The 1953 North Down

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 ...

was held on 15 April 1953. It was held due to the incumbent

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...

MP,

Walter Smiles Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Walter Dorling Smiles CIE DSO DL (8 November 1883 – 31 January 1953) was a Northern Irish politician. Sir Walter was the son of William Holmes Smiles, director of Belfast Ropeworks, and grandson of Samuel Smiles. ...

, dying in the sinking of the off the

Copeland Islands The Copeland Islands is a group of three islands in the north Irish Sea, north of Donaghadee, County Down, Northern Ireland, consisting of Lighthouse Island (also known as Old Island), Copeland Island (also known as Big Island), and Mew Island. ...

, in the same storm which caused the North Sea flood of 1953. It was retained by his daughter, Patricia Ford, who was unopposed when she stood as the Unionist candidate. She became the first woman to sit as an Ulster Unionist MP but she stood down in the 1955 general election.

Result

External links

A Vision Of Britain Through Time

References

1953 elections in the United Kingdom By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Down constituencies Unopposed by-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Northern Irish constituencies 20th century in County Down April 1953 events in the United Kingdom 1953 elections in Northern Ireland {{Ireland-UK-Parl-by-election-stub