Taunton by-election, 1912

The Taunton 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.

Vacancy

William Peel had been Unionist MP for Taunton since 1909. He inherited his father's viscountcy in 1912, and moved to the House of Lords.

Previous result

General Election December 1910: Taunton Electorate 3,590

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	William Robert Wellesley Peel	1,806	53.4
	Liberal	John Edward Schunk	1,573	46.6
Majority				6.8
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

Result

By-Election: Taunton Electorate

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Sir Gilbert Alan Hamilton Wills	1,882	54.1	+0.7
	Liberal	John Edward Schunk	1,597	45.9	-0.7
Majority				8.2	+1.4
Turnout			3,479
	Unionist hold		Swing	+0.7

Aftermath

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

General Election 1914/15: Electorate 3,914

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Sir Gilbert Alan Hamilton Wills
	Liberal

In 1918, Wills switched to contest the neighbouring seat of Weston super mare.

General Election 14 December 1918: Electorate 28,845

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Lt-Col. Dennis Fortescue Boles	12,619
	Labour	Rev. George Saville Woods	4,816
Majority
Turnout
	Unionist hold		Swing

• Boles was the endorsed candidate of the Coalition Government.

References

• Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan.
• Who's Who: www.ukwhoswho.com
• Debrett's House of Commons 1916