52-475: Robert Ascroft James Francis Oswald Conservative Alfred Emmott Walter Runciman Liberal The 1899 Oldham by-election occurred in the summer of that year, and involved a by-election to fill both seats in the two-member Oldham Parliamentary borough . The block voting method allowed each elector to vote for two candidates. The election resulted in the Liberal Party winning both seats from
104-526: A Conservative Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom representing an English constituency and born in the 1840s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford , PC (19 November 1870 – 14 November 1949), was a prominent Liberal and later National Liberal politician in
156-603: A by-election the previous year. Capt. Sydney Augustus Velden, Liberal Agent for St. Ives was instrumental in Runciman's successful election. The Runcimans were the first man and wife to sit concurrently in the Parliament of the United Kingdom . The Liberals soon found themselves heavily divided over how to respond to the Great Depression , whether or not to continue supporting the Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald and even over
208-671: A mission to Czechoslovakia to mediate in a dispute between the Government of Czechoslovakia and the Sudeten German Party (SdP), which represented most of the ethnic Germans of the border regions, which were known as the Sudetenland . Unknown to Runciman, the SdP, which ostensibly called for autonomy for the Sudetenland, followed instructions from Nazi Germany not to reach any agreement on
260-578: A by-election in 1898, but was elected as a member of parliament (MP) in a two-member by-election for Oldham in 1899, defeating the Conservative candidates, James Mawdsley and Winston Churchill . After winning, Runciman is reported to have commented to Churchill: "Don't worry, I don't think this is the last the country has heard of either of us." The following year in the 1900 general election Churchill stood against Runciman again and defeated him. Runciman soon returned to Parliament for Dewsbury in
312-626: A by-election in January 1902 and steadily rose through the ranks of the Liberal Party . A progressive, centrist reformer who supported progressive measures such as old age pensions, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman in 1905, a post he held until 1907. Runciman's friends in Campbell-Bannerman's cabinet were Sydney Buxton , Charles Hobhouse and John Morley , all on
364-481: A candidate on the assumption that if elected, he would be allowed to express his own views on trade union issues. On polling day, the Conservatives were said to have been outnumbered by Liberals in the number of carriages conveying voters to the polls, by 130 to 90. Lady Randolph Churchill turned up in a striking blue dress and sunshade. Churchill himself tried to obtain a motor car from Coventry to bring voters to
416-400: A decision to run two candidates: one being Liberal-Labour and the other (himself) a Conservative-Labour candidate. He further said that he would support a Liberal-Labour candidate. The Independent Labour Party , despite not standing a candidate, held a meeting, calling on working men to free themselves from both established parties. It was reported that the Conservatives accepted Mawdsley as
468-601: A major part. He resented the Conservative Army interests pre-eminent in government from spring 1916. General Haig had been convinced they intended to split the cabinet against Asquith. Runciman and his allies continued to argue that conscription would damage the war effort by "depleting industry"; Margot Asquith had already tried to split up the axis within the Cabinet by inviting Runciman and then McKenna to tea separately. However, Runciman continued to enjoy good relations with
520-570: A massive majority in the 1931 general election , the Cabinet was reconstructed. It was felt prudent to balance the key Cabinet committee that would take the decisions on tariffs; and so Runciman was appointed President of the Board of Trade once more, in the belief that he would serve as a counterbalance to the protectionist Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain . However, like the other Liberal Nationals, Runciman came to accept
572-504: A new election for both seats was moved in the House of Commons by the Conservative chief whip William Walrond on Tuesday 27 June. Polling day was set for Thursday 6 July. As the previous election had been close, the by-election campaign was an intense one in which the candidates addressed meetings "at breakfast time, during the dinner hour, and in the evening". One of the main campaign issues
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#1733086308331624-474: A record 187 ships entered British ports on 15 October, meaning the war seemed to be good for business. He approved food for Belgian refugees . On 12 January 1915, he agreed to send a memo to the US government to ban all copper imports to Ireland. Runciman was wholly sympathetic to Lloyd George's proposal to actively intervene in union wage disputes since "men were not malingering, but worn out...". The statement preceded
676-617: A resignation note with the Conservative Party and instructed them to use it if they thought it to be expedient. Ascroft was an active in Parliament but was struck down with pneumonia at his home in Croydon on 12 June, becoming partially unconscious. Over the next few days, his condition did not improve, and by 18 June there was said to be "very little hope". He died on the afternoon of 19 June. Ascroft's sudden death created an opportunity for
728-467: Is mentioned in Chapter XVII of Sir Winston Churchill 's book ' My Early Life '. In the seventeenth chapter, entitled 'Oldham', Mr Churchill recalls the day where Mr Ascroft, MP for Oldham, talked to him about running the constituency together. Oldham was a two-member constituency and evidently, Mr Ascroft believed the young Winston -a war hero and celebrity- was ripe for the job. This article about
