Hitchin by-election, 1911

A by-election was held in Hitchin constituency in 1911 to fill a vacancy in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

Vacancy

Dr Alfred Hillier had been the Conservative MP for Hitchin since regaining the seat from the Liberals in January 1910. He died on 24 October 1911.

Electoral history

General Election December 1910: Hitchin

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Dr Alfred Peter Hillier	5,233	51.4
	Liberal	Thomas Tylston Greg	4,942	48.6
Majority				2.8
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

Candidates

The new Conservative candidate was Robert Cecil who had been Conservative MP for Marylebone East until January 1910. In 1910 he unsuccessfully contested Blackburn in the January election and Wisbech in the December election. Thomas Tylston Greg, who had been the Liberal candidate last time was again chosen to contest the seat.

Result

By-Election 23 November 1911: Hitchin

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil	5,542
	Liberal	Thomas Tylston Greg	3,909
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

Aftermath

A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the autumn of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place.

• Unionist: Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
• Liberal:

General Election 14 December 1918: Hitchin

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Rt Hon. Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil	9,828
	Labour	Robert Green	5,661
	Independent	George Humm	722
Majority
Turnout
	Unionist hold		Swing

• Cecil was the endorsed candidate of the Coalition Government.

References