The 1921 Cardiganshire by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Cardiganshire on 18 February 1921. The election was important for the bitterness of the contest between the Coalition and Independent factions within the Liberal Party and the deepening of this division within the party as a factor in the long-term decline of Liberalism in Wales.
Vacancy The by-election was caused by the desire of Prime Minister David Lloyd George to find a Parliamentary seat for his private secretary Captain Ernest Evans.Michael Kinnear, The Fall of Lloyd George: The Political Crisis of 1922; University of Toronto Press, 1973 pp. 190–191 Lloyd George persuaded the sitting Coalition Liberal MP, Matthew Vaughan-Davies, who had represented the constituency for more than twenty-five years,The Times, 1 January 1921 p. 10 to accept a peerage so creating an opportunity for Evans to enter Parliament.Ffion Hague, The Pain and the Privilege; Harper Press, 2008 p.384
Candidates Coalition Liberals and Unionists Unsurprisingly the Coalition Liberals chose Ernest Evans as their candidate. Evans was a lawyer. He had been called to the Bar in 1910 and after the First World War he became private secretary to Lloyd George. He held that post until 1920.The Times House of Commons 1935; Politico’s Publishing 2003 p.154 Evans was supported by Lloyd George's Unionist partners in the Coalition government.The Times, 28 January 1921 p.10
Liberal split At first it was reported that Evans might not be opposed as he was a Cardiganshire man; his father was Clerk to the County Council.The Times, 3 January 1921 p.12 However, the local Liberal Association was representative of both Coalition and Independent Liberal wings of the party and neither group had a permanent advantage over the other. Attempts by those opposed to the Coalition had earlier tried to ensure that any replacement for Vaughan-Davies would not be another Coalition Liberal but although this resolution passed the executive committee, it was never ratified by the membership.Kinnear, The Fall of Lloyd George p.191 Once Vaughan–Davies' peerage was announced, a number of other possible by-election candidates put their names forward. First it was announced that Sir Lewes Loveden Pryse, a local land owner, would stand in the by-election as a Liberal Anti-Waste candidate.The Times, 4 January 1921 p. 10 A number of by-elections at this time were contested by members of the Anti-Waste League, a political party founded in 1921 by Lord Rothermere. The party campaigned against what they saw as excessive government spending. It is not clear if Loveden Pryse was formally connected to the Anti-Waste League or if he just taking advantage of a well-known political position close to his own views.
To resolve the issue of its choice of candidate, the Cardiganshire Liberal Association invited five potential candidates to address a meeting of the Association and to invite them to accept the outcome of the democratic decision, to use the secretary of the Association as their election agent, and to state if they were Coalitionists or 'free and independent Liberals'.The Times, 24 January 1921 p.10 These men were Evans, Loveden Pryse, W. Llewelyn Williams, KC the former MP for Carmarthen and Recorder of Cardiff and two local Aldermen, J M Howell and D C Roberts.The Times, 7 January 1921 p. 11 Howell refused to attend the meeting and announced that he supported Lloyd George. In the meantime at a meeting in London of the newly formed Welsh Independent Liberal Association, attended by Llewelyn Williams, it was decided that if Cardiganshire Liberals chose a Coalition Liberal candidate, they would oppose him.The Times, 8 January 1921 p. 14 As the other possible candidates dropped out of contention, the choice for Cardiganshire Liberals crystallised between Evans and Llewelyn Williams. Evans declared that if the Association selected a candidate who would not support the Coalition, he would stand anyway.The Times, 24 January p.10
In the event, at a rowdy meeting, Cardiganshire Liberals voted to adopt Llewelyn Williams. Of the 350 delegates invited to the selection meeting on 26 January 1921, 347 attended and voted by a majority of 206 to 127 in favour of Llewelyn Williams.The Times, 26 January 1921 p.10
The election which followed led to the re-emergence of tensions within Cardiganshire Liberalism, which had lain dormant for years, between the rural areas of the hinterland and the middle-class seaside towns. It was in the rural areas that Williams found the greatest levels of support.
