1905 Chichester by-election

The Chichester by-election was a Parliamentary by-election. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system. It was held on 2 June 1905 after the incumbent Conservative MP Lord Edmund Talbot was appointed as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury and he was obliged to stand again in a ministerial by-election. It was retained by Talbot.

1905 Chichester by-election
2 June 1905
 
Candidate Talbot Allen
Party Conservative Liberal
Popular vote 4,174 3,762
Percentage 52.6 47.4
MP before election

Lord Edmund Talbot
Conservative

 Subsequent MP

Lord Edmund Talbot
Conservative

Vacancy

Lord Edmund Talbot had been Conservative MP for the seat of Chichester since the 1894 Chichester by-election. He was appointed as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury and he was obliged to stand again in a ministerial by-election.

Electoral history

The seat had been Conservative since creation in 1868. Lord Edmund Talbot held the seat at the last election, unopposed:

General election 1900: Chichester [1][2][3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Edmund Talbot unopposed n/a n/a
Conservative hold Swing n/a

Talbot had always been returned unopposed. The last contest in the constituency came in 1892, when the Conservative out-polled the Liberal by nearly two to one.[1]

Candidates

The local Conservative Association re-selected 50 year-old Lord Edmund Talbot as their candidate to defend the seat. The local Liberal Association selected 33 year-old John Ernest Allen as their candidate to challenge for the seat. Allen was a Barrister-at-law, who had been educated at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities where he gained a Master of Arts.[4]

Campaign

Polling Day was fixed for the 2 June 1905, the day after the 1905 Whitby by-election. On the eve of poll, the Liberals gained Whitby from the Conservatives.[1]

Result

The Conservatives held the seat with their lowest majority since 1885:

Talbot
Chichester by-election, 1905[1][2][5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Edmund Talbot 4,174 52.6 n/a
Liberal John Ernest Allen 3,762 47.4 n/a
Majority 412 5.2 n/a
Turnout 73.6 n/a
Conservative hold Swing n/a

Aftermath

At the following General Election, Talbot again held the seat, the result was:

General election 1906: Chichester [2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Lord Talbot 5,197
Liberal John Ernest Allen 4,023
Majority 1,174
Turnout
Conservative hold Swing
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References
  1. British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
  2. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
  3. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
  4. ‘ALLEN, John Ernest’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 10 Jan 2017
  5. "Chichester By-election". Ballymena Observer. 9 June 1905. Retrieved 8 December 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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