1915 Merthyr Tydfil by-election

UK parliamentary by-election October 2020 September 2013 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 majorityJanuary 2014 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.https://books.google.com/books?id=y4D-wYxBXhAC&q=the+merthyr+tydfil+by-election+1915&pg=PA144 Managing domestic dissent in First World War Britain Millman, Brock 2000 9780714650548 13 January 2012 (Query - did Stanton hold this office in November 1915? May 2017 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)' Stanton had fought East Glamorganshire as a Labour candidate in December 1910. The SWMF conducted three successive ballots after which Winstone was narrowly selected.May 2017 Results Candidate First ballotMerthyr vacancy: result of first ballot The Guardian 18 October 1915 Second ballotMerthyr vacancy: result of miners' second ballot The Guardian 25 October 1915 Third ballot: 28 OctoberVotesVotesVotes% 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/AMajority 1,600 11.4Turnout 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."'http://www.llgc.org.uk/fileadmin/documents/pdf/The_Journal_TE_Nicholas_Ivor_Rees.pdf Thomas Evan Nicholas 1879-1971 Rees, Ivor N.L.W. Jnl., 35 (2010) 13 January 2012 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20120507151531/http://www.llgc.org.uk/fileadmin/documents/pdf/The_Journal_TE_Nicholas_Ivor_Rees.pdf 7 May 2012 He was designated as 'Independent Labour' on the ballot, but he was not supported by the Independent Labour Party and was highly critical of their anti-war policy in interviews. The Independent Labour Party supported the anti-war candidate Winstone, who stood as a Labour candidate.https://www.library.wales/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/amdanom_ni/cylchgrawn_llgc/cgr_erth_XXXVrhif3_2012_5.pdf Charles Butt Stanton, 1873–1946 The National Library of Wales 163 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.http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/dnb/66803.html Morgan, David Watts (1867–1933) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 13 January 2012 Result 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. 1915 Merthyr Tydfil by-electionCraig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press Ltd. 9780333169032. Page 458 Independent Labour Charles Stanton 10,286 62.8 N/A Welsh Labour James Winstone 6,080 37.2 -2.4 4,206 25.6 N/A 16,366 67.7 -13.6 24,192 Independent Labour Welsh Labour Previous election General election, December 1910: Merthyr Tydfil Liberal Party (UK) Edgar Rees Jones 12,258 42.2 +1.2 Welsh Labour Keir Hardie 11,507 39.6 +2.9 Liberal Unionist Party J.H. Watts 5,277 18.2 +5.6 6,981 24.0 -4.4 6,230 21.4 -2.7 29,042 81.3 -11.7 23,219 Liberal Party (UK) Welsh Labour See also Merthyr Tydfil (UK Parliament constituency) List of United Kingdom by-elections References Further reading Craig F. W. S. F. W. S. Craig British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 1 1974 Macmillan London Category:1915 elections in the United Kingdom Category:1915 in Wales Category:1910s elections in Wales Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Welsh constituencies Category:Politics of Merthyr Tydfil Category:November 1915 in the United Kingdom