1907 Kingston upon Hull West by-election

← 1906

11 November 1907

Jan. 1910 →


Candidate	Wilson	Bartley	Holmes
Party	Liberal	Conservative	Labour
Popular vote	5,623	5,382	4,512
Percentage	36.2%	34.7%	29.1%

MP before election

Charles Wilson
Liberal

Subsequent MP

Guy Wilson
Liberal

The 1907 Kingston upon Hull West by-election was a parliamentary by-election held in England for the House of Commons constituency of Kingston upon Hull West on 11 November 1907.

The seat had been held for the Liberal Party by members of the Wilson family since its creation in 1885, and the by-election was won by the Liberal candidate Guy Greville Wilson, who was the brother of the outgoing Member of Parliament (MP).

Vacancy

The seat had become vacant when the sitting MP Charles Wilson succeeded to his father's peerage as the 2nd Baron Nunburnholme. He had held the seat for less than two years, having been elected at the 1906 general election after the retirement from the Commons of his father Charles Henry Wilson, who had held the seat since 1885.^[1]

Candidates

Three candidates contested the seat.

The Liberal candidate Guy Greville Wilson DSO, was a former officer in the British Army, and a director of the family shipping company Thomas Wilson Sons & Co.

The Conservative Party candidate was Sir George Trout Bartley, a cockney^[2] who had been the founder of the National Penny bank^[2] and was MP for Islington North from 1885^[3] until his defeat in 1906.^[4]

The Labour Party nominated a candidate for the first time: James Holmes, who had been an unsuccessful candidate in Birmingham East at the 1906 general election.

Result

1907 Kingston upon Hull West by-election^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Guy Greville Wilson	5,623	36.2	−21.3
	Conservative	George Trout Bartley	5,382	34.7	−7.8
	Labour	James Holmes	4,512	29.1	New
Majority			241	1.5	−13.5
Turnout			15,517	75.4	+0.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	-6.8

Aftermath

Bartley did not stand for Parliament again. Wilson held the seat (with much increased majorities) until the constituency was abolished in 1918. He then rejected the coalition coupon which he had been given, and was heavily defeated at the 1918 general election.^[6]

The Labour Party did not contest Kingston upon Hull West again in either of the 1910 elections. Holmes stood again only one more time, at the Crewe by-election in July 1912, but came a poor third.^[7]

References

^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 4)
^ ^a ^b London leaders : historic families, ancestral estates. London: Allan North. 1907. pp. 334–337.
^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "I"
^ Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 24. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.
^ Craig, 1885-1918, page 130
^ Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 157. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
^ Craig, 1885–1918, page 231