Sheffield Attercliffe by-election, 1909

[David Ashforth]

I've stumbled across some leaflets and posters from the 1909 Sheffield Attercliffe by-election on the Picture Sheffield website which I thought I'd post here. But first some background to the by-election.

The by-election was caused by the resignation of Liberal MP J. Batty Langley, due to illness. The Liberal Party approached Burngreave ward councillor Arthur Neal to be their candidate but he declined. Only one candidate applied: Richard Cornthwaite Lambert , a London-based barrister who had contested Sheffield Ecclesall at the 1906 election.

Former Walkley ward Conservative councillor, and honorary consul for Serbia, Arnold Muir Wilson had contested the seat in 1906, taking 46.8% of the vote. But Wilson was out of the country so the Conservatives nominated Sydney Charles King-Farlow to be their candidate, he was a barrister based in south east England.

Muir Wilson wasn't happy about being replaced by an outsider so he decided to stand as an Independent Tariff Reform candidate. He was adopted by an unofficial panel of Conservative Party members, and offered to withdraw if the party apologised to him, withdrew King-Farlow and instead adopted a candidate of his choice. This offer was not accepted.

The Labour Party asked President of the Yorkshire Miners' Association Herbert Smith to stand, but he declined. Instead, they adopted Brightside ward councillor, and Chairman of Sheffield Trades and Labour Council, Joseph Pointer. He was a member of the Independent Labour Party and the United Patternmakers Association, but both organisations initially refused to sponsor his candidacy, the Patternmakers finally agreeing on 20 April to finance him. The by-election was on 4 May, a Tuesday.

The result:
                                                                                 
Labour       Joseph Pointer              3,531 (27.5%  N/A )
Conservative Sydney Charles King-Farlow  3,380 (26.2% -20.6)
Liberal      Richard Cornthwaite Lambert 3,175 (24.6% -28.6)
Independent  Arnold Muir Wilson          2,803 (21.7%  N/A )
Majority                                   151 ( 1.3% -5.1 )

Turnout                                         77.3% -1.9

Labour GAIN from Liberal

So Joseph Pointer became Sheffield's first Labour MP. His 27.5% of the vote is, according to Wikipedia, the lowest ever winning share in a single-member by-election.

[David Ashforth]

Joseph Pointer, Labour

[David Ashforth]

Sydney Charles King-Farlow, Conservative

Blue ink letters make an appearance

[David Ashforth]

Richard Cornthwaite Lambert, Liberal









Winning Here






An unusual leaflet.

[David Ashforth]

Arnold Muir Wilson, Independent

[Davıd Boothroyd]

There's a bit about this byelection in Otte and Readman's "By-elections in British Politics 1832–1914" in Phillips Payson-O'Brien's chapter. He notes that Muir Wilson was a maverick but a popular man locally. King-Farlow's initial focus on naval policy had to be changed when Muir Wilson started to gain votes. Muir Wilson, while playing Tariff Reform for all it was worth, also supported some of Lloyd George's 1909 budget (which certainly helped in the mostly working-class area).

The 1909 budget didn't help the Liberals in Attercliffe because some of the new taxes hit the working-class (including the tobacco tax). Pointer had been blacklisted from employment because he organised strikes, and that gave him popularity in the workers.

(It should be noted that the outgoing MP Batty Langley had been a notably left-wing Liberal and undoubtedly benefited from the Macdonald-Gladstone pact in 1906, which ensured there was no Labour candidate.)

[gwynthegriff]

What we need today are more candidates with fancy uniforms and waxed moustaches.

And more leaflets using words like "proposition".

[finsobruce]

Aug 16, 2015 20:46:19 GMT David Ashforth said:

Arnold Muir Wilson, Independent















sort of 1909 HS2....

[finsobruce]

Aug 16, 2015 20:46:19 GMT David Ashforth said:

Arnold Muir Wilson, Independent








And Hurrah for the Tory Chicken!!

Eh?

[manchesterman]

Aug 16, 2015 20:24:04 GMT David Ashforth said:

Sydney Charles King-Farlow, Conservative

Blue ink letters make an appearance

"More work for Englishmen and less work for foreigners!"

Nigel Farage - eat your heart out!

[finsobruce]

Aug 16, 2015 23:18:05 GMT manchesterman said:

Aug 16, 2015 20:24:04 GMT David Ashforth said:

Sydney Charles King-Farlow, Conservative

Blue ink letters make an appearance

"More work for Englishmen and less work for foreigners!"

