The 1911 Bootle by-election was a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

held for the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. It is pa ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

on 27 March 1911. It was won by the Conservative Party candidate

Bonar Law Andrew Bonar Law (; 16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923) was a British statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923. Law was born in the British colony of New Brunswick (now a Canadi ...

Vacancy

The seat had become vacant on 13 March 1911 when the sitting

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Member of Parliament (MP), 73-year-old

Thomas Myles Sandys Colonel Thomas Myles Sandys (12 May 1837 – 18 October 1911) was a British army officer and Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1911. He was born in Blackheath, London, and was the only son of Captain Tho ...

had

resigned Resignation is the formal act of relinquishing or vacating one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or ...

from the House of Commons by the procedural device of accepting the office of

Steward of the Manor of Northstead The office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead functions as a procedural device to allow a member of Parliament (MP) to resign from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. As members of the House of Commons are forbidde ...

, a notional 'office of profit under the crown'. He had held the seat since the 1885 general election, and died on 18 October 1911.

Previous results

At the previous

December 1910 general election The December 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 3 to 19 December. It was the last general election to be held over several days and the last to be held before the First World War. The election took place following the efforts of ...

, Conservative MP Thomas Sandys was elected unopposed. However, there was a previous contest at the General election in January:

Result

The result was a victory for the Conservative candidate, Bonar Law, who won the seat with 56% of the votes. He did not contest Bootle in

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

, and was instead elected in the Glasgow Central constituency. Bonar Law was later elected Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, and went on to hold a series of ministerial positions before becoming

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

for seven months from 1922 to 1923

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bootle By-Election, 1911 1911 elections in the United Kingdom 1911 in England March 1911 in the United Kingdom 1910s in Lancashire Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Lancashire constituencies By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Merseyside constituencies Bootle Bonar Law

Vacancy

Previous results

Result

See also

References