The result of the municipal elections was a triumph for the Liberal party, with 5 out of 6 candidates winning.
New Elections
From the Hastings News of 08/11/1872
In the first local elections under the new Secret Ballot Act, the Conservatives gained six from the Liberals in the borough.
"The Municipal Election Petitions - Opening of the Inquiry at the Town Hall - During the past two months, one of the chief topics of conversation in local circles has been the subject of the three petitions presented against three ...
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Liberal Demo
From the Hastings News of 14/09/1883
There was a great Liberal demonstration in the Cricket Ground on Thursday 13 September. Thousands of people attended thoughout the afternoon, enjoying much music from various bandstands, fairground amusements and a range of food. The culmination came in the evening ...
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Cllr John Howell, the town's leading builder and president of the local Liberal Party, was acquitted of perjury at Hastings Police Court. A private investigator, Mr Kendal, from London had alleged that Howell committed perjury when Howell had hired ...
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A cross-party meeting of ratepayers created the Hastings Ratepayers Union on 17 September because of their anger at the way the Council and the town were being "fearfully mismanaged". Harry J Morgan had called the meeting, in the Provincial Hotel. ...
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The prominent local builder and politician John Howell, of Priory Mount, 7 Holmesdale Gardens, died on Friday 1 December, aged 69. He had always been an active campaigner for the Liberal Party. In the 1859 general election he had been ...
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The Local Government Board gave the go-ahead for the extension of the Hastings Borough boundaries, as requested by Hastings Council. This had been under debate for many months, with many people opposed to it. Ore and Hollington would be now ...
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The first elections of the new, extended Hastings Council took place on Monday 1 November. The Tories won 13 seats, the Liberals 10 and the Independents 7. Following the Council's successful request to make the town bigger by taking in ...
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The Council was given official approval by the Local Government Board for the purchase of the Hastings Electric Light Company. In October, the Board had held an inquiry into the takeover, and there had been opposition to the Council's proposed ...
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Major-General Sir Archibald Sherer died at The Residency, Church Road, on 29 July. He had been a Conservative councillor for the St Leonards ward.
“So! Ore has provided the borough with its first working-man councillor!” This was the Liberal Mr James Seargison who replaced the late Cllr Wickens, Tory, who had died on 10 March 1902. He was elected on 16 April, but did ...
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Wick Gallop Dies
From the Hastings Mail of 13/06/1903
Death of Councillor ‘Wick’ Gallop on 8 June, a staunch Liberal and friend of the fishermen. He was born 1849 and had been the very popular councillor for St Clements since 1898. He went to sea as skipper of one ...
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The Liberal party was condemned by the Mail for lacking leadership and cohesion, following the loss of the St Clements seat in the Council bye-election after the death of Cllr Gallop. “The colourless complexion of Liberalism in the Town Council ...
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Following the municipal elections, the Tories had 21 seats and the Progressives 19 (without the aldermen, it was 13 Tory councillors, 17 Progressive councillors). Mayor Tree was re-elected as mayor on 9 November. He told the mayor’s banquet about his ...
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Arthur Blackman
From the Hastings Mail of 16/07/1904
Arthur Blackman was profiled as the coal merchant, living at 7 Lower Park Road, “the chief company with which he is connected is the H&SL Steamboat Co”. He stood as an Independent candidate in the St Mary Magdalen ward bye-election ...
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Dodgy Voters
From the Hastings Mail of 17/09/1904
There were meetings in the Town Hall this week to revise the list of voters for the 1 November municipal elections. The Liberals objected to bankrupt Arthur Bray because (1) his wife was the tenant of 9 Linton Crescent, not ...
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The Tories lost control of Hastings Council to the Liberals and Independents at the elections on November 1. The result exceeded the greatest expectations of the Liberals, winning five of the six wards in the elections. The only set-back was ...
