The 1879 Canterbury by-election was held on 8 May 1879. The by-election was fought due to the resignation of the incumbent Conservative MP, Lewis Majendie. It was won by the Conservative candidate Robert Peter Laurie.[1]

Corruption

The Liberal candidate Charles Edwards was accused of spending about £140 (equivalent to £14,251 in 2021) on buying votes during the campaign. Although Edwards disclaimed knowledge of this and blamed his campaign manager, he did admit that the money was spent on bribery.[2]

Canterbury by-election, 1879[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Robert Peter Laurie 1,159 51.2 -10.4
Liberal Charles Edwards 1,103 48.8 +10.3
Majority 56 2.4 -7.6
Turnout 2,262 73.2 -2.5
Conservative hold Swing -10.4

References

  1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
  2. Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons (1881). Parliamentary Papers. H.M. Stationery Office. pp. 5–14.
  3. "Canterbury Election". Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald. 10 May 1879. Retrieved 5 October 2016 via British Newspaper Archive.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.