1954 Harwich by-election

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11 February 1954

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Harwich constituency

	First party	Second party

Candidate	Julian Ridsdale	Shirley Catlin
Party	National Liberal	Labour
Popular vote	19,532	13,535
Percentage	59.1%	40.9%
Swing	0.2%	0.2%

Boundary of the Harwich constituency in Essex

MP before election

Stanley Holmes
National Liberal

Elected MP

Julian Ridsdale
National Liberal

The 1954 Harwich by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 11 February 1954 for the British House of Commons constituency of Harwich.

Background

Constituency

The seat consisted of the port town of Harwich, the seaside towns of Clacton-on-Sea, Brightlingsea, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze, and most of the primarily rural Tendring District.

Trigger

The seat had become vacant when the National Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Stanley Holmes was elevated to the peerage as Baron Dovercourt, having held the seat since the 1935 general election.

Candidates

National Liberal

The National Liberal party chose Julian Ridsdale, the nephew both of former Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and Liberal MP Sir Aurelian Ridsdale as its candidate. He had contested Paddington North at the 1951 general election as the Conservative Party candidate.

Labour

In the autumn of 1952 the Harwich Labour party selected the 22 year old former chair of Oxford University Labour Club Shirley Catlin as its prospective candidate, after the only other candidate made it clear that he had no interest in running.

Result

The Conservative and Liberal candidate, Julian Ridsdale held the seat for the government. He remained the constituency's MP until his retirement 38 years later at the 1992 general election. Shirley Catlin would later, under her married name Shirley Williams; be elected as MP for Hitchin and would serve in the Cabinets of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.

**1954 Harwich by-election**
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Liberal	Julian Ridsdale	19,532	59.1	+0.2
	Labour	Shirley Catlin	13,535	40.9	−0.2
Majority			5,997	18.2	+0.4
Turnout			33,067
	National Liberal hold		Swing

References

Shirley Williams Climbing The Bookshelves: Autobiography of Shirley Williams, Virago, 2009
"Baroness Williams of Crosby". Archived from the original on 4 March 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
"1954 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2015.

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1952	February: Bournemouth East and Christchurch Southport Leeds South East July: Dundee East October: Cleveland North Antrim November: Belfast South Wycombe Birmingham Small Heath Farnworth
1953	February: Canterbury March: Isle of Thanet Barnsley Stoke-on-Trent North April: Hayes and Harlington North Down Sunderland South June: Abingdon July: Birmingham Edgbaston September: Broxtowe November: Crosby Ormskirk Holborn and St Pancras South December: Paddington North
1954	February: Ilford North Haltemprice Harwich Bournemouth West March: Arundel and Shoreham Harrogate April: Edinburgh East Motherwell September: Croydon East October: Shoreditch and Finsbury Wakefield Aberdare Aldershot November: Morpeth Sutton and Cheam Liverpool West Derby Armagh December: Inverness
1955	January: South Norfolk Orpington Twickenham Edinburgh North February: Stockport South March: Wrexham
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