Horncastle by-election, 1911

Vacancy

Lord Willoughby, who had held the seat since 1895, succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father, Lord Ancaster. The by-election was called for 16 February 1911.

Result last time

General Election December 1910: Electorate 10,327
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Lord Willoughby de Eresby 4,705 52.9
Liberal Frederick Caesar Linfield 4,181 47.1
Majority
Turnout 86.0
Conservative hold Swing

Candidates

The new Conservative candidate Captain Archibald Weigall, had fought the nearby seat of Gainsborough at the December 1910 general election. Frederick Linfield was formally re-adopted as Liberal candidate on 5 January 1911.

Result

Given the Unionist hold on the seat in recent times and an analysis of the past results and new voters on the roll enabled the correspondent of The Times newspaper to forecast correctly that the Unionists would hold the seat. However, there was a swing to the Liberals that nearly resulted in a gain.

Horncastle by-election, 1911: Horncastle Electorate 10,8047
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative William Ernest George Archibald Weigall 4,955 50.5 -2.4
Liberal Frederick Caesar Linfield 4,848 49.5 +2.4
Majority 107
Turnout 90.7 +4.7
Conservative hold Swing

Aftermath

Weigall was re-elected in 1918 before taking up an appointment as Governor of South Australia. Linfield did not contest the 1918 elections but was successful in 1922 at Mid Bedfordshire.

General Election 1918 Electorate 23,764
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Unionist
  1. Lt-Col. William Ernest George Archibald Weigall
 8,826
Liberal Samuel Pattinson 7,433
Majority
Turnout
Unionist hold Swing

References

Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.

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