The

Linlithgowshire West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geographically by the Av ...

by-election was a Parliamentary by-election held on 7 November 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

Alexander Ure had been

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 ...

for

since 1895. In 1913 he was raised to the bench as Lord Strathclyde and appointed Lord Justice General.

Previous result

Candidates

*Forty-year-old former Fabian,

John Pratt John Pratt may refer to: *John Pratt (judge) (1657–1725), Lord Chief Justice of England and interim Chancellor of the Exchequer *John Pratt (soldier) (1753–1824), United States Army officer *John Pratt, 1st Marquess Camden (1759–1840), Britis ...

was selected to defend the seat in the Liberal interest. He was Warden of Glasgow University Settlement, 1902–12 and was a Member of Glasgow Town Council, 1906. However, initially, the West Lothian Liberal Association had sought Robert Brown, the Provost of

Dalkeith Dalkeith ( ; gd, Dail Cheith, IPA: �t̪alˈçe is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River Esk. It was granted a burgh of barony in 1401 and a burgh of regality in 1540. The settlement of Dalkeith grew southwestwards from its 12th-cent ...

as their candidate. He was Secretary of the Midlothian miners and one of the few miners leaders in Scotland who were sympathetic to the Liberals. The Liberal Party had previously sought after Brown as their candidate for the 1912 Midlothian by-election where he eventually stood as a Labour Party candidate, finishing bottom of the poll. Brown once more turned down the Liberal offer and the Liberals chose Pratt. *Edinburgh educated 41-year-old James Kidd was re-selected by the Unionists, having fought the seat at the last election. *The Labour Party agreed not to put forward a candidate, to avoid splitting the anti-Unionist vote. However, the

British Socialist Party The British Socialist Party (BSP) was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw t ...

, which criticised the Liberal/Labour electoral pact, considered putting forward Robert Small, the Secretary of the West Lothian shale miners. Local branches of the Independent Labour Party also considered running a candidate

Campaign

Some 2,000 Irish electors lived in the constituency and they were expected to heavily support the Liberal candidate. Local branches 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 ...

asked local electors to vote for the Unionist Party candidate.John MacLean's Scottish Notes, Justice 8 November 1913, page 6

Result

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. *Scottish Liberal Party:

*Unionist Party: James Kidd For the 1918 elections, Pratt moved to contest Glasgow Cathcart.

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 {{Westminster by-elections in Scotland 1900–1949 1913 in Scotland 1910s elections in Scotland 1913 elections in the United Kingdom Politics of West Lothian By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Scottish constituencies History of West Lothian