The East Carmarthenshire by-election was a Parliamentary by-election held on 22 August 1912. 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.

Vacancy

The East Carmarthenshire MP since 1890 was the Liberal, Abel Thomas. He died on 23 July 1912, causing the by-election. He had been the MP since holding the seat in the

1890 East Carmarthenshire by-election The 1890 East Carmarthenshire by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the House of Commons constituency of East Carmarthenshire in West Wales in August 1890. Vacancy The vacancy resulted from the death of the sitting member, David ...

Previous result

Candidates

The Liberal candidate chosen to defend the seat was 54-year-old former Congregationalist Minister, Rev. Towyn Jones. For twenty years he had acted as agent for Abel Thomas. A local man, he was prominent in the Welsh Congregational Union and Carmarthenshire civic politics. He was an advocate of the more radical social programme being adopted by the Liberal party. Some local Liberal landowners had tried unsuccessfully to get the local association to select a more conservative and affluent candidate. The Unionists re-adopted local resident and landowner, Mervyn Lloyd Peel. He had been Chairman of East Carmarthenshire Unionist Association since 1907. He was a 56-year-old Barrister, born in Sale, Cheshire, and son of a Carmarthenshire Deputy Lieutenant. Peel was contesting the seat for third consecutive time. The Independent Labour Party re-adopted 42-year-old Dr John Henry Williams who had also stood here last time. He was a general practitioner in

Burry Port Burry Port ( cy, Porth Tywyn) is a port town and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, on the Loughor estuary (Moryd Llwchwr), to the west of Llanelli and south-east of Kidwelly. Its population was recorded at 5,680 in the 2001 census and 6,156 i ...

, Carmarthenshire. However, the Labour Party nationally did not adopt him as a candidate on this occasion.

Campaign

The Labour campaign got off to a bad start when the

South Wales Miners Federation The South Wales Miners' Federation (SWMF), nicknamed "The Fed", was a trade union for coal miners in South Wales. It survives as the South Wales Area of the National Union of Mineworkers. Forerunners The Amalgamated Association of Miners (AA ...

decided not to back Dr Williams, forcing him to rely entirely on the local branch of the Independent Labour Party. Williams criticised the use of the military in the 1911

Llanelli railway strike The Llanelli riots of 1911 were a series of events precipitated by the National Railway Strike of 1911. Mass picketing action at Llanelli railway station was brutally suppressed by the police, resulting in the deaths of two men, shot dead by tro ...

.Political Change and the Labour Party 1900-1918 Peel, the Unionist candidate, was critical of the Parliament Act 1911 which restricted the powers of the House of Lords. The Unionist campaign received a boost when, on 8 August 1912, they gained Manchester North West from the Liberals.

Result

Although the Liberal party share of the vote was down, the result was satisfactory, given that they had a new candidate replacing a long established incumbent. Although the Unionists did not come close to winning, they will have been encouraged by their increased share of the vote. For the Labour party to see their vote go down despite fielding an established local candidate, was a worry particularly when the Liberal government could be associated with some unpopular measures.

Aftermath

A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the summer of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place. Under the

Representation of the People Act 1918 The Representation of the People Act 1918 was an Act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in Great Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. The Act extended the franchise in parliamentary elections, also ...

the East Carmarthenshire seat was abolished, and was replaced by the new seat of Llanelli at the general election of that year. *Jones was the endorsed candidate of the Coalition Government.