1905 Appleby by-election

UK parliamentary by-election March 2015 1905 Appleby by-election presidential United Kingdom Appleby (UK Parliament constituency) 1900 1906 United Kingdom general election 1906 2 March 1905 Jones 85px Liberal Party (UK) 2,922 52.0% Noble Conservative Party (UK) 2,702 48.0% MP Subsequent MP Richard Rigg Liberal Party (UK) Leif Jones Liberal Party (UK) The 1905 Appleby by-election was a Parliamentary by-election held on 2 March 1905.Craig F.W.S. 1987 Chronology of British Parliamentary By-elections 1833–1987 Chichester Parliamentary Research Services 99 The constituency returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system. Vacancy and electoral history Richard Rigg had been Liberal MP for the seat of Appleby since the 1900 general election. Rigg aged only 23, had a large majority of 11.4%. This was a surprise, since Appleby had previously returned only Conservatives since 1885. Rigg resigned from the Liberal Party on 25 November 1904 because he found himself in agreement with the Conservative government on so many key issues. The result at the last election was as follows: thumb|left|120px|Rigg General election 1900: ApplebyLiberal Year Book 1908 Liberal Party (UK) Richard Rigg 2,835 55.7 +14.4 Conservative Party (UK) Joseph Savory 2,256 44.3 -14.4 579 11.4 N/A 5,091 75.5 -4.1 Liberal Party (UK) Conservative Party (UK) +14.4 Candidates When Rigg announced his resignation from the Liberal Party he also announced his intention to resign his seat and seek re-election as a Conservative."There is to be another by-election, this time in." Times [London, England] 25 November 1904: 7. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 3 February 2015. However, the local Conservative Association had already selected 46-year-old Major George Noble as their candidate to re-gain the seat at the next general election. Noble was the heir to his father's baronetcy. He had been educated at Harrow School and Sandhurst Military Academy. He was in the 13th Hussars, fought at Lucknow and served in the South African War being invalided home in 1901.‘NOBLE, Sir George (John William)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2015; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 3 February 2015 Noble was not willing to stand down and allow Rigg a straight fight against a new Liberal candidate. Rigg thus found himself in a difficult situation. The Conservatives had already chosen a candidate and the Liberals were selecting his replacement. Faced with this dilemma, he decided not to resign his seat but to go abroad. He claimed that the “ruffianism” of Liberals angry at his defection of the party had made him ill, and he went to an unnamed continental health resort to recover.http://www.cwherald.com/archive/archive/when-election-fever-gripped-appleby-20050312168822.htm When election fever gripped Appleby 12 March 2005 Cumberland and Westmorland Herald 16 January 2010 2 March 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120302104119/http://www.cwherald.com/archive/archive/when-election-fever-gripped-appleby-20050312168822.htm dead thumb|Leif Jones On 14 December 1904, the local Liberal Association selected 42-year-old Leif Jones as their new candidate to hold the seat. Born Leifchild Stratten Jones on 16 January 1862 in St Pancras, London, the fifth of the six children of the Reverend Thomas Jones (1819–1882), an Independent clergyman, formerly of Morriston, Swansea, and Jane Jones, daughter of John Jones of Dowlais. His older siblings were David Brynmor (b. 1851), Annie, John Viriamu (b. 1862) and Irvonwy; his younger brother was Morlais Glasfryn. His brothers David Brynmor Jones and John Viriamu Jones would both achieve prominence in public life. In 1867, when Leifchild was five years old, his mother died, and in 1869 his father left London, for health reasons, moving firstly back to Swansea (1870–1877) and afterwards to Melbourne, Australia (1877–1880), where Leifchild was educated at Scotch School. Afterwards Leifchild became a student at Trinity College, Oxford.thepeerage.com Leifchild Stratten Leif-Jones, 1st and last Baron Rhayader He was Private Secretary to the Countess of Carlisle, a prominent prohibitionist campaigner.Entry on Leif Jones in Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: Volume I. As a temperance campaigner Leif Jones was sometimes referred to as 'Tea-leaf Jones'. He was an experienced candidate having previously fought Westminster in 1892, Leeds Central in 1895 and Manchester South in 1900. He started to work the constituency even though Rigg had yet to resign from parliament. Rigg returned to England in February 1905, and resigned his seat on 11 February 1905 by becoming Steward of the Manor of Northstead.http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-04731.pdf Appointments to the Chiltern Hundreds and Manor of Northstead Stewardships since 1850 Department of Information Services House of Commons Library 9 June 2009 30 November 2009 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20110206041753/http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-04731.pdf 6 February 2011 He told the Annual Dinner of the Carlisle Conservative Club "I am proud to be one of you now ... I have the satisfaction of feeling that what I have done was conscientious and right." He had also decided not to contest the subsequent by-election. Campaign Polling Day was fixed for 2 March 1905, just 19 days after Rigg's resignation. The weather during the campaign saw rain and snow. Jones launched his campaign by condemning the Chinese Labour Act, the Education Act 1902 and Joseph Chamberlain's fiscal proposals."Election Intelligence." Times [London, England] 15 December 1904: 6. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 3 February 2015. The main national issue at the time was the decision of the Unionist Government to abandon free trade to advocate the introduction of tariff reform. Noble launched his campaign by not fully endorsing Chamberlain's tariff reform programme, stating he was opposed to any fiscal scheme that would raise the price of food."Election Intelligence." Times [London, England] 18 February 1905: 10. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 3 February 2015. Result The Liberals held the seat from the Conservatives: thumb|120px|Jones Appleby by-election, 1905 Liberal Party (UK) Leif Jones 2,922 52.0 -3.7 Conservative Party (UK) Sir George Noble, 2nd Baronet George Noble 2,702 48.0 +3.7 220 4.0 -7.4 5,624 84.3 +8.8 Liberal Party (UK) -3.7 Even though women did not have the vote, disappointed Tories blamed them for their defeat. “There can be no shadow of doubt,” declared Josceline Bagot, Conservative MP for neighbouring Kendal, “that Major Noble’s defeat was caused by the efforts of wives who feared the introduction of protection.” A month after the by-election, Noble wrote to Appleby Conservatives that “his health had failed” and his doctors had sent him on vacation to Gibraltar and Tangier. Aftermath In October 1905 Noble had made the long-expected announcement that he would not stand, blaming “my own shortcomings as a candidate”. The Conservatives chose a new candidate but Jones clung on to the set by just 3 votes: General election 1906: Appleby Liberal Party (UK) Leif Jones 2,894 50.0 -2.0 Conservative Party (UK) Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice 2,891 50.0 +2.0 3 0.0 -4.0 5,785 88.4 +4.1 Liberal Party (UK) References Category:History of Westmorland Category:1905 elections in the United Kingdom Category:1905 in England Category:20th century in Westmorland Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Cumbria constituencies Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Westmorland constituencies Category:Appleby-in-Westmorland Category:March 1905 in the United Kingdom