The 1915 Merthyr Tydfil by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 25 November 1915 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 An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Tydfil (; cy, Merthyr Tudful ) is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydf ...

in Glamorganshire,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The seat had become vacant when the constituency's

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 ...

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), Keir Hardie, died on 26 September 1915, aged 59. He had held the seat since the 1900 general election, when he was elected as one of the first two Labour MPs.

Candidates

In May 1915 the Liberals, the Conservatives and Labour had formed a

Coalition Government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

, although the majority of the Labour Party had stayed outside the Government. Furthermore, from August 1914 until June 1918, a war-time electoral truce existed between the three parties; the party holding a seat would not be opposed by the other two at a by-election. The Conservatives and Liberals therefore did not contest the by-election. Merthyr Tydfil was a miners' seat, and power within the local Labour Party lay within the locally dominant

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

, the South Wales Miners' Federation. The SWMF balloted their members to determine the Labour candidate. The selection procedure quickly became a battle between competing factions of the Independent Labour Party, played out within the administrative structures of the SWMF. The two principal candidates were

James Winstone James Winstone (9 February 1863 – 27 July 1921) was a British trade unionist Born in Risca, Winstone worked from the age of eight, first at a local brickworks, then at Risca United Colliery. He was elected checkweighman, and worked with Willi ...

, the President of the Federation, and

Charles Stanton Charles Butt Stanton (7 April 1873 – 6 December 1946) was a British politician, who served as an Member of Parliament (MP) from 1915 to 1922. He entered Parliament by winning one of the two seats for Merthyr Tydfil at a by-election on 25 No ...

, a miners' agent in the constituency. Winstone was anti- conscriptionist and pro- Union of Democratic Control. Stanton, on the other hand, was Vice-President of the

British Workers League The British Workers League was a 'patriotic labour' group which was anti-socialist and pro-British Empire. Founded originally as the ''Socialist National Defence Committee'', the league operated fro''May 1916''to 1927. The league's origins lay ...

, a ' patriotic

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 ...

' group which was anti-

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 e ...

and pro-war. Stanton had fought East Glamorganshire as a Labour candidate in

December 1910 The following events occurred in December 1910: December 1, 1910 (Thursday) * Porfirio Diaz was inaugurated for his eighth term as President of Mexico."Record of Current Events", ''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (January 1911), pp ...

. The SWMF conducted three successive ballots after which Winstone was narrowly selected.

Results

Campaign

Following the result of the selection, Stanton resigned as a miners' agent and fought the election as a pro-war 'National' candidate. He attracted support from the local Liberals and Conservatives on a 'straight war ticket "to fight against the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...

for our homeland."' He was designated as Independent Labour. The wife of

David Watts Morgan David Watts Morgan, (18 December 1867 – 23 February 1933), who later in life hyphenated his name to Watts-Morgan, was a Welsh trade unionist, a Labour politician, and a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1918 to 1933. Described as " traddlingthe ...

, Agent of the No. 1 Rhondda District of the SWMF and to be elected Labour MP for Rhondda East in 1918, supported Stanton, an act he (Morgan) later had to apologise for.

Results

On a reduced turnout, Stanton won the seat with a majority of 4,206 votes. At the 1918 general election, the Merthyr seat was divided into two single-member constituencies. Stanton fought the

Aberdare Aberdare ( ; cy, Aberdâr) is a town in the Cynon Valley area of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, at the confluence of the Rivers Dare (Dâr) and Cynon. Aberdare has a population of 39,550 (mid-2017 estimate). Aberdare is south-west of Merthyr Tyd ...

seat and won it by a larger majority, defeating the pacifist Labour candidate

Thomas Evan Nicholas Thomas Evan Nicholas (6 October 1879 – 19 April 1971), who used the bardic name Niclas y Glais ( en, 'Nicholas of Glais'), was a Welsh language poet, preacher, radical, and champion of the disadvantaged of society. Early life Nicholas was ...

. The British Workers League had transformed itself into the

National Democratic and Labour Party The National Democratic and Labour Party, usually abbreviated to National Democratic Party (NDP), was a short-lived political party in the United Kingdom. History The party's origins lay in a split by the right wing of the British Socialist Part ...

and Stanton stood under its label, with the Coalition Coupon.

Candidates

Results

Campaign

Results

Votes

See also

References

Further reading