The January 1918 Prestwich by-election was a

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 ...

held on 31 January 1918 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

Prestwich Prestwich ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England, north of Manchester city centre, north of Salford and south of Bury. Historically part of Lancashire, Prestwich was the seat of the ancient parish o ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

Vacancy

The election was caused by the elevation to the peerage 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 Frederick Cawley. Cawley had been

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. The position is the second highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the Prime Minister, and senior to the Minist ...

in the wartime

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

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 ...

Candidates

Government

The Liberals selected the Honourable

Oswald Cawley Oswald Cawley (7 October 1882 – 22 August 1918), styled The Honourable from January 1918, was a British soldier and Liberal Party politician. He was the fourth and youngest son of Frederick Cawley, 1st Baron Cawley and his wife Elizabeth S ...

, the youngest son of the sitting member. Cawley was a lieutenant in the Yeomanry serving in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

. Cawley’s candidacy was supported by the Unionists in

as they were part of the wartime coalition.

Cooperators

Cawley was opposed by

Henry May Henry May may refer to: *Henry May (American politician) (1816–1866), U.S. Representative from Maryland *Henry May (New Zealand politician) (1912–1995), New Zealand politician * Henry May (VC) (1885–1941), Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cr ...

for the newly formed Central Co-operative Parliamentary Representation Committee of which he was the secretary. May was also secretary of the International Cooperative Alliance. This was the first parliamentary by-election fought by the Co-operative Parliamentary Representation Committee. Although May was expected to gain the support of

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 ...

voters, the Labour Party itself was unable to offer formal assistance because of the wartime electoral truce.

Issues

For the government the principal issue was the continuing prosecution of the war and it sought the support of the voters for that end. There was a strong danger that Cawley’s election would be seen as inevitable, given his father’s position and former majority and as he was actively serving his country in the field. So the government supporters concentrated on organisation rather than policy to try and counter voter apathy.''The Times'', 29 January 1918 p3 May tried to appeal on the food question and by extolling the virtues of cooperation as the purest democratic movement and anticipating the triumph of the working –class once the war was over. May also argued that because Lt Cawley was serving abroad this amounted to a virtual disenfranchisement of the electors of the division.

Result

Cawley held the seat for the Liberals by a large majority. It was estimated that of the approximately 26,000 electors on the register, which was now three years old, only about 16,000 remained eligible to vote. In the end the total poll was just over 10,000.''The Times'', 2 February 1918 p6 Cawley only held the seat for a few months however as he was killed in action in France in August 1918.