The 1914 Great Grimsby by-election was a Parliamentary by-election held on 12 May 1914. The constituency returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system. It was one of the last by-election contests to take place before the outbreak of the Great War, and provided a good indicator of how the main parties would have performed at an anticipated general election for 1914 or 1915.
Vacancy
Sir George Doughty had been the MP for Great Grimsby since 1895, apart from the period from January–December 1910. Doughty was first elected as a Liberal before switching to the Liberal Unionists in 1898. He died suddenly, at the age of 60, of a heart seizure on 27 April 1914.
Previous result
Candidates
Early possibilities to be the Unionist candidate included former Brigg MP Sir Berkeley Sheffield and local party chairman RW Roberts. On 30 April jam manufacturer Thomas Tickler was chosen by the Unionists as their candidate to defend the seat. He was a local JP and Town Councillor, having served as Mayor in 1907. The Liberals had already selected James Whitely Wilkin as their prospective parliamentary candidate for a general election expected to occur later in 1914–15. However he was at the time travelling in the southern hemisphere and was not expected to be able to return in time. James William Eason, the local leader of the party was mentioned as a possible replacement. Their previous candidate, the former MP Tom Wing had been returned to parliament in March following the 1913 Houghton-le-Spring by-election. On 30 April they selected local Cleethorpes man Alfred Bannister. He also lived in the constituency, he served as a Justice of the Peace and was a Town Councillor who had served as Chairman of the council. He was involved in the local fishing industry as a steam trawler owner. The Grimsby Trades and Labour Council considered supporting Ernest Marklew as a British Socialist Party candidate. The BSP however did not feel they were able to mount a campaign in the time available and refused to sanction Marklew's candidature, forcing him to withdraw.
Campaign
The Unionists moved the writ to get polling day fixed for 12 May, a Tuesday. This was expected to be of benefit to them as Tuesdays tended to be days when large numbers of fisherman, who would have been likely to vote for the Liberal candidate, were going to be away at sea. The Liberal candidate's direct links to the local fishing industry were expected to help him pick up a few votes who had previously voted for Doughty.
The Tariff Reform League, the Unionist Association of Ireland and the Unionist Defence League all opened campaign offices in Cleethorpes in support of the Unionist candidates campaign. The debate between Tariff Reform and Free trade did not play much of a part in the campaign but the issue of Irish Unionism versus Irish Nationalism did.