1903 Barnard Castle by-election

1903 British election August 2020 March 2013 1903 Barnard Castle by-election presidential United Kingdom Barnard Castle (UK Parliament constituency)#Elections in the 1900s 1900 Barnard Castle (UK Parliament constituency)#Elections in the 1900s 1906 24 July 1903 Henderson 65px Labour Representation Committee (1900) 3,370 35.4% Vane Conservative Party (UK) 3,323 35.0% Beaumont 65px Liberal Party (UK) 2,809 29.6% 250px MP Subsequent MP Sir Joseph Pease Liberal Party (UK) Arthur Henderson Labour Representation Committee (1900) The 1903 Barnard Castle by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Barnard Castle, in County Durham, on 24 July 1903. Vacancy thumb|120px|Pease The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting Liberal MP, Sir Joseph Pease on 23 June 1903 at the age of 75. Pease had been MP for Barnard Castle since the 1885 general election, and before that one of the two MPs for South Durham since 1865. Candidates thumb|120px|Beaumont The Liberals selected Hubert Beaumont to succeed Pease. Beaumont had fought King's Lynn in 1895 and Buckingham in 1900. He would go on to become the MP for Eastbourne at the 1906 election. He was 39 years old at the election. William Lyonel Vane was the Unionist candidate. Vane had fought the seat as the Unionist candidate in the 1895 and 1900 elections. losing on both occasions in straight fights against Pease. He was 43 years old and was a colonel in the 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. The Friendly Society of Iron Founders agreed to sponsor a Labour Representation Committee candidate. Arthur Henderson was selected, receiving 5,619 votes from their membership, defeating Robert Morley, who took only 1,411.David E. Martin, "Morley, Robert", Dictionary of Labour Biography, vol. IX, pp. 225–227 Henderson was one of the delegates to the founding conference of the LRC in 1900, and had been elected Mayor of Darlington earlier in 1903. He had previously worked as agent for Pease, and was also 39 years old. Result The by-election was a tight three way battle between them, the Conservatives and the Liberals, an extremely unusual by-election for the time. A crowd of 3,000 gathered in the market place at Barnard Castle on Saturday 26 July to hear that Henderson had beaten Vane by 47 votes, with Beaumont in third placeTeesdale Mercury https://web.archive.org/web/20080705193337/http://www.teesdalemercury.co.uk/teesdale-news/feature%2C1689.html 5 July 2008 and the 2,803 Liberal votes splitting the left wing of the electorate. Henderson was the first Labour candidate to win against both Liberal and Conservative opposition, becoming only the fifth Labour MP, joining Keir Hardie and Richard Bell, who had been elected at the 1900 election, David Shackleton who had been elected for Clitheroe in a by-election in 1902, and Will Crooks who had been elected for Woolwich in a by-election four months earlier. This was also the third by-election win for Labour. The victory was widely celebrated in the constituency: "In Cockfield, Henderson gave his first speech as an MP, but had to wait several minutes for the crowd to stop cheering and proclaiming a victory for the working class ... He then walked to Evenwood, and along the way, people came out from the farms and hamlets to shake his hand. When he arrived he was carried aloft through town ... Henderson's train back to Darlington was delayed, as cheering crowds stopped it along the way."Teesdale Mercury https://web.archive.org/web/20080705193337/http://www.teesdalemercury.co.uk/teesdale-news/feature%2C1689.html 5 July 2008thumb|120px|Henderson 1903 Barnard Castle by-electionThe Liberal Year Book, 1908The Constitutional Year Book, 1904, published by Conservative Central Office, page 143 (167 in web page), Durham Labour Representation Committee (1900) Arthur Henderson 3,370 35.4 New Conservative Party (UK) William Lyonel Vane 3,323 35.0 -6.3 Liberal Party (UK) Hubert Beaumont 2,809 29.6 -29.1 47 0.4 N/A 9,502 84.6 +6.9 Labour Representation Committee (1900) Liberal Party (UK) Aftermath Henderson would remain as MP for the division until 1918, when he instead fought, and lost, the southern division of East Ham. He would serve three times as Leader of the Labour Party, and as both Home and Foreign Secretary, as well as winning by-elections in four other constituencies. References See also List of United Kingdom by-elections United Kingdom by-election records Category:1903 elections in the United Kingdom Category:1903 in England Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Durham constituencies Category:20th century in County Durham Category:July 1903 in the United Kingdom