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1908 Pembrokeshire by-election

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1908 Pembrokeshire by-election

← 1906 16 July 1908 Jan. 1910 →
 
Candidate Roch Williams
Party Liberal Conservative
Popular vote 5,465 3,293
Percentage 62.4 37.6

MP before election

John Philipps
Liberal

Subsequent MP

Walter Roch
Liberal

The 1908 Pembrokeshire by-election was held on 16 July 1908. The by-election was held due to the elevation to the peerage of the incumbent Liberal MP, John Wynford Philipps. It was won by the Liberal candidate Walter Roch.[1]

Campaign

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Roch had the support of the MPs W. Llewelyn Williams and W. Jones of the United Kingdom Alliance and the Free Trade League respectively. The Miners' Federation of Great Britain also strongly supported Roch. Lort Williams, the Conservative candidate, was supported by emissaries from the Tariff Reform League and the National Trade Defence Association.[2]

A formidable group of Suffragettes (including Emmeline Pankhurst) came to Pembrokeshire to campaign against Roch,[2] not because they disliked him, or supported Lort-Williams, but because H.H. Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister, was immovably opposed to the enfranchisement of women.[3]

Result

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1908 Pembrokeshire by-election[4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Walter Roch 5,465 62.4 −6.9
Conservative John Lort-Williams 3,293 37.6 +6.9
Majority 2,172 24.8 −13.8
Turnout 8,758 77.3 +2.3
Registered electors 11,331
Liberal hold Swing -6.9

References

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  1. ^ "House of Commons". www.leighrayment.com. Archived from the original on 7 June 2008.
  2. ^ a b "PEMBROKE VACANCY". Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser. 4 July 1908. Retrieved 4 February 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. ^ Use your vote: the Suffragette movement in Pembrokeshire remembered, Western Telegraph, by Joanna Sayers, 10 April 2015
  4. ^ Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press Ltd. ISBN 9780333169032. Page 487