The 1919 Kingston upon Hull Central by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

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of Kingston upon Hull Central on 29 March 1919. The by-election was the fifth to be held during the 1918-1922 parliament.

Vacancy

The seat had become vacant when the

Coalition Conservative The Coalition Coupon was a letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the 1918 United Kingdom general election, endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government. The 1918 election took place in the heady atmosphere of victory ...

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 Mark Sykes died on 16 February 1919 aged 39, a victim of the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

pandemic. He had held the seat since winning the 1911 Kingston upon Hull Central by-election on 5 July 1911.

Electoral history

The result at the last general election in 1918 was; Mark Sykes00

Candidates

*The Unionists selected 32-year-old Lord Eustace Percy as their candidate to defend the seat. He was the seventh son of

Henry Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland Henry George Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland, (29 May 1846 – 14 May 1918), styled Lord Warkworth between 1865 and 1867 and Earl Percy between 1867 and 1899, was a British Conservative politician. He served as Treasurer of the Household und ...

, and Lady Edith, daughter of

George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll George John Douglas Campbell, 8th and 1st Duke of Argyll (30 April 1823 – 24 April 1900; styled Marquess of Lorne until 1847), was a Scottish polymath and Liberal statesman. He made a significant geological discovery in the 1850s when his ten ...

. He was educated at

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and

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. Percy had served in the Diplomatic Service since 1911. He had not seen war service. He was standing for parliament for the first time. *The Liberals selected 33-year-old Lt-Comdr. Joseph Kenworthy as their candidate to challenge for the seat. He was born at Leamington in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

and educated at the

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. He joined the

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in 1902 and left the service in 1920 after serving in the

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war staff in

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. Kenworthy first tried to enter Parliament at the 1918 general election fighting

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as a Liberal but came third.

Campaign

Polling Day was set for 29 March 1919, 41 days after the death of the former MP. Nominations closed to confirm that the election would be a two-way contest. Percy immediately received the official endorsement of the Coalition Government. As with the

Leyton West by-election The 1919 Leyton West by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 1 March 1919 for the British House of Commons constituency of Leyton West, in the Urban District of Leyton, Essex. The constituency formed part of the Greater London co ...

6 weeks earlier, the dominant issue of the campaign was the idea being floated by the Coalition Government of retaining Conscription during peacetime. Kenworthy took a strong line in opposition to continuing conscription. He also argued against the imposition of impossible reparations against Germany. Percy's campaign did little other than express support for the Coalition Government.

Result

According to reports in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' newspaper, the by-election proved largely uneventful and the parties were expecting a small poll. In the event there was a turnout of 51% which although on the lower end of the spectrum for by-elections of the day, was not the lowest experienced during the 1918–1922 Parliament. Popular opinion was swinging against the

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...

and

Bonar Law Andrew Bonar Law ( ; 16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923. Law was born in the British colony of New Brunswick (now a ...

and particularly against the Conservative half of the coalition.The Times, 12 April 1919 As a result, the

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 ...

candidate,

Joseph Kenworthy Joseph Montague Kenworthy, 10th Baron Strabolgi (7 March 1886 – 8 October 1953), was a Liberal and then a Labour Party Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Education and naval service Strabolgi was born at Leamington in Warwickshire an ...

, gained the seat for his party with a majority of 917 over his Coalition Conservative opponent, Lord Eustace Percy. British Pathe has newsreel footage of Joseph Kenworthy taken after his election victory. http://www.britishpathe.com/video/commander-kenworthy/query/election

Aftermath

Kenworthy went on to hold the seat for the Liberals at the subsequent general election. The result at the following general election in 1922 was; Percy was to find electoral success elsewhere and go on to sit in the Conservative Cabinet of Stanley Baldwin. The proposal for retaining Conscription during peacetime was quickly dropped.

References

* * {{By-elections to the 31st UK Parliament History of Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull Central by-election Elections in Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull Central by-election By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Yorkshire and the Humber constituencies Kingston upon Hull Central by-election 1910s in the East Riding of Yorkshire 20th century in Kingston upon Hull