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The municipal elections resulted in 20 Liberals (19 councillors plus one alderman), 17 Tories (10 + 7) and two Independents (Ald Tree and Ald Dighton). The one vacant seat (St Clements following death of Cllr Roffe) was won on 21 ...
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The Hastings Democratic League meeting took place on Wednesday 25 April at the Public Hall in Robertson Street. The Mail said it was a telling speech by John Ward MP (the Navvy MP). This mass meeting of the Hastings and ...
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A meeting took place on 17 May of the delegates appointed by the Trades and Labour Council and the Democratic League at the Clarence Hotel, Middle Street, to consider putting Labour candidates forward at the November municipal elections. It was ...
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The Democratic Notes in the Mail asked why should Empire Day be celebrated by a drumhead service in Alexandra Park. There was concern about the promoters’ propaganda on behalf of the National Service League (Alexandra Park bye-laws did not permit ...
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Probably the first-ever Labour candidate in the Hastings elections field was to be Mr WW Jones, a plumber by trade.
The annual meeting of the Trades and Labour Council took place at the Clarence Hotel, Middle Street, on Thursday 5 July. Reference was made to the fact that five of the councillors returned last November were supported by the Trades ...
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The National Democratic League meetings held on Sunday 8th at 11 am on the West Hill near the Lift, and at 6.45 at the Fishmarket were addressed by Councillor JE Dobson, of Camberwell, the general secretary of the National Democratic ...
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The Democratic Notes in the Mail said: Confusion was cleared about the standing of Mr Jones in the Hollington and Silverhill ward. He is a candidate for the Local Labour Representation Committee, jointly formed by the Democratic League and the ...
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The Mail said: The Labour campaign - the first question taken up by Mr WW Jones and his fellow men if they are elected in November will be the housing of the working classes. They are bent on bettering the ...
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Mr GH Roberts, Labour MP for Norwich, gave an address on 27 August in support of Mr Jones in Hollington ward. It was presided over by Mr G Page, chairman of the Trades and Labour Council, supported by J Thompson ...
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The Trades and Labour Council studied again the question of leaving the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) and resolved to take part itself in the November elections. It was also agreed to take a ballot of the trade unions regarding the ...
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SDF Starts Meeting
From the Hastings Mail of 20/10/1906
The Mail published extracts from a letter to the editor from Charles Harrison, 10 Norman Road, St Leonards, dated 16 October. The letter mentioned the "first meeting, held on Sunday night [14th] of the local branch of the Social Democratic ...
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Municipal elections took place in three wards. In Silverhill and Hollington, the Labour candidate WW Jones withdrew, after a summer of much activity, so Liberal councillor James Pelham held the seat, by 468 to 335 for the Independent Conservative Mr ...
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The Mail said the Hastings Labour Representation Committee was at an end after a meeting on 8 November at the Clarence Hotel, Middle Street, called by Mr Willard. The Trades and Labour Council delegates notified their withdrawal. Representatives of the ...
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Local elections were to take place on Monday 26th in the four wards whose councillors had been elected as aldermen by the other councillors, following the elections at the beginning of November. The wards were Silverhill & Hollington, All Saints, ...
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In the run-up to the forthcoming 26 November election, there had been a campaign throughout the week to advance the cause of socialism, covering various parts of the town. The speaker had been Mr T Kennedy, who was using the ...
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Election Results
From the Hastings Mail of 01/12/1906
The by-elections on 26 November in the four wards all resulted in victory for the Tories. Mr Jones had been strenuously supported by the Trades Council in Hollington, but his vote may have been split by the lack of support ...
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In the first-ever Hastings Council elections where Labour candidates took part, on Thursday 1 November, the two Labour men failed to win. In Upper St Marys, Mr W Campling had 99 votes, the Tory 342 and sitting Liberal councillor J ...
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The Socialists fielded their first-ever candidate in a Hastings municipal or parliamentary election. This was the St Clements and Halton ward by-election on Thursday 4 March, following the death of the Conservative councillor, Richard Idenden. The Conservative candidate, Mr AG ...
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