1905 Chichester by-election

The 1905 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.

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:

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	*N/A*
	Liberal	John Ernest Allen	4,023	43.6	N/A
Majority			1,174	12.8	N/A
Turnout			9,220	82.1	N/A
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
^ ^a ^b ^c The Liberal Year Book, 1907
^ Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
^ ‘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
^ "Chichester By-election". Ballymena Observer. 9 June 1905. Retrieved 8 December 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.

[ReferenceA-1] British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, FWS Craig

[ReferenceB-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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