1933 East Fife by-election
The East Fife by-election of 1933 was held on Thursday, 2 February 1933. The by-election was held due to the death of the sitting National Liberal MP, Sir James Duncan Millar. It was won by the National Liberal candidate James Henderson Stewart.[1]
Candidates
27 year-old David Edwin Keir stood as an Independent Liberal candidate. Keir had stood for the Liberals at the 1929 Midlothian and Peebles Northern by-election and also contested the same seat at the 1929 general election. He was the Liberal candidate for Roxburgh and Selkirk at the 1931 general election, and was the son of the Rev. T. Keir of Dumfries, and was educated at Dumfries Academy and the University of Edinburgh.[2] He was a journalist.[3]
Result
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal National | James Henderson-Stewart | 15,770 | 52.2 | ||
| Labour | Joseph Westwood | 6,635 | 22.0 | ||
| Agricultural Party | J. L. Anderson | 4,404 | 14.6 | ||
| Independent Liberal | David Edwin Keir | 2,296 | 7.6 | ||
| National (Scotland) | Eric Linklater | 1,083 | 3.6 | ||
| Majority | 9,135 | 30.2 | |||
| Turnout | 30,188 | 65.6 | |||
| Liberal National hold | Swing | ||||
Anderson, running under the Agricultural Party, attracted many of his votes from Unionists who regretted not being able to field a candidate of their own due to the political pact with the National Liberals.[5]
References
- "House of Commons". www.leighrayment.com. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
- The Times House of Commons, 1929
- The Times House of Commons, 1931
- Whitaker's Almanack, 1934
- National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. Acc. 10090, Papers of Dr Robert Douglas McIntyre, MB ChB, DPH, Duniv, JP. File 15: Correspondence and papers of or concerning Douglas Young. 11 December 1947 letter from Young to McIntyre. Accessed 16 July 2015.