1892 Leeds South by-election
The 1892 Leeds South by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Leeds South in the West Riding of Yorkshire held on 22 September 1892. Vacancy The by-election was caused by the elevation to the peerage of the sitting Liberal MP, Sir Lyon Playfair. Playfair had been MP for Leeds South since its creation for the 1885 general election. In his letter to his constituency association informing them of his peerage, Playfair said it had been a wholly unexpected honour, a point later repeated in his memoirs and correspondence. Playfair was a distinguished chemist and expert in sanitation. He had worked closely with Prince Albert, the Prince Consort on a scheme for filtering sewage to fertilize the royal estate at Osborne House and later on plans for the Great Exhibition of 1851. As well as his past association with Price Albert, Playfair was a German speaker with strong Scottish connections so it was, perhaps, not surprising when he was created Baron Playfair of St Andrews and made Lord-in-waiting to Queen Victoria. Candidates Liberals The South Leeds Liberals held a selection meeting on 26 August 1892 and, having considered a number of possible candidates, they decided to invite John Lawson Walton to defend the seat. Walton was aged 40 and was a successful barrister on the north-eastern circuit who also had a practice in London. At the 1892 general election, just a few weeks earlier, he had been the Liberal candidate for Leeds Central when he lost narrowly to the sitting Conservative MP G W Balfour. Conservatives The Conservatives met on 24 August 1892 and resolved to contest the by-election. They selected 29-year-old Reginald Neville, also a barrister to fight the seat. Neville had been Playfair’s opponent at the 1892 general election when he had slightly reduced the Liberal majority. He was formally adopted on 6 September. Labour It was expected that a candidate representing labour would enter the fray. A deputation of working men invited James M’Gregor, the general secretary of the National Labourers’ Federation to stand as a Labour candidate. M’Gregor seemed to be willing. He said he would submit the offer to the executive committee of his union and be bound by their decision. It is not known if the union were opposed to M’Gregor’s candidacy but a few days later it was reported that another trade union official, Mr J Solly, the organising secretary of the Railway Labourers’ Union, had accepted an invitation to fight the by-election for Labour. But Solly’s acceptance may have been premature because Leeds Trade Council were unable to approve him until the Railway Labourers’ Union agreed to contribute a substantial sum towards election expenses. Neither of these potential candidacies came to anything however as the Leeds Trades Council decided it would be counter-productive to stand a labour candidate and risk splitting the anti-Tory vote. However, as the by-election approached, another union man, John Lincoln Mahon, of the Leeds and District Gasworkers Union declared that he would be standing