Nigel Farage - eat your heart out!

There is nothing new under the sun  - especially in politics. The Dreadnoughts issue was a big deal in  politics at the time...

[neilm]

Muir-Wilson favoured nationalising the railways? Interesting.

[Crimson King]

Aug 16, 2015 20:16:46 GMT David Ashforth said:

Were faux newspapers a thing back then? More evidence that there is nothing really new in Campaigning

[neilm]

Who was T Richardson and what is the CC suffix?

[swindonlad]

Were faux newspapers a thing back then? More evidence that there is nothing really new in Campaigning

It is surprising to me how much of current literature is on those leaflets, just need a dodgy barchart on them

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Aug 17, 2015 10:06:15 GMT neilm said:

Who was T Richardson and what is the CC suffix?

Thomas Richardson (1868-1928), Labour MP for Whitehaven 1910-18. At the time he was a leader of the Durham Miners' Association, and a member of Durham County Council - the 'CC' stands for 'county councillor'.

[David Ashforth]

Aug 16, 2015 23:21:37 GMT finsobruce said:

Aug 16, 2015 23:18:05 GMT manchesterman said:

"More work for Englishmen and less work for foreigners!"

Nigel Farage - eat your heart out!

There is nothing new under the sun  - especially in politics. The Dreadnoughts issue was a big deal in  politics at the time...

Just a few years before the 1909 by-election, in 1904-05, the Lord Mayor of Sheffield was foreign born but by then a naturalized British citizen.

Sir Joseph Jonas JP was born in Bingen am Rhein, Prussia, in 1845. He left his home country in 1867 to avoid military service and came to Sheffield in about 1870 to start a steel business. He was successful and with Robert Colver ran Jonas and Colver Ltd. He became a naturalized British citizen in 1875 and married a Sheffield born woman in 1876.

He became a Liberal councillor for Attercliffe ward in 1890, being returned unopposed in both the 1890 and 1893 elections. He didn’t stand again in 1896 but by 1902 he had become a councillor in Darnall ward. He became a magistrate in 1904, the year he was Lord Mayor, and was knighted in 1905.

He was active in public affairs, was a town trustee, and made major contributions of money, time and expertise to Sheffield University, especially the Applied Sciences Department, he also helped establish chairs in German and French. He was a member of the university’s council from 1905 to 1916. Before the First World War he served as Sheffield’s consul for Germany. It was the war that was the cause of his problems.

In June 1918 Sir Joseph was charged with transmitting military secrets to a German company – in 1913. As Britain and Germany weren’t at war in 1913 you may feel this was more than a little unfair. In 1913, when Anglo-German munitions contracts were often interconnected and contacts were frequent, he had received information about a new type of rifle to be built in Vickers’ Kent factory. Following a personal request, he had passed this to a business contact who was a German competitor of Vickers.

At the Central Criminal Court (the Old Bailey) in July 1918 it was argued that although Britain and Germany were not at war in 1913 the Official Secrets Act covered potential as well as actual enemies.

So, despite Jonas and Colver Ltd producing steels for armaments and aeroplanes ordered by the Ministry of Munitions; despite Sir Joseph’s son, Edward, serving as an officer in the Royal Engineers (a British subject born of a British mother and a (naturalized) British father); despite leaving Prussia because of his opposition to German militarism; despite all he had done for Sheffield; he, and a fellow defendant, were convicted of a misdemeanour. He was fined £2,000. He was almost immediately deprived of his knighthood and was later removed from the local magistrates’ list. He was though cleared of conspiracy to injure the state and allowed to stay in the country.

The trail took its toll and his health slowly failed. He died in August 1921. The rifle planned to be produced by Vickers was never made, being replaced by a different one before the war started.


None of this has anything to do with the Sheffield Attercliffe by-election in 1909 but I think it’s an interesting story. The information above comes from Peter Warr’s Sheffield in the Great War and from Chris Hobbs’ website.

[David Ashforth]

Aug 16, 2015 22:47:25 GMT finsobruce said:

And Hurrah for the Tory Chicken!!

Eh?

Possibly chicken meant something different in 1909. Possibly Arnold Muir Wilson was rather eccentric.

Aug 17, 2015 1:16:35 GMT neilm said:

Muir-Wilson favoured nationalising the railways? Interesting.

