(Editor’s note: The above photo merely gives a flavour of the 1906 election and is unrelated to the specifics of the article below.)
It’s a torn and faded paper poster in a nondescript frame; no illustrations, just 30 or so lines of red-printed text in a wide range of sizes. But it’s a strong contender for the treasured item I would rush to save from a fire.
“We are seven!” it begins. Then in huge type, “Great Liberal DEMONSTRATION” followed by the much smaller but far more interesting line: “To celebrate the return of a Liberal MP for every constituency within the county of Northamptonshire.”
The date for the MASS MEETING in the Corn Exchange, Northampton is June 6, 1906, a few months after the historic General Election which saw Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s Liberals win 397 seats.
The principal speaker is to be Henry Herbert Asquith, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Supporting him is an aristocrat with what we now know to be a royal connection: Viscount Althorp, later to become Earl Spencer, known locally as the Red Earl for his Liberal sympathies, and an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales.
The seven members for the county are on the bill, along with a further four Liberal MPs.
The chair is to be taken by the Marquess of Northampton, who we are told will host a “GREAT OPEN-AIR DEMONSTRATION” the following weekend at his home, Castle Ashby. (“Bands, Dancing and Short Meeting” – I like the order of priorities.)
There’s an impressive list of names and addresses of local secretaries throughout the county who can be contacted for tickets, an enviable level of organisation.
But the most startling feature is to be found in the tiniest type: “A special service of trains has been arranged to run after the meeting” to all the major towns in the county. Special trains for a Liberal Party meeting! A far cry from the jokes about the entire party turning up in a taxicab which many of us grew up with.
The poster, shabby as it is, has had pride of place in our hallway since we bought it 50 years ago at a Liberal Party auction in Croydon. Our 1974 parliamentary candidate David Nunneley had found it lying unregarded in an office drawer when he contested Northampton in an earlier election, and his widow donated it to the party after his untimely death.
I feel it deserves a wider audience, and a place in posterity. If anyone can suggest a museum which might be interested I’d consider having it restored as an eventual legacy.
* Jim Forrest is the chair of Fareham Liberal Democrats
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4 Comments
For a pre-merger Liberal Party Assembly we did have a special train to Dundee and were welcomed by a bagpiper as we alighted. Not quite in the 1906 league but anyone who travelled on that train will have fond memories, including the singing!
For the record, I’m no longer Chairman of Fareham Liberal Democrats (just show how long it is since I last posted here.)
For those interested, the photo can be identified as of Edmund Lamb MP (1863-1925) sitting in the back of his chauffer driven car in Leominster which he gained as a Liberal in 1906 but lost in 1910.
Lamb came from a very wealthy family owning land in Sussex and Northumberland, as well as a number of collieries in the Cramlington area of Northumberland. At that time young lads went down the pit at 12 (my Granddad did and he carried an ankle injury for the rest of his life). Lamb made only six contributions in parliament but one of them revealed he charged his servants if they wanted a beer from his cellars.
MPs were not paid until 1911 and most the Liberal MPs (as well as the Tories) were extremely wealthy individuals.
Car buffs might recognise Mr Lamb’s car as a luxury Renault similar to the one purchased by King Edward V11……… nice bit of kit, nice leather seats, not cheap.
At the time, wages in Mr. Lamb’s pit iat Cramlington, skilled coal hewers (face workers) 13 shillings (65 pence per day). Average wage for all people employed in collieries (including women and boys working above ground) approximately 10 shillings and 2 pence (50 pence) per day.
Health issues ? Great Granddad died of miners’ lung in 1888 aged 28 at nearby Hetton, a widow and four children.