnout 9,220
Conservative hold Swing

References
  1. British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
  2. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
  3. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
  4. ‘ALLEN, John Ernest’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 10 Jan 2017
  5. "Chichester By-election". Ballymena Observer. 9 June 1905. Retrieved 8 December 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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