Also the nationalisation of mines and for the redistribution of wealth. He's an interesting man.


From Herbert Keeble Hawson’s Sheffield: The Growth of a City 1893-1926:

Arnold Muir Wilson was a man of brilliant parts whose meteoric career ended at the age of fifty-two. Born in Sheffield of well-to-do parents, he qualified as a solicitor in 1878 at the age of twenty-one, winning the Clifford’s Inn prize, one of the highest awards given in the Solicitors’ Final Examination.

After five years in partnership with Mr Joseph Binney to whom he had been articled, he commenced practice on his own account and soon established himself not only in Sheffield but throughout the North of England as an able and forceful advocate with a wide knowledge of law and procedure and as a relentless cross-examiner… Universally known as “Muir” he was regarded by clients and potential clients as “an almost invincible legal vindicator of innocence and a brilliant leader of forlorn hopes” – to quote the Sheffield Telegraph.

He was a great traveller and fond of lecturing on his experiences abroad. He held the office in Sheffield, of Consul for Serbia of which he was very proud. He visited that country in 1904 for the coronation of King Peter and took some “animated pictures” of the brilliant scenes associated with the ceremony…

His practice made immense demands on his time and nervous energy, demands which in the end sapped his strength and burnt him out. But his consuming restlessness would not allow him to be content with his professional activities, great as they were. He entered the Council in 1883 as a Conservative for Nether Hallam ward. For a long time he had a working arrangement with his Liberal colleague Sir Charles Skelton (a most unlikely running mate) and so avoided any contested elections until 1898, when the elevation of Sir Charles to the Aldermanic Bench brought the arrangement to an end. The redistribution of 1901 sent him to Heeley where he lost his seat, but he was back again in 1902 in Walkey, which was in large part the old Nether Hallam ward. There he defeated the retiring member Councillor J. G. Graves. This election was followed by the sensational libel action brought by Mr. Graves against Mr. Wilson at Leeds Assizes, where the latter, appearing in person, conducted such a brilliant and searching cross-examination of his opponent that the jury stopped the case and found a verdict for the defendant.

In 1902 he successfully objected to the spending of £500 for a casket to contain the Freedom Scroll to be presented to Lord Kitchener. The money was subsequently raised by public subscription… he successfully opposed the attempt by the Tramways Committee to limit their liability for accidents, by inviting proceedings under the Bye-Laws, when his action was upheld by the Divisional Court.

In 1903 he was adopted as Conservative candidate for Attercliffe, standing on a full-blooded protectionist platform against the sitting member Alderman Batty Langley, a Liberal. In spite of the violent swing to the Liberal in 1906 throughout the country, he actually reduced his opponent’s majority by over 200 votes. This election was followed by an election petition against Alderman Langley based on a leaflet issued during the election. Mr. Wilson was again his own advocate but on this occasion he lost his case. He was equally unsuccessful in a libel action against Mr. Langley’s election agent, also based on the leaflets.

Previously in 1905, during the Royal visit to open the University, he forced his way in his uniform as Serbian Consul as an uninvited guest into the Town Hall and the Royal Luncheon Reception room, an action for which he subsequently apologised. He did not contest his seat on the council at the expiration of his term of office at the end of that year.

His defeat in Attercliffe, the loss of the election petition and the libel action of 1906, on top of the strain of his immense practice produced a marked change in health and heralded the sad final years…

He quarrelled with his professional colleagues and insulted and defied benches of Magistrates and County Court Judges. Even after a world tour in 1907 there was little improvement, and in 1908 he was warned publically in a prepared statement by the Sheffield Stipendiary Magistrate, Mr. E. M. E. Welby, that if he persisted in his behaviour he would run the risk of proceedings against him at the Assizes.

There was a bye-election in Attercliffe in the spring of 1909… The Conservatives were so perturbed by his conduct, which people were beginning to realise was more than eccentricity, however extreme, that they selected another candidate Mr. King-Farlow… (whom [Muir Wilson] dubbed King Farbelow)… Following the election Muir Wilson commenced and withdrew a number of actions and then left from a world tour from which he never returned. He had a complete mental breakdown in Vancouver and died there on 1st October 1909. 

[David Ashforth]

Some information about the Attercliffe by-election from Sheffield Libraries.

[ColinJ]

This is a marvellous thread. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.