The 1924 Carmarthen by-election was a parliamentary

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 ...

for the British House of Commons constituency of

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...

West Wales West Wales ( cy, Gorllewin Cymru) is not clearly defined as a particular region of Wales. Some definitions of West Wales include only Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, which historically comprised the Welsh principality of ''Deheub ...

held on 14 August 1924.

Vacancy

The by-election was caused by the resignation of the sitting

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 ...

MP, Sir Ellis Ellis-Griffith. Ellis-Griffith was 64 years old and had first been elected an MP in 1895. Soon after being elected for Carmarthen at the 1923 general election he made it known to his local party that he would not be standing again at the next election.The Times, 30 June 1924 p16 He had been in public life a long time and was one Liberal who had not supported the decision of the party to allow the minority Labour government to take office in January 1924. According to one source, local Liberal opinion in July 1924 favoured an immediate appeal to the electorate and Ellis-Griffith resigned from Parliament using the traditional device of applying for the

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at the end of that month.

Candidates

*The Liberals selected Alfred Mond. Mond was an industrialist and

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent who would later become most well known for being the man behind the formation of ICI. Mond was aged 56 at this time and had been Liberal MP for a number of other constituencies, most recently for Swansea West. *The Conservatives chose Sir Alfred Stephens,The Times, 17 July 1924 p14 a Welsh speaker and employer of labour in the constituencyThe Times, 4 August 1924 p10 who had been their candidate at the last general election. *Labour selected the Reverend E T Owen.

Campaign

The main local issue in the by-election was the importance of agriculture, given the largely rural nature of the constituency. However an interesting question was how far would the fact that Sir Alfred Stephens and the Reverend Owen were both Welsh speakers, whereas Mond was not, affect the attitude of the electors and how far, if at all, this matter would resonate with Welsh national feeling in the area. On UK wide issues, the main battleground was the fight between

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

and anti-socialist feeling. Mond took up the anti-socialist crusade with vigour and had Lloyd George come to

to support him on this, against the background of the record and statements of the Labour government and Labour ministers.

Result

The result was a hold for the Liberal Party with Mond obtaining a slightly increased majority of 4,409 votes, although their share of the poll was marginally reduced. This time it was Labour that secured second place, with Stephens coming third.F W S Craig, ''British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949''; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1949, p551 Alfred Mond

This must have been a disappointment to the Conservatives who were said to have fought the election hard. Labour could probably take the most comfort from the result, given the difficult time the minority Labour government was experiencing at Westminster.Cook and Ramsden, ''By-elections in British politics''; UCL Press, 1997 p56

Aftermath

At the next general election Owen faced a straight fight with Mond, the Conservatives having fled the field ceding to Mond (later to defect to the Conservatives) the anti-socialist banner.

References