780-704: The British Expeditionary Force (BEF). They also discussed Asquith's removal since his wife, Hilda Runciman , had called the Prime Minister "brains in aspic". Runciman was against any suggestion of internment of aliens, yet they were nonetheless confined in large numbers. In May 1915, after seeking Sir Edward Grey 's counsel at the Foreign Office, Runciman agreed to serve in Asquith's new coalition government. Asquith had formed this without consulting most of
832-537: The Conservatives who had previously held them, but the election is notable mainly for being the first to be fought by future Conservative Prime Minister , Winston Churchill . At the beginning of 1899, the two members of parliament for Oldham were Robert Ascroft and James Oswald . However, Oswald had been chronically ill for many months and had been absent from his Parliamentary duties and his constituency. He had indicated that he would not seek re-election and left
884-570: The County of Northumberland . Four years earlier his father had been created Baron Runciman and "of Doxford" was consequently used to differentiate from his father's title. This was a rare case of a father and son sitting in the House of Lords at the same time, with the son holding a superior title. A few months later his father died, and he inherited both the barony and his father's shipping business. Runciman returned to public life in early August 1938, when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sent him on
936-656: The Air Movements Flight in 1942, later joined by Margaret) was the first woman to fly a Spitfire and was one of the original eight female pilots selected by Pauline Gower to join the Air Transport Auxiliary . Margaret was killed in 1944 whilst landing a Proctor . Their second son, the Honourable Sir Steven Runciman , was a historian. Lord Runciman of Doxford died in November 1949, aged 78, and
988-581: The Board of Agriculture . Runciman did not want war with the German Empire and favoured an understanding with her, but like others in the Cabinet was not able to exert much influence over foreign policy. Runciman was a personal friend of Margot Asquith , and a highly valued colleague in Cabinet. He supported the Haldane Mission of 1912, in a purged cabinet dominated by like-minded Liberal Leaguers . He and his allies believed that there would be peace in
1040-577: The Chancellor because they shared the aims of improving trade receipts, reducing debt, and increasing output. Runciman resigned along with the rest of Asquith's government in December 1916. He did not serve in the new coalition headed by David Lloyd George . In the splits that were to rage in the Liberal Party for the next seven years, Runciman remained prominent in opposition to Lloyd George, especially when
1092-479: The Conservative Party to use Oswald's resignation note and hold a double by-election, but the party delayed the decision until Ascroft's funeral, on 23 June. It was later observed that Ascroft had been very popular in the town but failed to maintain a group of election campaign workers, presumably in the hope that his personal support would be enough. The forcing of a by-election therefore surprised Oldham Conservatives. Nevertheless, on 26 June, Oswald's resignation note
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#17330863083311144-652: The Liberals threatened to withdraw from the government, but a group led by Sir John Simon emerged as the Liberal Nationals , mainly composed of those who had been opposed to Lloyd George's leadership and who were prepared to continue to support the National Government. A compromise was worked out whereby each party in the National Government campaigned on its own manifesto. After the National Government won
1196-520: The SdP responsible for breaking off negotiations with the Czechoslovak government although the revised government proposals met "almost all the requirements" of the SdP. Runciman considered the actions of the Czechoslovak authorities to be "not actively oppressive, and certainly not 'terroristic'" but "marked by tactlessness, lack of understanding, petty intolerance and discrimination". The multiple complaints of economic and political discrimination voiced by
1248-579: The Sudeten Germans were, he believed, "in the main justified" and gave rise to a feeling of "hopelessness", but "the rise of Nazi Germany gave them new hope". Runciman, therefore, considered "their turning for help towards their kinsmen and their eventual desire to join the Reich as a natural development in the circumstances". This led him to conclude "that these frontier districts should at once be transferred from Czechoslovakia to Germany". Chamberlain agreed to
1300-562: The United Kingdom. His 1938 diplomatic mission to Czechoslovakia was key to the enactment of the British policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany preceding the Second World War. Runciman was the son of the shipping magnate Walter Runciman, 1st Baron Runciman . He was educated at South Shields High School and Trinity College, Cambridge , where he graduated with an MA degree in history in 1892. Runciman unsuccessfully contested Gravesend in
1352-458: The basic direction of the party. In 1931, the cause of the strife was seemingly removed when the Labour government was succeeded by an all-party National Government . Further division emerged, however, when it was proposed that the National Government call a general election to seek a mandate to introduce protective tariffs , a policy that was anathema to Runciman and many other Liberals. Officially,
