The 1906 Cockermouth by-election was a

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 ...

held on 3 August 1906 for the

British House of Commons 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 mem ...

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England, so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. The mid-2010 census estimates state that Cocke ...

Vacancy

The by-election was triggered by the death of the town's

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

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 ...

(MP) Sir Wilfrid Lawson.

Electoral history

At the last General Election in January, the result was; Sir Wilfrid Lawson, political postcard

Candidates

The Liberal candidate chosen to defend the seat was Captain Frederick Guest. Thirty-one-year-old Guest was a former Conservative who had followed his cousin Winston Churchill, for whom he worked as private secretary, into the Liberal Party in 1904 in support of the policy of

Free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...

. At the previous General Election in January, he was Liberal candidate for

Kingswinford Kingswinford is a town of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the English West Midlands, situated west-southwest of central Dudley. In 2011 the area had a population of 25,191, down from 25,808 at the 2001 Census. The current economic focus ...

where he came second. The Conservative candidate was Sir John Randles, who had held the seat from 1900 until losing narrowly in the general election in January. Forty-eight-year-old Randles was an industrialist in the coal and steel business. There was also a third candidate,

Robert Smillie Robert Smillie (17 March 1857 – 16 February 1940) was a Scottish trade unionist and Labour Party politician. He was a leader of the coal miners, and played a central role in moving support from the miners away from the Liberal Party to the La ...

of the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

. Forty-nine-year-old Smillie, in 1893 was a founding member of the

. He had been President of the

Scottish Miners' Federation The National Union of Scottish Mineworkers (NUSW) is a trade union in Scotland, founded in 1894 as the Scottish Miners Federation. It joined the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, and in 1914 changed its name to National Union of Scottish Minew ...

since 1894. He had stood unsuccessfully for parliament on a number of occasions since 1894. At the previous General Election in January, he was Labour candidate for Paisley when he came third.

Campaign

Result

Turnout was only slightly down since the general election, when only two candidates had run, and although the Conservative vote fell slightly, the Liberals lost much more, probably due to the intervention of Smillie. The result was a gain for the Conservatives.''The Times'', 6 August 1906

Aftermath

Randles held the seat at the following General Election; Sir John Randles lost the seat again in the December 1910 election, this time to Sir Wilfred Lawson, son of the former MP. Frederick Guest was eventually returned as a Member of Parliament for

East Dorset East Dorset was a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Dorset, England. Its council met in Wimborne Minster between 2016 and 2019. The district (as Wimborne) was formed on 1 April 1974 by merging Wimborne Minster Urban Dist ...

in the January 1910 general election.

References

* ''The Times'', July/August 1906 * {{By-elections to the 28th UK Parliament Cockermouth by-election Cockermouth by-election Cockermouth by-election 20th century in Cumberland By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Cumbria constituencies