The

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

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 ...

of 14 February 1956 was held after the resignation of

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

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) Jim Thomas.Full results
The seat was safe, having been won by Thomas at the

1955 United Kingdom general election The 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 26 May 1955, four years after the previous general election in 1951. It was a snap election: after Winston Churchill retired in April 1955, Anthony Eden took over and immediately ca ...

albeit with a reduced majority of over 2,000 votes.Election results
PoliticsResources.net The Liberals, who had already polled nearly one-quarter of the vote in 1955, increased their share to 36.4%.

Candidates

* David Gibson-Watt was the Conservative candidate to hold the seat. He had served in the Welsh Guards and was a former local councillor. * Frank Owen A local man who had served in his youth as the Liberal MP for Hereford between 1929 and 1931. At the 1955 general election, he had contested the seat for the first time since losing it in 1931, and polled a good second place. *Labour candidate

Bryan Stanley Bryan Capewell Stanley (3 May 1926 –19 July 2009) was a British trade union leader. Born in Walsall (on the first day of the General Strike), and educated at Queen Mary's Grammar School, Stanley started work with the Post Office in 1942, and a ...

was, at the time, a technical engineer and member of the Labour National Executive Committee.

Result of the previous general election

Result of the by-election

References

1956 in England By-election, 1956 February 1956 events in the United Kingdom By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Herefordshire constituencies 1956 elections in the United Kingdom 20th century in Herefordshire {{England-UK-Parl-by-election-stub