Labour The Labour Party stated they had a candidate ready to stand if the outcome of the Liberal selection process produced a candidate who was unacceptable to them. It was assumed, that given Labour's opposition to the Coalition, that if Evans was chosen therefore Labour would contest the election. In the end however they chose not to do so and Llewelyn Williams claimed he had secured Labour's wholehearted support in the by-election.The Times, 29 January 1921 p. 10 He later received the public support of William Harris the organiser of the South Wales Miners' Federation who declared it was the duty of Labour to vote against the present government which, he said, was the enemy of the working man.The Times, 8 February 1921 p. 10
Issues Agriculture Agricultural policy was an early issue raised in the election. This was because the Cardiganshire Farmers' Union, a generally pro-Conservative organisation, held a meeting to question Captain Evans and decided to ask all candidates the same series of questions. They wanted to know if the candidates approved of farmers having to give up land to ex-soldiers, if they would support a reduction in the number of government inspectors supervising farmers and their work, particularly those operating under the Wages Boards. Although Loveden Pryse decided not to put himself up as a candidate, the issue of waste and government expenditure was raised in the election. The farmers wanted to know if the candidates would oppose increased spending on education, public health, land settlement and housing. Despite the conservatism of the country people it was reported that Llewelyn Williams was receiving a good reception in the rural areas.The Times, 2 February 1921 p. 7
Waste Llewelyn Williams picked up the Anti-Waste theme and declared that it was not by returning a tame official of the government that the Coalition could be held to account for its extravagance and its loss of control over the nation's finances.The Times, 3 February 1921 p. 10
The record of the Coalition and the position of Lloyd George Llewelyn Williams tried to rally traditional Liberal support by emphasising the influence in Lloyd George's government of the Conservatives (who were in the majority in the Coalition). He would be happy to support the Prime Minister he said, when he got rid of the Curzons, Carsons, Balfours and Bonar Laws who only a few years before had been trying to cut his political throat over the Marconi case.The Times, 31 January 1921 p. 11
Llewelyn Williams was fiercely opposed to Lloyd George, his one-time friend,Kenneth O. Morgan, Wales in British Politics: 1868-1922; University of Wales Press, 1963 pp. 295–296 whom he had broken with over the issue of conscription in 1916. According to one historian, Llewelyn Williams was paranoid about Lloyd George calling him a "dictator" and a "little devil who plagues us so".Kenneth O Morgan, Consensus and Disunity: The Lloyd George Coalition Government 1918-1922; OUP 1979 pp. 198–199 He also disliked intensely the government action against nationalist forces in Ireland and the use of the so-called Black and Tans.
Llewelyn Williams sought to counter Evans' credentials as a Cardiganshire man by getting his wife to make an appeal to women voters as a native of the county. This appeal was however decisively trumped by the appearance in the constituency of the wife of the Prime Minister. Mrs Lloyd George made a visit lasting four days in support of Captain Evans when she was received enthusiastically with bouquets and brass bands according to one sourceP J Madgwick, N Griffiths & V Walker, The Politics of Rural Wales: A Study of Cardiganshire; Hutchison, 1973 p46 and addressed a special meeting of women at Aberystwyth. Her campaigning concluded only on election day itself with a tour of polling stations and a last minute plea for votes published in the Cambrian News.Hague, The Pain and the Privilege; Harper Press, 2008 p. 389
Evans based his appeal on the reasons for maintaining the Coalition after 1918 and appealed for loyalty to Lloyd George as a great Welshman and war hero. There was an unashamed appeal to patriotism. Mrs Lloyd George told electors that the Germans were anxiously watching the result of the contest and the Cambrian News published a cartoon showing Prussian Militarism trying in vain to woo Miss Cardiganshire away from Lloyd George.Madgwick, Griffiths & Walker, The Politics of Rural Wales, p 47 Evans associated himself with the points made by Lloyd George at the executive meeting of the Welsh National Liberals on 8 February 1921. These were chiefly, the recognition that the emergency extended into the post-war phase; the need for national unity to face the challenges of the economy and demobilization after the war; the need for unity to enforce the post-war international settlement agreed at the Paris Peace Conference and the moves to find a solution to the question of Home Rule for Ireland.The Times, 9 February 1921 p. 12 In a letter of support to Evans, Conservative leader Bonar Law also made similar points about the need for national unity and government o be carried on in a non-partisan way.The Times, 10 February 1921 p. 10 Loyalty to the Prime Minister as a great Welsh figure was also reported to have been a factor in swaying the voters.The Times, 21 February 1921 p. 11
Religion One topic which was reported to have been a dead issue in the election was the Church question, a policy which for a generation had been the central and burning issue of Welsh politics. Violet Bonham Carter tried to raise the issue in a speech at Aberystwyth, attacking Lloyd George for re-endowing the Anglican Church with taxpayers' money. But it seemed to leave the audience cold. The many sects in the Welsh Nonconformism found themselves divided between the different candidates, a dilemma with which they were highly unfamiliarThe Times, 16 February 1921 p. 12 and perhaps this lack of unity served to lessen the profile and importance of the disestablishment tradition. However, Evans was a Methodist, which was the dominant denomination in the area,Kenneth O Morgan, Consensus and Disunity: The Lloyd George Coalition Government 1918-1922; OUP 1979 p. 199 as was Mrs Lloyd GeorgeHague, The Pain and the Privilege; p. 385 while most supporters of Llewelyn Williams were Congregationalists. Ministers of religion frequently appeared on political platforms and political factionalism within the Liberal tradition spilled over into the politics of the chapels both between the demoninantions and within.Madgwick, Griffiths & Walker, The Politics of Rural Wales p. 48 So religion certainly seems to have been, after all, more of factor than was believed by commentators at the time.
Polling day