The 1913

Houghton-le-Spring Houghton-le-Spring ( ) is a town in the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, North East England which has its recorded origins in Norman times. Historically in County Durham, it is now administered as part of the Tyne and Wear county. It is s ...

by-election was a Parliamentary by-election held on 18 March 1913. The constituency returned one

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) 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 In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

voting system.

Vacancy

Robert Cameron had been Liberal MP for

since 1895. He died on 13 February 1913.

Previous results

Cameron was elected unopposed in December 1910, however, he was opposed at the election before.

Candidates

The Liberals chose a Grimsby man, Tom Wing to defend the seat. He was elected at the

January 1910 general election The January 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 15 January to 10 February 1910. The government called the election in the midst of a constitutional crisis caused by the rejection of the People's Budget by the Conservative-dominat ...

(MP) for

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

, but lost that seat at the general election in December 1910. The Unionists selected local barrister, Thomas Richardson as their candidate. His father had been Liberal MP for

Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...

. Labour intervened with an Independent Labour Party member, William House, who was sponsored by the

Durham Miners' Association The Durham Miners' Association (DMA) was a trade union in the United Kingdom. History The union was founded in 1869 and its membership quickly rose to 4,000, but within a year had fallen back to 2,000. In December 1870, William Crawford becam ...

, for whom he had been President since 1900. House stood for the Labour Party in

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

at the

January January is the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is also the first of seven months to have a length of 31 days. The first day of the month is known as New Year's Day. It is, on average, the coldest month of the ...

and

December 1910 general election The December 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 3 to 19 December. It was the last general election to be held over several days and the last to be held before the History of the United Kingdom during the First World War, First Wo ...

Campaign

In the recent past, there had been a good working relationship between the local miners and the local Liberal Association to the point that by 1913, miners still dominated the local Liberal association. Every miners lodge in the constituency was represented at Wing's selection meeting. During the campaign, many miners lodge officials spoke on platforms in support of Wing.''Political Change and the Labour Party 1900-1918'' by

Duncan Tanner Duncan Tanner (19 February 1958 – 11 February 2010) was a political historian and academic. His best-known work covered the British Labour Party and voting in the early 20th century. He held the post of director of the Welsh Institute for Social ...

This came as something of a slap in the face to both the Independent Labour Party and the Durham Miners Association who had hoped that the local miners would support their candidate, House. This split in the local miners lodges was good news for the Unionist campaign. They knew that their only hoping of winning was if the Labour candidate took half or the Liberal vote, allowing the Unionists the chance to come through the middle.

Result

The Liberal Party held the seat with a significantly reduced majority.

Aftermath

A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the autumn of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place. House's parliamentary interests moved on to the Mid Durham constituency, while Richardson never stood again. At the eleventh hour, the Labour party replaced W. P. Richardson as candidate with another local miner Robert Richardson *Lindsley was the endorsed candidate of the Coalition Government.

References

* Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan. * Who's Who: www.ukwhoswho.com * Debrett's House of Commons 1916 {{By-elections to the 30th UK Parliament 1913 elections in the United Kingdom 1913 in England

20th century in County Durham March 1913 events