Horncastle by-election, 1920

The Horncastle by-election of 1920 was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Horncastle in Lincolnshire on 25 February 1920. The seat had become vacant when the sitting Coalition Unionist Member of Parliament, William Weigall, who had held the seat since 1911, resigned upon being appointed Governor of South Australia.

The Unionists, as representatives of the Liberal-Conservative Coalition government of David Lloyd George had as their candidate, Stafford Vere Hotchkin (1876-1953), a farmer, former soldier, Sheriff of Rutland and a local Justice of the Peace. The Liberals were represented by Samuel Pattinson (1870-1942), a local businessman and sometime Alderman of Lincolnshire County Council. William Holmes stood for the Labour Party.

Hotchkin quickly received the endorsement of both the prime minister and the leader of the Conservative Party, Andrew Bonar-Law. In his letter to Hotchkin, Lloyd George emphasised the need to resuscitate and develop British agriculture in which task he said Hotchkin as a ‘practical farmer’ would be able to help the government. Bonar-Law stressed the continuing need for parties to work together in the national interest in difficult times. In effect Hotchkin was receiving the equivalent of the government ‘coupon’ which had been issued at the 1918 general election.

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