Start date 1913 | ||
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The Whitechapel 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.
Contents
Vacancy
Sir Stuart Samuel the Liberal MP for Whitechapel undertook a contract for the Public Service, which required him to resign his seat and face re-election.
Candidates
Sir Stuart Samuel had been Liberal MP for the seat since 1900 and the seat had been Liberal since it was created in 1885. He was opposed by Edgar Browne, who had been his Unionist opponent in December 1910.
Votes for women
The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, following the adoption of their new policy to not support Liberal candidates, chose not to support either candidate and instead opened a local office from which to carry out propaganda work. The smaller Women's Freedom League, a breakaway group from the Women's Social and Political Union who favoured direct action but opposed violence, also set up a local campaign office. However, the WFL's position on by-elections was specifically anti-government, so they campaigned against the return of the Liberal candidate Samuel and thus by definition in support of his Unionist opponent, Browne.
Aftermath
Samuel retired from politics in 1916 and the Liberals held the resulting by-election unopposed.