1884
In the United Kingdom, the Representation of the People Act
of 1884 and the Redistribution Act of the following year were a response to the inequality in the electoral system left by
Benjamin Disraeli's Reform Act 1867. Taken together, these measures extended the same voting qualifications as existed in
the towns and countryside, and essentially established the modern one member constituency as the normal pattern for Parliamentary
representation.
Staffordshire
was divided into 7 constituencies, each with one MP. (Leek, Western, North Western, Burton, Lichfield, Kingswinford and Handsworth).
Penkridge remained in the Western division.
Western Division
of Staffordshire had 21 electoral districts: Barkswich, Blymhill, Brewood, Cannock, Bridgtown, Chadsmoor, Five Ways, Hednesford,
Littleworth, Cheslyn Hay, Church Eaton, Gnosall, Great Haywood, Hilderstone, Milwich, Penkridge, Seighford, Stafford, Stone,
Stowe and Wheaton Aston.
1885
Election
Day, December 8th, 1885
Hamar Bass (Lib)
4,820
Francis Monckton (Con)
4,106
There were 10,636 registered electors and 9,003 voted. There
were 77 spoiled papers. It was agreed that the votes of miners from Cannock Chase were instrumental in the Liberal victory.
Hamar Alfred
Bass, born
1842, Yoxall, died 1898. Father, Michael Bass had been MP for Derby and head of Bass brewery. Hamar was married to a Bagot.
MP for Tamworth, 1878 – 1885, MP for West Staffs 1885 – 1898. Played
1 first class cricket match, for MCC. Batting average, 3. He died on 8 April 1898 at age 55. He lived in Byrkley Lodge, Burton-on-Trent,
Staffordshire.
(For further
information on campaign see “The Good Old Grit” by R. Maddocks, p.165.)
1886
Election
Day July 5th, 1886
H.A. Bass (LU) returned unopposed
The Conservatives did not
oppose Bass because he had opposed Gladstone’s Home Rule Bill for Ireland, becoming a (LU), Liberal Unionist. The Liberal
Unionists split away from the Liberals in 1886, and had effectively merged with the Conservatives by the turn of the century.
The formal merger was completed in 1912.
1892
The 1892 general election was held from 4 July – 26 July 1892. It saw the Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury,
win the greatest number of seats, but not enough for an overall majority as William Gladstone's Liberals won many more seats
than in the 1886 general election.
Western Division
Liberals in total disarray. Taken completely by surprise when W. Staffs. Conservative Association announced they would support
Hamar Bass. The president of Bass’ s election committee did not know about it until he read it in the newspaper. Reflected
on the “inglorious position of Liberal party” in West Staffs. They had made a great effort to get Bass elected
in 1885, “They expected that everything that was good and noble and true would be the result”. “He was sorry
to say he had not carried out the hopes and expectations of those who had elected him”.
Kempster, a make shift candidate, a London journalist with 2 failed election campaigns behind
him.
H. S. Littleton
supports Hamar Bass: “Mr Littleton’s father and grandfather were old-fashioned Whigs, but never could have been
Gladstonians and he had Mr Littleton’s permission to say he was a supporter of the Conservative cause and a member of
the Conservative Association”. [Chairman of Bass’s meeting at Penkridge]
Bass (LU) 5227
J. Kempster (Gladstone L) 2879
1895
The general election of 1895 was won by the
Conservatives, led by Lord Salisbury, who obtained a large majority over Lord Rosebery's Liberals
Election
Day, 16th July, 1895
Hamar Bass (LU)
returned unopposed
1898
Death of Hamar Bass causes by-election
Election
Day, 10th May, 1898
Alexander
Henderson (LU)
4,769
William Adams (L) (L)
3,993
Alexander Henderson, 1st Baron Faringdon CH (28
September 1850-17 March 1934), known as Sír Alexander Henderson, 1st Baronet, from 1902 to 1916. Faringdon was the son of
George Henderson of Langholm, Dumfriesshire. He was elected to the House of Commons for Stafford West in 1898, a seat he held
until 1906, and then represented St George's Hanover Square from 1913 to 1916. He was created a Baronet in 1902 and in 1916
he was raised to the peerage as Baron Faringdon, of Buscot Park in the county of Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). In 1917 he was
made a Companion of Honour.
1900
The
“Khaki” election, won by the Conservative government, exploiting the patriotism engendered by the Boer War.
Election
Day, 1st October, 1900
Sir
Alexander Henderson (LU) returned unopposed
1906
The
Liberal Party won an astounding victory in the 1906 General Election. In the new Parliament there were 377 Liberals (including
the Lib/Labs), 157 Conservatives, 83 Irish Nationalists and 29 Independent Labour Party representatives.
Election
Day, 25th January, 1906
H.D.
McLaren (L) 5,586
Alexander Henderson (LU/C) 3,993
Henry
Duncan McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway
CBE (April 16, 1879 – May 23, 1953), , horticulturalist and industrialist. He was educated at Eton and obtained a MA
from Balliol College, Oxford. In 1903 he became a barrister of Lincoln's Inn. In 1906 he was elected MP for West Staffordshire
as a Liberal, and was Private Under-Secretary to the President of the Board of Trade, David Lloyd George, until 1908. In 1910,
he stood for his father's old seat of Bosworth and replaced him. He left politics in 1922, and succeeded his father in the
Barony in 1934. McLaren was also a notable industrialist, and chaired companies, including John Brown & Company [From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]
1910 (January)
General
election called after Tories in House of Lords reject the Budget. Conservatives recover to two seats behind Liberals, who
still have a working majority, however, due to support of Irish and Labour MPs.
George
Ambrose Lloyd (U/C)
5,892
H.D. McLaren (L) 5,327
The respectable residents of Penkridge, including
ladies, were allowed to assemble in front of the residencies of Liberal voters and encourage rowdy youths to throw rotten
tomatoes at the windows and doors, and a crowd of men and youths were permitted to remain outside the Liberal Committee room
in Market Square all day and insult those who came near the place”. [West Staffordshire Liberal Association, Staffs.
Advertiser]
George
Ambrose Lloyd, 1st Baron Lloyd,
GCSI, KCIE, PC, (1879 – February 4, 1941) was a British Conservative politician strongly associated with the "Diehard"
wing of the party. Educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1901 he joined the family firm Stewart and
Lloyds Limited, a Birmingham-based steel tubes manufacturer, and was involved with the tariff reform movement of Joseph Chamberlain
before serving as an honorary trade consul to the Ottoman Empire. During World War I he served on the staff of Sir Ian Hamilton
at Gallipoli landing with the ANZACs on the first day of that campaign and, after a time in Cairo, with T. E. Lawrence and
the Arab Bureau in Hejaz, the Negev and the Sinai desert.[ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]
1910 (December)
The general
election of December 1910 was held from 3 to 19 December. It was the last British election to be held over several days. Virtually
the same result as in January.
G.
A. Lloyd (U/C) 5,602
W. Meakin (L) 5,123
