Friday 20 December 1918
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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.
“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.”
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.
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