The 1905

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

by-election was a Parliamentary by-election held on 5 April 1905. The constituency returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 me ...

, elected by the first past the post voting system. It was one of only eight ministerial by-elections in the UK not to be retained by the incumbent.

Vacancy

Gerald Loder Gerald Walter Erskine Loder, 1st Baron Wakehurst, JP DL LLB (25 October 1861 – 30 April 1936) was a British barrister, businessman and Conservative politician. He is best remembered for developing the gardens at Wakehurst Place, Sussex. Ba ...

had been Conservative MP for the seat of

since the

1889 Brighton by-election The Brighton by-election of 1889 was held on 25 October 1889 after the death of the incumbent Conservative MP William Tindal Robertson. It was retained by the Conservative candidate Gerald Loder Gerald Walter Erskine Loder, 1st Baron Wake ...

. He vacated his seat upon appointment as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury so as to seek re-election.

Electoral history

Brighton returned two Members of Parliament to the

, elected by the first past the post voting system. The seat had been Conservative since they gained it in 1885. They easily held both seats at the last election:

Candidates

The Conservatives re-selected 44-year-old

to defend the seat. He was private secretary to the President of the Local Government Board ( Charles Ritchie) from 1888 to 1892 and to Lord George Hamilton (the Secretary of State for India) from 1896 to 1901. The local Liberal Association selected 42-year-old Ernest Villiers as their candidate. He was ordained as an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

priest. After three years as a

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

in Halifax, he became

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of Haveringland, Norfolk. He resigned from holy orders to pursue a political career.Who's Who

Campaign

Polling Day was fixed for 5 April 1905.

Result

The Liberals gained the seat from the Conservatives:

Aftermath

At the following General Election, the Liberals gained the other seat from the Conservatives, the result was:

References

{{By-elections to the 27th UK Parliament 1905 elections in the United Kingdom 1905 in England 20th century in Sussex Politics of Brighton and Hove By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in East Sussex constituencies