Hythe by-election, 1912

The Hythe by-election was a Parliamentary by-election. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.

Electoral history

Sassoon was returned unopposed at the previous election. The previous election to that was contested and the result was as follows;

General Election January 1910: Hythe[1] Electorate 6,541
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Edward Albert Sassoon	3,746	65.7
	Liberal	W Clarke Hall	1,954	34.3
Majority			1,792	31.4
Turnout				87.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Candidates

Sir Edward Albert Sassoon

S Moorhouse

Result

Sassoon held his seat, however compared with the January 1910 election result, his Unionist majority dropped slightly;

Hythe by-election, 1912[2] Electorate 6,964
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Philip Albert Gustave David Sassoon	3,722	65.0	-0.7
	Liberal	S Moorhouse	2,004	35.0	+0.7
Majority			1,718	30.0	-1.4
Turnout				82.2
	Unionist hold		Swing	-0.7

Aftermath

A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the autumn of 1914, the following candidate had been adopted to contest that election;

• Unionist: Sir Philip Albert Gustave David Sassoon
• Liberal: William Deedes

Due to the outbreak of war, the election didn't take place until 1918;

General Election 14 December 1918: Hythe[3] Electorate 19,896
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Philip Albert Gustave David Sassoon	8,809
	Labour	Robert William Forsyth	3,427
Majority
Turnout
	Unionist hold		Swing

• Sassoon was the endorsed candidate of the Coalition Government.

References

1. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918, F.W.S. Craig
2. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918, F.W.S. Craig
3. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, F.W.S. Craig