Sheffield Attercliffe by-election, 1909

A by-election was held for the British House of Commons constituency of Sheffield Attercliffe on 4 May 1909.

The election was caused by the resignation of J. Batty Langley, due to long-term ill health. He had been the Liberal Party Member of Parliament for the seat since an 1894 by-election. He had been re-elected unopposed at the 1895 and 1900 general elections.Arnold Muir Wilson, a local Conservative Party councillor and honorary consul for Serbia had contested the seat in 1906, taking 46.8% of the vote.

Attercliffe, a district of north east Sheffield, was a heavy industry, working class area. At the time of the election, there was extremely high unemployment in the area.

The Liberal Party approached Arthur Neal, then a local councillor, but he declined nomination. Only one candidate then put themselves forward for nomination: Richard Cornthwaite Lambert, a London-based barrister who had narrowly failed to win Sheffield Ecclesall at the 1906 election.

As Wilson was out of the country, the Conservatives nominated a new candidate, Sydney Charles King-Farlow. A newcomer to politics, he was a barrister based in the south east of England. Wilson objected to the decision to stand an outsider, and decided to stand as an independent candidate. He was adopted by an unofficial panel of Conservative Party members, and offered to withdraw if the party apologised to him, withdrew King-Farlow and instead adopted a candidate of his choice. This offer was not accepted.

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