1918 Wansbeck by-election

UK parliamentary by-election April 2022 The 1918 Wansbeck by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the UK House of Commons constituency of Wansbeck in Northumberland on 28 May 1918. Vacancy thumb|right|Charles Fenwick The by-election was caused by the death on 20 April 1918 of the sitting Liberal MP Rt Hon. Charles Fenwick, at the age of 68. He had held the seat since the general election of 1885. Fenwick was prominent figure in the Northumberland Miners' Association having first worked as a coal miner at the age of 10. He was one of a large group of miners representatives who refused to join the Labour party.Norman McCord, Charles Fenwick in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP 2004-09 Electoral history Fenwick, as a sponsored candidate of the Northumberland miners, had won the seat for the Liberals at every election since the seat was created in 1885. When the Miners Federation of Great Britain voted to affiliate to the Labour Party in 1909, Fenwick, retaining the support of the Northumberland miners, contested both 1910 general elections as a Liberal candidate. The Labour Party did not field a candidate against him and at the December 1910 general election he was returned unopposed. The last contested election in Wansbeck was the January 1910 contest; General election January 1910 Electorate Liberal-Labour (UK) Charles Fenwick 10,872 70.0 -6.4 Conservative Party (UK) Charles Percy 4,650 30.0 +6.4 6,222 40.0 -12.8 15,522 81.6 +4.0 Liberal-Labour (UK) -6.8 Candidates Liberals Wansbeck Liberal Association adopted Alderman Robert Mason as their candidate to replace Fenwick.The Times, 13 May 1918 p6 Mason was a 60-year-old shipping agent and shipowner The Times, 22 May 1918 p3 with local government and community connections. He was an Alderman of Northumberland County Council and a Justice of the Peace.Who was Who, OUP 2007 Conservatives As participants in the wartime coalition with Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, the Conservatives chose not to contest the by-election.The Times, 30 May 1918 p3 Given that they normally polled poorly, this was not much of a sacrifice. Labour Despite the Liberal tradition in Wansbeck, and the fact that Fenwick had been unopposed at the last general election, and despite the wartime electoral party truce, the local Labour Party decided to contest the by-election and selected a local 34-year-old coal miner from Ashington, Ebenezer Edwards. Edwards was the nominee of the Northumberland Miners' Association and received the support of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain. He was not actually endorsed by the National Executive of the Labour Party, because of the wartime electoral truce. Edwards was an opponent of the war and had chosen to remain working in the mines rather than enlist. Campaign Polling day was set for 28 May 1918, 38 days after the death of Fenwick, allowing for an unusually long campaign. Result Mason retained the seat for the Liberal Party with a majority of 547 votes over Edwards. Wansbeck by-election, 1918 Electorate Liberal Party (UK) Robert Mason 5,814 52.5 N/A Independent Labour Ebenezer Edwards 5,267 47.5 New 547 5.0 N/A 11,081 51.3 N/A Liberal Party (UK) N/A The result was a narrow endorsement by the electorate for the government’s handling of the war effort, both in military terms and industrially on the Home front. However Labour could claim to be wresting the traditional mining vote away from the Liberals.Roy Church and Quentin Outram, Strikes and Solidarity: Coalfield Conflict in Britain 1899-1966; Cambridge University Press, 1998 p69 Aftermath Soon after the Wansbeck result Labour’s National Executive Committee formally refused to renew the wartime truce between the political parties.G. R. Searle, A New England? Peace and War 1886-1918; OUP 2005 p827 Edwards took on Mason again for Labour at the 1918 general election but with a larger electorate and the national swing behind him, Mason increased his majority to 3,399.The Times House of Commons 1919; Politico’s Publishing 2004 p59 Wansbeck General Election, 1918 Electorate 42,750 Liberal Party (UK) Robert Mason 14,065 56.9 +4.4 Labour Party (UK) Ebenezer Edwards 10,666 43.1 -4.4 3,399 13.8 +8.8 24,731 57.9 +6.6 Liberal Party (UK) +4.4 References See also List of United Kingdom by-elections United Kingdom by-election records 1929 Wansbeck by-election 1940 Wansbeck by-election Wansbeck by-election Wansbeck by-election Wansbeck by-election Category:20th century in Northumberland Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Northumberland constituencies