The Churchill Series – Oct. 2, 2006

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

If 106 years ago today you looked at The Times of London, you’d have read that young Winston Churchill, Lord Randolph’s son, author, and Boer War hero had been defeated the previous day in a parliamentary election in the two-seat Oldham constituency in Northwest England.

The news might not have been surprised you. Churchill had run for a seat in the same Oldham constituency the previous year and been defeated. But The Times was wrong. Churchill’s biographer, Martin Gilbert, tell us what really happened.

Polling at Oldham took place on October 1. It was one of the very first seats to be fought in an election where polling was spread over three weeks. Churchill was successful, but only just.

In the two-member constituency, the largest number of votes, 12,947, went to the first of his Liberal challengers, who was duly elected. Churchill, with only sixteen less votes, was also a victor. The second Liberal candidate, a mere 221 voted behind Churchill, was defeated, as was the second Conservative, Churchill’s co-challenger, with 187 fewer votes. It had been an exceptionally close result.

An exceptionally close vote: we’ll all agree with that, won’t we?

And we’ll give Thanks that Churchill went on to render in Parliament historic services to freedom and civilization.
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Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life. (pgs..135-136)