The 1963 Colne Valley 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 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 mem ...

constituency of

Colne Valley The Colne Valley is a steep sided valley on the east flank of the Pennine Hills in the English county of West Yorkshire. It takes its name from the River Colne which rises above the town of Marsden and flows eastward towards Huddersfield. ...

on 21 March 1963.

Vacancy

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

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

MP,

Glenvil Hall 150px, Hall, 1951 William George Glenvil Hall (4 April 1887 – 13 October 1962) was a British barrister and Labour politician. He was elected at the 1929 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Portsmouth Central, but lost his se ...

, on 13 October 1962. He had held the seat since a 1939 by-election.

Election history

Colne Valley had been won by Labour at every election since 1935, when they had gained the seat from the Liberals. The result at the previous general election was as follows;

Candidates

Labour selected 43-year-old

Patrick Duffy Patrick Duffy (born March 17, 1949) is an American actor and director widely known for his role on the CBS primetime soap opera ''Dallas'', where he played Bobby Ewing, the youngest son of Miss Ellie, and the nicest brother of J.R. Ewing (pla ...

. He had contested Tiverton in 1950, 1951 and 1955. Duffy was a lecturer at

Leeds University , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

from 1950 to 1963, who had been educated at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

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. The Conservatives selected 28-year-old outsider, Andrew Alexander, a journalist and leader writer. Alexander was educated at

Lancing College Lancing College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in southern England, UK. The school is located in West Sussex, east of Worthing near the village of Lancing, on the south coast of England. ...

, and a former member of Dorchester Borough Council. He was a past chairman of North Kensington Young Conservatives and Dorchester Young Conservatives. The Liberals re-selected 44-year-old Leeds man Richard Wainwright. He had contested

Pudsey Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds, City of Leeds Borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford, Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of ...

in 1950 and 1955 and Colne Valley in 1959. Wainwright was a chartered accountant, educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into the ...

and

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

. He was a Member of the Liberal Party Committee and Council, and chairman of the Liberal Party Organization Department from 1955 to 1957. An independent candidate, Arthur Fox, also stood. He was well-known as the owner of the "Revue Bar", a

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

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club and an author on the subject. 174 people serving in the

Armed Forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

applied for nomination papers, as it was usual practice at the time that any serving personnel doing so would be given an honourable discharge. However, unlike by-elections held late in the previous year, none of the candidates paid a deposit, and so they secured their release without appearing on the ballot paper.

Campaign

The election campaign was a long one, with polling day not taking place until five months after the death of the previous MP. The main themes of Wainwright's Liberal campaign were

State Pensions A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

being tied to the cost of living index, creating a new Ministry of Employment, and no more

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

.Wainwright's election material

Result

The Labour vote share held up, while the Liberals gained support at the expense of the Conservatives. Significantly, Wainwright had managed to push the Conservative candidate into third place.

Aftermath

All three main party candidates did battle again at the following general election. Wainwright further closed the gap on the Labour Party. The result at the 1964 general election was; Wainwright eventually defeated Duffy at the 1966 general election, and held the seat until his retirement in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

. Duffy went on to become the MP for Sheffield Attercliffe, serving from

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

References

Bibliography

* Who's Who: www.ukwhoswho.com * By-Elections in British Politics by Cook and Ramsden * Wainwright's election material: https://web.archive.org/web/20120507020835/http://www.by-elections.co.uk/colne63/Liberal.html