Friday 20 December 1918
Wait and see on historic election
The result of the previous week’s election was delayed to allow the counting of
the military votes but the newspaper still ran extensive coverage, including this
national summary.
The new Parliament is to consist of 707 members. Of these 107 have been
returned unopposed and the death of one candidate has caused the
postponement of the election. There are 15 University seats in which the voting
is a protracted affair. Therefore exactly 584 members were elected on Saturday.
It was the first election in English history in which all the polls have been taken
in one day. Like Daylight Saving and some other reforms, it had been resisted
by strong vested interests but has had to yield to progressive ideas generated by
the war.
Women voted
It was also the first election at which women voted and for which women were
allowed to stand as candidates. On the whole the six million women voters
seem to have displayed considerable interest in the election but only ten stood
as candidates. On the Coalition side there was only one woman candidate.
Reports from the country generally indicate that the election was remarkable
for the small amount of public interest aroused but only a comparison between
the electorates and the numbers who voted, which is not possible yet, will show
whether this apathy was real or not.
More women vote than men in Shipley
Saturday was polling day and
the mild weather was
conducive to a large poll.
The supporters of both sides
were early astir and Mr Rae
and Mr Snowden visited
various parts of the
constituency in the morning.
Mr Rae was at Saltaire when
the mills ‘loosed’ at noon and he
came in for a good share of notice.
On the stump
He had the assistance of about thirty
motor cars during the day and these
never seemed to be empty of voters
who were mostly women but only
one motor-car was noticed ‘on the
stump’ for Mr Snowden.
Polling in the morning was quiet but
at noon a marked increase was
apparent, many of the workpeople
recording their votes on their way
home to dinner.
In the afternoon there was a steady
stream of voters and in the last hour
the screams and hoots of the motor
sirens and the rushing hither and
thither of cars bearing belated voters
lent animation to the streets in the
centre of Shipley.
The popular opinion is that more
women voted at Shipley than men.
The self-confident went alone. Others
went in small groups or were
accompanied by their husbands.
One woman, a wife, said she would
not vote as “Ah’m nooan barn ter dew
summat Ah’ve nivver asked fer.”
A young soldier on leave presented
himself at the Thackley polling
station and requested a voting paper
but was disappointed to find that he
was not entitled to vote at home, his
name not being on the register.
Two husbands had a surprise at Idle
when they went to vote along with
their wives. Their names were not on
the lists for some reason or other but
their wives were able to poll.
Twitting
There was an exciting incident in
Hargreaves Square at half-past five in
the evening.
Several women were being taken to a
polling station in one of Mr Rae’s
cars when a man came out of a
house and amused himself by
twitting them about going to vote
for the Coalition candidate and
not for Mr Snowden.
The chaffing was not appreciated
by some of the women who have
lost sons in the war and they
boxed the man’s ears.
Declaration day
At the close of the poll the presiding
officers closed and sealed the ballot
boxes which were removed to the
Shipley Police Station.
The counting and declaration day is
Saturday 28th December. The
counting will take place at the
Victoria Hall, Saltaire, commencing
at noon.
The task, it is anticipated, will be
completed by half past two when the
result will be announced by the
Returning Officer.
The reporting of the final hours of
campaigning reveal that Norman
Rae’s camp were still making a big
play of the fact that Tom Snowden’s
son was a conscientious objector
Mr Rae, speaking to women at the
Victoria Hall, Bingley, last Thursday
afternoon said he had seen that his
opponent had been disclaiming his
having influence upon the opinions of
his son as a conscientious objector.
When his son was in the hands of the
authorities, Mr Snowden did
everything he could to get him back
home to help in his business but was
informed that his son could only be
released if he would take up work of
national importance.
Offer declined
What was Mr Snowden’s idea on that
point? It was to offer the services of
his son as clerk without wages to the
Keighley Food Control Committee.
There were other clerks working for
wages under the committee and the
offer was declined.
He (Mr Rae) would say that men and
women whose own flesh and blood
had been serving in the war and were
still serving, were infinitely more
concerned about doing away with
conscription than those who had
shirked their duty.
Snowden’s son a key
election factor
Esteemed Shipley nurse
sets sail for Cairo
Her many friends in Shipley will be
interested to hear that Miss A M
Pearson has sailed for Cairo.
Miss Pearson, a native of Shipley,
was for many years connected with
the Parish Church and Sunday
School and about ten years ago she
trained as a nurse and was for four
years a probationer at the Kingston-
upon-Thames Infirmary.
She has held other appointments
since but eventually returned to her
old training school as night
superintendent in which she has
been for the last two years.
The matron and staff gave her a
dinner in honour of her departure for
Egypt and Dr Donald, on behalf of
the staff, presented her with a
travelling clock, suitably inscribed.
He said that not only would she be
missed at the Infirmary but her
influence among the patients and the
staff would be missed for some time
to come.
“Unless coal supplies come in very
shortly and much better than
recently,” said Cllr John Pitts on
Tuesday night when speaking in
regard to electric power and lighting
at the meeting of the Shipley Urban
Council, “customers of power and
light would have to be cut off.”
A large number of small power users
would suffer considerably if there was
any curtailment.
Canal
Cllr F Fearnley Rhodes said they
were now being kept to a fortnight’s
supply of coal and as they were
being supplied by canal and were not
allowed to obtain any coal by rail in
addition, it would be a serious matter
if there was a frost.
Cllr Rhodes also stated that the town
was exceedingly short of gas at the
present time and that every economy
in street lighting was necessary up to
and including Christmas, after which
another retort would probably relieve
the position.
Shipley faces crisis in
gas and electricity
105th birthday on
Christmas Day
Mary Brennan, the Bradford
centenarian, will celebrate her 105th
birthday next Wednesday. She enjoys
a smoke and takes considerable
interest in passing events. Though
her sight is very weak, she is, on the
whole, well and hearty.
The picture house managers at
Shipley were successful yesterday in
obtaining a music licence for shows
on Christmas Day.
The application was made to the
Bradford West Riding magistrates.
The granting of the licence means
that the pictures will be accompanied
by music which has not been allowed
at Shipley for a few years past.
Cinema managers win
music application
Body in the canal
The body of Jonas Butterfield, a
grocer, aged 45, of 146 Union Street,
Shipley, was found in the Leeds and
Liverpool Canal near Saltaire Mills
about 9.35 p.m. on Wednesday by Mr
A Watkin of Leigh-on-Moor, Lucy Hall
Drive, Shipley Glen.
He had been walking along the canal
bank between Shipley and Saltaire
and when beside Saltaire Mills he
saw a hat and coat on some railings
and he informed P.C. Pearcey.
At 10.15 p.m. the body was
recovered and artificial respiration
was tried without success. The body
was removed to the mortuary.
At Bradford West Riding Police Court
yesterday, Thomas Bryon, a labourer
of no fixed abode, was charged with
begging at Shipley on 17th
December and he was committed for
one month.
A month for begging
Died in lodging house
At an inquest which he held at the
Fire Station on Monday, Mr E W
Norris (Coroner) returned a verdict
of death from heart failure in the
case of Kate Gordon, who was
found dead in bed at the Taylor
Street Lodging House, Shipley, at
12.30 a.m. on Sunday.
The witnesses included Eliza
Robinson, Mary Ann Walton and Dr
Thornton.
The last named had made a post
mortem examination and it was also
stated in the course of the inquest
that the deceased had suffered from
bronchial pneumonia.