1904 Reading by-election

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

1904 Reading by-election

6 August 1904
 
Candidate Isaacs Keyser
Party Liberal Conservative
Popular vote 4,770 4,540
Percentage 51.2 48.8

MP before election

George Palmer
Liberal

Subsequent MP

Rufus Isaacs
Liberal

Vacancy

George Palmer had been Liberal MP for the seat of Reading since the 1898 Reading by-election. He resigned from Parliament in 1904, due to advancing deafness.[1]

Electoral history

Since the Reading constituency was created in 1885 it had been closely contested between Liberal and Conservative; The Conservatives winning in 1885, 1886 and 1895 and the Liberals in 1892, 1898 and 1900. The Liberal victor on each occasion was Palmer, who was a very well known biscuit manufacturer in the town.[2] At the last election he had won narrowly;

General Election 1900: Reading [3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal George William Palmer 4,592 51.3 -1.1
Conservative Charles Edward Keyser 4,353 48.7 +4.2
Majority 239 2.6 -5.3
Turnout 8,945 88.1 -3.6
Liberal hold Swing -2.6

Candidates

Isaacs (Lib)
  • The local Liberal Association selected 44 year-old Rufus Isaacs as their candidate to hold the seat. Isaacs was a London barrister who had been made a QC in 1898. He was standing as a candidate for the first time.[4] In such a marginal seat, the Liberals were taking a risk by choosing an outsider to replace a well-known local man.
Keyser (Con)
  • The local Conservative Association selected 57 year-old stockbroker Charles Keyser as their candidate. He was contesting Reading for the third time, having lost to Palmer in 1898 and 1900.[5]
  • There was some expectation of a socialist candidate making it a three-way contest, as had been the case in the 1898 by-election.

Campaign

Polling day was fixed for the 6 August 1904.

Result

The Liberals held the seat with an almost identical result to the previous election;

Reading by-election, 1904 [6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Rufus Daniel Isaacs 4,770 51.2 -0.1
Conservative Charles Edward Keyser 4,540 48.8 +0.1
Majority 230 2.4 -0.2
Turnout 9,310 83.5 -4.6
Liberal hold Swing -0.1

Aftermath

Keyser did not stand for parliament again. At the following General Election, Isaacs was re-elected;

General Election 1906: Reading [7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Rufus Daniel Isaacs 5,407 53.4 +2.2
Conservative George Horace Johnstone 4,710 46.6 -2.2
Majority 697 6.8 +4.4
Turnout 10,117 91.6 +8.1
Liberal hold Swing +2.2

References

  1. "Election intelligence". The Times (36781). London. 30 May 1902. p. 10.
  2. ‘PALMER, Rt Hon. George William’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 5 January 2017
  3. British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
  4. ‘READING’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 5 January 2017
  5. ‘KEYSER, Charles Edward’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 5 January 2017
  6. British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
  7. British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
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