The 1895 election of the Speaker of the House of Commons occurred on 10 April 1895, following the retirement of the previous
Speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** I ...
Arthur Wellesley Peel
Arthur Wellesley Peel, 1st Viscount Peel, (3 August 182924 October 1912) was a British Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1865 to 1895. He was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1884 until 1895 when he was raised to the ...
. The election resulted in the election of
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
William Court Gully by the narrow margin of 11 votes. It was the first contested Speaker election since 27 May 1839. The next contested election would not be for another 56 years, until
31 October 1951.
Nominated candidates
*
William Court Gully (
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 ...
)
* Sir
Matthew White Ridley Matthew Ridley may refer to:
*Matthew Ridley (barrister), British Member of Parliament for Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK Parliament constituency), Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1747–1774
*Sir Matthew White Ridley, 2nd Baronet (1745–1813)
*Sir Matthew White Ri ...
(
Conservative and Liberal Unionist)
Election
The election was conducted by means of a conventional parliamentary motion, originally to elect Gully. He was proposed by
Samuel Whitbread and seconded by
Augustine Birrell
Augustine Birrell KC (19 January 185020 November 1933) was a British Liberal Party politician, who was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916. In this post, he was praised for enabling tenant farmers to own their property, and for exte ...
.
Sir John Mowbray then moved an amendment to the original motion to elect Sir Matthew White Ridley, who was then seconded by
John Lloyd Wharton.
Both Gully and Ridley then gave their speeches of submission to the will of the House.
Results
MPs voted on the motion that Gully take the Chair as Speaker, which was approved by 285 votes to 274. Gully was then conducted to the Chair by Whitbread.
References
House of Commons transcript
{{United Kingdom Speaker elections
1895 elections in the United Kingdom
1895
Events
January–March
* January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
* January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...
April 1895 events