Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire Central by-election, 1919

The Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire Central by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire Central on 16 April 1919.

Vacancy

The seat had become vacant when the Coalition Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Alexander Theodore Gordon died on 6 March 1919 aged just 37, from heart failure after suffering from influenza. He had held the seat only since the 1918 general election.

General Election 1918: Aberdeen and Kincardine Central [1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Lt-Col. Alexander Theodore Gordon	6,546	52.6
	Liberal	John McDonald Henderson	5,908	47.4
Majority			638	5.2	−
Turnout			12,454		−
	Unionist hold		Swing

Political background

According to reports in The Times, popular opinion was swinging against the coalition government of David Lloyd George and Andrew Bonar Law and the Independent, Asquithian Liberals were making the most of the government's popularity to revive.^[2]

Candidates

Coalition

The Liberal candidate at the 1918 general election, John McDonald Henderson, who had been Liberal MP for West Aberdeenshire since 1906 ^[3] had only lost to Gordon by the narrow margin of 638 votes.^[2] Henderson had been expected to be the Liberals' by-election candidate. In fact, because of Henderson's strong showing at the general election and the traditional strength of the Liberal Party in the area, the Coalition whips were apparently prepared to endorse him for the by-election, giving him the equivalent of coalition coupon which had been offered to authorised candidates at the 1918 general election. Henderson, no doubt eager to return to Parliament, and fully supported by the local Liberal Association, had reportedly made his peace with Freddie Guest, Lloyd George's Chief Whip. However the local Conservatives were not happy with this arrangement and decided to stand their own candidate, Mr L F W Davidson.^[4] This situation proved depressing for the Coalition leaders and no 'coupon' was forthcoming for either Henderson or Davidson by the time the by-election writ was moved on 24 March.^[5]

Liberal

Henderson further muddied the waters by standing down as Liberal candidate and the local Association turned instead to Major Murdoch McKenzie Wood, a barrister and former Gordon Highlander, who had unsuccessfully fought Ayr Burghs at the 1918 general election.^[6] By the time the by-election campaigning was properly under way, the 'coupon', such as it was, had presumably been bestowed on Davidson as he was described in the election literature and the press as the Coalition Unionist or Coalition Conservative candidate.^[6]

Labour

The contest was a three-cornered affair, with Joseph F. Duncan, the general secretary of the Scottish Farm Servants' Union, fighting the seat for Labour.^[7]

The popularity of the Coalition

Duncan's candidacy was expected to complicate the possible outcome of the election by splitting the anti-Coalition vote.^[8] In the event, this turned out to be the case but not by quite enough to deliver the seat to the Coalition candidate and Wood was returned to Parliament with a majority of 186 over Davidson. However the combined Liberal and Labour vote amounted to 63.9% of the poll and was clearly a severe blow to the Coalition, coming so soon after their overwhelming success in the 1918 general election and hard on the heels of other by-election defeats in Hull and Leyton West. As was pointed out in The Times, no Coalition seat could be considered safe given the temper of the electorate at the time and the Coalition coupon which had been a talisman for candidates a few short weeks before was turning into a curse.^[9]

Result

Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire Central by-election, 1919
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Murdoch McKenzie Wood	4,950	37.5	−9.9
	Unionist	Leybourne Francis Watson Davidson	4,764	36.1	-16.5
	Labour	Joseph Forbes Duncan	3,482	26.4	+26.4
Majority			186	1.4	6.6
Turnout				56.9	−
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+3.3

Aftermath

General Election 1922[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Murdoch McKenzie Wood	9,779	60.1	+22.6
	Unionist	Robert Workman Smith	6,481	39.9	+3.8
Majority			3,298	20.2	+13.6
Turnout			16,260
	Liberal hold		Swing	+6.8

See also

• List of United Kingdom by-elections (1918–1931)
• United Kingdom by-election records

References

• Craig, Fred W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949. Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 978-0-900178-06-1.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "A" (part 1)

1. The Times, 30 December 1918
2. The Times, London, 8 March 1919
3. The Times guide to the House of Commons Vol. 3, 1910-1918., London: Politico's Publishing 2004, p.108. ISBN 978-1-84275-034-6
4. The Times, London, 19 March 1919
5. The Times, London, 22 March 1919
6. The Times, London, 14 April 1919
7. The Times, London, 26 March 1919.
8. The Times, London, 15 April 1919
9. The Times, London, 1 May 1919.
10. The Times, 17 November 1922