Rye by-election, 1903

The Rye by-election, 1903 was a by-election held in England on 17 March 1903 for the House of Commons constituency of the Rye or Eastern Division of Sussex.

The by-election was caused by the resignation of the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Arthur Montagu Brookfield. Brookfield had been MP for Rye since 1885 but he resigned in order to take up the post of HM Consul in Montevideo.

The Conservatives and Unionists selected 54-year-old Edward Boyle a barrister, a King’s Counsel, as their candidate. Boyle had unsuccessfully contested Hastings at the 1900 general election and had his country seat at Hurst Green in the then Rye constituency.

The Liberals chose Charles Frederick Hutchinson, a 53-year-old medical doctor who had retired to Sussex. Hutchinson had been their candidate against Arthur Brookfield at the 1900 general election.

The opposing candidates adopted classic by-election positions. Boyle defending the Conservative government record, Hutchinson attacking it. One newspaper reported Boyle making his chief appeal ‘on general grounds’. Rye was a largely rural seat and Boyle chose to focus on agricultural issues praising the Agricultural Rates Act of 1896, which had led to the de-rating of farm land, as a step in the right direction and promising to keep up Brookfield’s campaign to press legislative proposals for the defence of the hop industry. On the controversial issue of education, following the 1902 Education Act, Boyle took the view that, while this was not a perfect piece of legislation, it was an honest attempt to deal with a difficult matter. Boyle also took a stand against Irish Home Rule stating he was ‘absolutely against a separate Parliament for Ireland’.

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