From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1908 Ashburton by-election

UK parliamentary by-election

Summary

UK parliamentary by-election

Field	Value
election_name	1908 Ashburton by-election
type	presidential
country	United Kingdom
previous_election	Ashburton (UK Parliament constituency)#Elections in the 1900s
previous_year	1906
next_election	Ashburton (UK Parliament constituency)#Elections in the 1910s
next_year	Jan. 1910
election_date	17 January 1908
candidate1	Bell
image1	[[File:Ernest_Morrison-Bell.jpg	85px]]
party1	Liberal Unionist Party
popular_vote1	5,191
percentage1	52.8%
candidate2	Buxton
image2	[[File:Charles_Roden_Buxton_crop.jpg	85px]]
party2	Liberal Party (UK)
popular_vote2	4,632
percentage2	47.2%
map_size	250px
title	MP
posttitle	Subsequent MP
before_election	Harry Trelawney Eve
before_party	Liberal Party (UK)
after_election	Charles Buxton
after_party	Liberal Party (UK)

The 1908 Ashburton by-election was a by-election held in England on 17 January 1908 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the British House of Commons constituency of Ashburton in Devon.

Vacancy

The by-election was triggered by the appointment of the sitting Liberal MP Harry Trelawney Eve as a judge.

History

|reg. electors = 10,429

Candidates

The Liberal Unionist candidate Ernest Morrison-Bell, had lost the constituency by 1,283 votes in the previous general election.

Campaign

The Liberal government had introduced the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1907 (7 Edw. 7. c. 54) which sought to limit the degree to which fixtures and improvements remained the property of landlords, and to increase the number of small farmers. This new measure was expected to have a strong appeal to voters in rural constituencies like Ashburton.

Result

The result was a victory for the Liberal Unionist candidate Ernest Morrison-Bell. |reg. electors = 10,976 The loss of the seat came as a surprise to the Liberals, who had expected to retain it. The unsuccessful Liberal Candidate, Charles Roden Buxton, complained that the Liberal government had wrongly been blamed for the increased price of food; Morrison-Bell assured his followers that it had been a great victory for the cause of tariff reform. A crowd of over 10,000 people gathered in the town centre to hear the result, and after it was announced, several fights broke out, with Liberal supporters accusing their opponents of having won through 'beer' and 'bribery'. Morrison-Bell had to be escorted to the Conservative Club by the police, and Emmeline Pankhurst and another supporter of the women's suffrage movement were knocked down and injured in a shop in which they had taken refuge. A crowd later invaded the Conservative Club, causing considerable damage, and the police had to charge with truncheons, leaving several people in need of medical treatment. A number of policemen were injured by stones and one was hospitalised.

Aftermath

References

Liberal Year Book, 1907
By-Elections in British Politics, 1832-1914
(1974). "British Parliamentary Election Results: 1885-1918". Macmillan Press.
''The Times'', 20 January 1908
Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

by-elections-to-the-parliament-of-the-united-kingdom-in-devon-constituencies 1908-in-england 1908-elections-in-the-united-kingdom teignbridge january-1908-in-the-united-kingdom 1910s-in-devon

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1908 Ashburton by-election — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report