1404-495: The basis that legislation was needed to maintain law and order. A Protestant delegation representing several organisations was pleased with the pledge to support the Bill and strongly endorsed Churchill and Mawdsley. However, when Churchill, who later admitted that he knew nothing of the issue, found out how unpopular the Bill was, he declared in a speech three days before polling day that he would have voted against it, in accordance with
1456-426: The evening of 23 June as arranged to hear from Churchill and unanimously adopted him as the party's candidate for the single by-election to replace Ascroft. The meeting then decided to leave the question of a second candidate to another meeting on the following night. Churchill was known principally as the son of Lord Randolph Churchill , a senior Conservative politician who had died four years earlier. Although only 24,
1508-523: The extra-Parliamentary National Liberal Federation until 1934. He concluded the Roca-Runciman Treaty with Argentina (one of the events of the Infamous Decade ), initiated by that country to avoid the curtailment of Argentine beef imports. In a 1934 speech Runciman defended the record of the National Government, citing measures such as a town and country planning country act, “the opening of
1560-444: The greatest crusades against slums ever attempted in any country,” and an upcoming unemployment insurance bill. Runciman remained as President of the Board of Trade until May 1937 when Stanley Baldwin retired and his successor, Neville Chamberlain , only offered Runciman the sinecure position of Lord Privy Seal , an offer Runciman declined. In June 1937 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Runciman of Doxford , of Doxford in
1612-440: The latter became Leader of the Liberal Party in 1926. He lost his seat in the 1918 general election , and failed to get elected in the 1920 Edinburgh North by-election but was returned for Swansea West in the 1924 general election . In the 1929 general election , the Liberals emerged holding the balance of power between the Conservatives and Labour . Runciman took the seat of St Ives , which his wife Hilda had won in
1899 Oldham by-election - Misplaced Pages Continue
1664-590: The left. He then served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury until 1908. In April of the latter year he was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed to his first Cabinet post, President of the Board of Education , by the new prime minister, H. H. Asquith , which position he retained for three years. Runciman approved of financing the purchase of land in Ireland, but the policy was becoming prohibitively expensive. He
1716-733: The long run, as the Imperial German Navy was 'a luxury' too expensive for the Reich to maintain. Runciman was also in the McKenna dining group that opposed escalation of the Anglo-German naval arms race , and in January 1914 opposed First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill 's high naval estimates. The left-wing cabinet members desired specificity to Admiralty reductions, but the admirals themselves opposed them. Runciman joined Lloyd George 's "Council of War" on 13 June, which
1768-463: The mass employment of women in factories. Runciman proposed a bill "commandeering" the armaments factories for the national war effort. Sitting between McKenna and Hobhouse, he announced an industrial agreement to pay a guaranteed 15% dividend, plus depreciation. They discussed bringing German-owned dye industries into British ownership and a prohibition of coal exports. Runciman encouraged Kitchener at dinner to remove Sir John French from command of
1820-580: The matter, and thus the attempts at mediation failed. With international tension rising in Central and Eastern Europe , Runciman was recalled to London on 16 September 1938. The published outcome of the mission, known as the Runciman Report , was issued by the mediator on 21 September 1938 in the form of letters addressed to Neville Chamberlain and Edvard Beneš , the President of Czechoslovakia . The report held
1872-520: The outgoing Liberal cabinet; a week later he was promoted to President of the Board of Trade. By October, the cabinet was in open conflict, with the Conservatives (and Chancellor Lloyd George) demanding the introduction of conscription. He threatened to resign over the issue but in the end did not do so when it was carried into law in the Military Service Act 1916 . Like McKenna, Runciman was against total warfare of which Compulsory Service formed
1924-414: The polls, but it broke down at Stafford and never arrived. Polling closed at 8 pm. Shortly after 11 pm the result was announced from the town hall: The loss of both seats caused some recriminations in Conservative circles. Henry Howorth, in a letter to The Times , took it as an object lesson that "playing at pitch and toss" with Conservative principles would not lead to a victory and that it
1976-465: The principle of tariffs, amended in November 1931 to 10% in favour of a balance of trade recommended by a Tariff Board. When in late 1932 the official Liberals (the Samuelites) resigned their ministerial posts, Runciman very nearly resigned with them. In 1933 the official Liberals withdrew completely their support for the National Government but Runciman remained in office, despite holding the presidency of
2028-432: The respect for women "which all men very rightly have". Mawdsley, however, declared his support. The presence of trade unionist Mawdsley as a Conservative candidate caused some degree of protest. The Royton branch of his union passed, 107 to 54, a motion protesting at his candidature, and Mawdsley was asked why he had not come forward as a Labour candidate when he was invited to in 1895. Mawdsley replied that there had been
2080-587: The transfer of the border regions of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany at the Munich Conference on 30 September 1938. Archival evidence suggests that the recommendations of the Runciman Report were amended at a late stage of the drafting to provide justification for Chamberlain's policy of territorial transfer. Further controversy arose from Runciman's use of his weekend leisure time in Czechoslovakia. That
