1923 Portsmouth South by-election
# 1923 Portsmouth South by-election

The 1923 Portsmouth South by-election was a parliamentary by-election held in England on 13 August 1923 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the House of Commons constituency of Portsmouth South in Hampshire.

## Vacancy

The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Conservative MP Leslie Orme Wilson had been appointed as Governor of Bombay, and had therefore resigned from the Commons on 26 July by the procedural device of accepting appointment as Steward of the Manor of Northstead. Wilson had held the seat for less than a year, having won it at a by-election in December 1922. He had previously been the MP for Reading from 1913 to 1922.

## Electoral history

The result at the last election was

1922 Portsmouth South by-election :

| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | Unionist | Leslie Orme Wilson | 14,301 | 62.9 | -5.8 |
| | Ind. Unionist | G. C. Thomas | 4,834 | 37.1 | New |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 5,867 | 25.8 | -11.6 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 22,735 | 57.7 | |
| | Unionist hold | Unionist hold | Swing | | |

## Candidates

* The Conservative candidate was Herbert Cayzer, who had held the seat from the 1918 general election until his resignation on 27 November 1922, only two weeks after being returned at the general election in November 1922.
* The Liberal Party candidate was 64-year-old retired army general, Sir Henry Lawson, who had previously contested the seat unsuccessfully at the 1922 general election.

## Result

Portsmouth South by-election, 1923 :

| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | Unionist | Herbert Cayzer | 11,884 | 54.9 | -8.0 |
| | Liberal | Henry Merrick Lawson | 9,763 | 45.1 | New |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 2,121 | 9.8 | -14.0 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 21,647 | 54.9 | -2.8 |
| | Unionist hold | Unionist hold | Swing | | |

## Aftermath

Cayzer was re-elected for Portsmouth South at the next five general elections, and held the seat until he was ennobled in 1939. Lawson never stood for Parliament again. The result at the following general election;

1923 general election :

| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | Unionist | Herbert Cayzer | 16,625 | 55.9 | +1.0 |
| | Labour | J. Stephen | 7,388 | 24.9 | New |
| | Liberal | Sidney Robert Drury-Lowe | 5,698 | 19.2 | -25.9 |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 9,237 | 31.0 | +21.2 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 29,711 | 72.7 | +17.8 |
| | Unionist hold | Unionist hold | Swing | | |
