1956 Hereford by-election - Misplaced Pages

UK Parliamentary by-election

The 1956 Hereford by-election of 14 February 1956 was held after the resignation of Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Jim Thomas.

The seat was safe, having been won by Thomas at the 1955 United Kingdom general election albeit with a reduced majority of over 2,000 votes. The Liberals, who had already polled nearly one-quarter of the vote in 1955, increased their share to 36.4%.

Candidates

David Gibson-Watt was the Conservative candidate to hold the seat. He had served in the Welsh Guards and was a former local councillor.

Frank Owen: A local man who had served in his youth as the Liberal MP for Hereford between 1929 and 1931. At the 1955 general election, he had contested the seat for the first time since losing it in 1931, and polled a good second place.

Labour candidate Bryan Stanley was, at the time, a technical engineer and member of the Labour National Executive Committee.

Result of the previous general election

General election 1955: Hereford
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	James Thomas	18,058	51.79
	Liberal	Frank Owen	8,658	24.83
	Labour	E.L.P. Seers	8,154	23.38
Majority			9,400	26.96
Turnout			34,870
	Conservative hold		Swing

Result of the by-election

The Conservative Party held the seat with a reduced majority.

Hereford by-election, 14 February 1956
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Gibson-Watt	12,129	44.29	−7.50
	Liberal	Frank Owen	9,979	36.44	+11.61
	Labour	Bryan Stanley	5,277	19.27	−4.11
Majority			2,150	7.85	−19.11
Turnout			27,385
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

Full results Archived 2012-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
Election results Archived 11 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine PoliticsResources.net
"1956 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2015.

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1955	August: Mid Ulster December: Gateshead West Greenock Torquay
1956	February: Blaydon Leeds North East Hereford Gainsborough Taunton March: Walthamstow West May: Mid Ulster June: Tonbridge July: Newport September: Chester-le-Street November: City of Chester December: Melton
1957	February: Lewisham North Wednesbury Carmarthen March: Bristol West Warwick and Leamington Beckenham Newcastle-upon-Tyne North May: Edinburgh South East Ham North Hornsey June: North Dorset September: Gloucester October: Ipswich November: Leicester South East December: Liverpool Garston
1958	February: Rochdale March: Glasgow Kelvingrove Torrington May: Islington North June: Argyll Ealing South St Helens Weston-super-Mare Wigan November: Morecambe and Lonsdale Chichester Pontypool East Aberdeenshire Shoreditch and Finsbury
1959	January: Southend West March: Belfast East Harrow East South West Norfolk April: Galloway June: Penistone Whitehaven
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