The Stratford-on-Avon by-election was a UK parliamentary

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

for the constituency in June 1901. It was triggered by the death of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Victor Milward Colonel Victor Milward (29 September 1840 – 31 May 1901) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a c ...

on 31 May 1901.

Campaign

Despite the Liberals not fielding a candidate in 1900, they did this time with their candidate Bolton King who has been described as a 'radical idealist'. His objective was "to carry the principles of Christianity into political and social life". However, before his campaign could even get off the ground it ran into trouble. His adoption meeting at the Corn Exchange descended into chaos with speeches being interrupted with patriotic songs, chairs being turned over and ultimately, fighting breaking out. By contrast, the Conservative candidate, Philip Foster, had a much more peaceful adoption meeting the next evening in which he called for tolerance as a result of the previous night's events. Two further Liberal meetings at the Corn exchange received an equally malicious response. Learning from this, at King's eve-of-poll rally the seats were arranged in such a way that would reduce confrontation.

Result

Stratford-on-Avon remained a Conservative seat with Philip Foster winning with a majority of 1,778.

References

{{By-elections to the 27th UK Parliament 1901 elections in the United Kingdom 1901 in England June 1901 events By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Warwickshire constituencies