Cardiganshire by-election, 1921

The Cardiganshire by-election, 1921 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.

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. Lloyd George persuaded the sitting Coalition Liberal MP, Matthew Vaughan-Davies, who had represented the constituency for more than twenty-five years, to accept a peerage so creating an opportunity for Evans to enter Parliament.

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. Evans was supported by Lloyd George’s Unionist partners in the Coalition government.

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. 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. 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. 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.

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