2132-463: The very small meeting at which the candidates were adopted. There was some discussion of which of the two very different Conservative candidates, the aristocrat or the labour representative, would be more popular in Oldham. Only one name was initially put forward for the Liberal Party selection, that of Alfred Emmott ; however, by the time the selection meeting took place on the evening of Monday 26 June it
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2184-421: The wishes of his constituents. Churchill made a campaigning visit to Hollinwood , then known as a strongly anti-Conservative area, as his father had done in previous elections. His appearance prompted a heckler to declare, "Eh, lad, thou art a chip of t'owd block". On 3 July, the two Conservative candidates received a delegation on women's suffrage , to which Churchill declared himself opposed, as it would lessen
2236-662: The young Churchill had begun a journalistic career as a war correspondent with the Morning Post . According to one observer, society then knew Churchill as "a brilliant and irrepressible talker". The second Conservative candidate turned out to be James Mawdsley , who was secretary of the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners , an unusual case of a Conservative who was an active trade unionist . The choice of Mawdsley as Conservative candidate had been kept secret and surprised several Conservatives, who were not in
2288-532: Was a prominent Lancashire solicitor and an English politician. He entered the House of Commons on 13 July 1895 and was one of the two Members of Parliament for Oldham between 1895 until his death, as a member of the Conservative Party . He was known as the "Workers' Friend" and after his death, a public subscription enabled a statue of him to be erected in Alexandra Park, Oldham . Robert Ascroft
2340-515: Was also sympathetic to addressing issues concerning rural areas, such as improved wages for agricultural labourers and the provision of housing. In 1914, on the British entry into World War I , the President of the Board of Trade , John Burns , resigned and on Sunday 2 August Runciman was appointed to succeed him. The Board of Trade reported in October 1914 a build-up of German shipping at Hamburg ;
2392-431: Was better that the party went into opposition than "surrender to every Socialistic demand". Churchill had impressed as an election candidate, being described as "working like a Trojan". However, the correspondent for The Times felt that his speeches concentrated more on good phrases than on good arguments and that his popularity was superficial. Robert Ascroft Robert Ascroft , JP . MP , (1847 – 19 June 1899)
2444-451: Was clear that there would be a double vacancy and so he was adopted together with Walter Runciman . Emmott had been a member of Oldham Corporation for nearly 20 years and was the town's mayor in 1891 to 1892. He had been invited but declined the offer of the Liberal candidacy in 1886 . Runciman was the 28-year-old son of Walter Runciman, 1st Baron Runciman , a shipping magnate . The writ for
2496-656: Was mainly designed to exculpate Lloyd George of any involvement in the Marconi scandal . Runciman had done much to encourage Lloyd George as Chancellor in increasing levels of trade. Runciman encouraged political dialogue, socialism, and James Larkin 's movement in Ireland , which the cabinet swiftly sought to decriminalise. Runciman was one of those who agreed to fight the Larne gun-running incident by seizure of weapons. The cabinet banned all arms shipments to Ireland on 25 November. Runciman
2548-635: Was one of the small group, that included Reginald McKenna , who believed in sound public finances; they had witnessed the lax administration of the Chief Secretary for Ireland . Runciman, along with McKenna and Lord Haldane , pressured Prime Minister H. H. Asquith to reject Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George 's 1910 People's Budget raising taxes on the landed aristocracy and upper class to pay for welfare programs . He then served another three years as President of
2600-564: Was sent in and so he was appointed Steward of the Manor of Northstead as a way of resigning his seat . Before his illness, Ascroft had already met with Churchill at the House of Commons to ask him to replace Oswald and run as the second candidate at the next election. The date of a joint follow-up meeting in Oldham had been fixed for some time when Churchill noticed in the newspapers that Ascroft had died. The Conservative Party officers met in Oldham on
2652-924: Was spent mostly but not entirely on the country estates of members of the SdP-supporting Sudeten German aristocracy in a social and political environment hostile to the Czechoslovak government. In October 1938, after the Munich Agreement, Chamberlain reshuffled his Cabinet and appointed Runciman as Lord President of the Council . He held that post until the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. Lord Runciman of Doxford married Hilda , daughter of James Cochran Stevenson , in 1898. They had two sons and three daughters. Their daughter Margaret Fairweather (married Douglas Fairweather who established
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#17330863083312704-549: Was the Clerical Tithes Bill, which the Conservative-dominated government was promoting, which would give additional help to Church of England clergy and to Church schools. Oldham included many Nonconformists who were opposed to the Bill. When the issue of the Bill was raised, the Liberal candidates opposed it, arguing that Parliament was not the place to discuss matters of faith. Churchill initially supported it on
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