| Election Name: | 1913 London County Council election |
| Country: | England |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Party Colour: | yes |
| Previous Election: | 1910 London County Council election |
| Previous Year: | 1910 |
| Next Election: | 1919 London County Council election |
| Next Year: | 1919 |
| Seats For Election: | 118 Council Seats 60 seats needed for a majority |
| Election Date: | 5 March 1913 |
| 1Blank: | Councillors |
| 2Blank: | Aldermen |
| 3Blank: | Seats +/– |
| Leader1: | Cyril Jackson |
| Leaders Seat1: | Limehouse |
| Party1: | Municipal Reform Party |
| Last Election1: | 60 seats |
| Seats1: | 67 |
| Seat Change1: | 7 |
| Popular Vote1: | 229,583 |
| Percentage1: | 53.5% |
| Leader2: | Sir John Benn |
| Leaders Seat2: | Kennington |
| Party2: | Progressive Party (London) |
| Last Election2: | 55 seats |
| Seats2: | 50 |
| Seat Change2: | 6 |
| Popular Vote2: | 173,186 |
| Percentage2: | 40.3% |
| Leader3: | None |
| Leaders Seat3: | — |
| Party3: | Labour Party (UK) |
| Last Election3: | 3 seats |
| Seats3: | 1 |
| Seat Change3: | 2 |
| Popular Vote3: | 24,307 |
| Percentage3: | 5.7% |
| Map Size: | 300px |
An election to the County Council of London took place on 5 March 1913. It was the ninth triennial election of the whole Council.The size of the council was 118 councillors and 19 aldermen. The councillors were elected for electoral divisions corresponding to the parliamentary constituencies that had been created by the Representation of the People Act 1884. There were 57 dual member constituencies and one four member constituency. The council was elected by First Past the Post with each elector having two votes in the dual member seats. Unlike for parliamentary elections, women qualified as electors for these elections on exactly the same basis as men. Women were also permitted to stand as candidates for election.
The election was to be the last held before the outbreak of the First World War: in 1915 legislation was enacted to postpone all local elections until the end of the conflict (see below). The term of office of the councillors was extended to 1919 when triennial elections resumed.
The Prime Minister of the day was the Liberal H. H. Asquith who led a minority Liberal Government that relied upon the Irish Parliamentary Party for a majority. The recently merged Unionist Party was the official opposition. The Labour Party was the fourth party and generally voted with the Liberals in parliament.
The Municipal Reform party had been in power since winning a majority back in 1907. It was now seeking its third consecutive mandate.
All constituencies were contested. The governing Municipal Reform Party ran a full slate of 118 candidates. The opposition Progressive Party ran 110 candidates. They ran candidates everywhere except the City of London where they ran three candidates, Hampstead, St George's Hanover Square and Strand where only one candidate stood, three constituencies where one candidate ran in tandem with Labour and Woolwich where they did not oppose a Labour pair. Four Independents also ran.
By 1913, all Labour Party members had withdrawn from the Progressive Party and at these elections stood under their own party label. The party fielded ten candidates, three of these candidates ran in tandem with Progressive candidates, a further two candidates were not opposed by Progressives. The other five all stood in opposition to Progressive candidates. The Labour Party in London had no elected or otherwise recognised Leader.
The British Socialist Party had been formed in 1911 from the merger of a few socialist groups with the Social Democratic Federation. As with the SDF, the BSP was opposed to socialists having electoral pacts with Liberals and they were critical of Labour Party branches for working with the Progressives in London. The BSP put forward dual candidates in three constituencies, all constituencies where both the Progressives and Municipal Reform parties were running dual candidates. Nowhere did they run against a Labour candidate.
The Municipal Reform Party was returned with its third successive majority, slightly larger than the old one. However, its leader, Cyril Jackson was unseated by the Progressives at Limehouse. When the new council met, the ruling Municipal Reform majority was forced to use one of their Aldermanic nominations to put Jackson back on the council. Although the Progressives lost ground, they comfortably retained their position as main challengers to the Municipal Reformers in those seats where socialists stood.All socialist candidates (BSP and Labour) who stood against Progressive candidates finished bottom of the poll. Of the three Labour candidates running in tandem with a Progressive, all polled less than the Progressive and two of the three failed to join their Progressive running mate in victory. In Woolwich, where the Labour candidates were given a free run against the Municipal Reform pair, they also lost.
In addition to the 124 councillors the council consisted of 20 county aldermen. Aldermen were elected by the council, and served a six-year term. Half of the aldermanic bench were elected every three years following the triennial council election. After the elections, there were ten aldermanic vacancies and the following alderman were appointed by the newly elected council on 13 March 1913;[1] [2]
To serve until 1919:
To serve until 1916:
There were eight by-elections to fill casual vacancies during the term of the ninth London County Council.
Under the Elections and Registration Act 1915, a wartime piece of legislation that cancelled local elections until the end of the conflict (and thus the county council election due to be held in March 1916), the members of the county council were given the power to appoint or co-opt councillors to fill vacant seats. The legislation remained in force for the rest of the eleventh county council's existence.
| Date of appointment | Division | Outgoing member | New member appointed | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 December 1915 | Battersea & Clapham, Clapham | Robert Montefiore Sebag-Montefiore (died 19 November 1915) | William Henry Peruzzi Gibson | Municipal Reform | |
| 21 December 1915 | Tower Hamlets, Stepney | Arthur Claud Chichester (resigned 7 December 1915 on entering active service with the army)[6] | David Hazel[7] | Municipal Reform | |
| 4 April 1916 | Lewisham | William Henry Le May (resigned 21 March 1916)[8] | Robert Jackson[9] | Municipal Reform | |
| 30 May 1916 | Finsbury Central | Lawrence William Simpson Rostron (died 14 May 1916) | James Little[10] | Municipal Reform | |
| Marylebone West | Lord Greville (resigned 16 May 1916)[11] | Ernest Sanger | Municipal Reform | ||
| 31 October 1916 | Fulham | Edward George Easton (died 2 August 1916) | Henry George Norris[12] | Municipal Reform | |
| Hackney South | George K Naylor (resigned 4 September 1916) | Charles Winkley | Municipal Reform | ||
| 3 April 1917 | Tower Hamlets, Bow and Bromley | George Malcolm Hilbery (resigned 9 March 1917) | Walter Charles Bersey[13] | Municipal Reform | |
| 1 May 1917 | Tower Hamlets, Mile End | George A Dutfield (resigned 18 July 1916)[14] | George Bettesworth Piggott[15] | Municipal Reform | |
| 16 October 1917 | City of London | Gilbert Johnstone (resigned 31 July 1917) | John Robarts[16] | Municipal Reform | |
| 18 December 1917 | Islington East | Edward Smallwood (resigned 10 December 1917) | A C Denham | Progressive | |
| 8 March 1918 | Strand | Clifford Probyn (died 10 February 1918) | John Maria Gatti[17] | Municipal Reform | |
| 23 April 1918 | City of London | James William Domoney (died 23 March 1918)[18] | George Rowland Blades[19] | Municipal Reform | |
| 15 October 1918 | Camberwell, Dulwich | Cuthbert Wilkinson (died 20 June 1918) | Henry Newton Knights | Municipal Reform | |
| Lewisham | Frederick Houston Carter (died 11 March 1918)[20] | Richard Owen Roberts | Municipal Reform | ||
| Southwark West | Albert Wilson (died 16 July 1918) | Duchess of Marlborough | Progressive | ||
There were four casual vacancies among the aldermen in the term of the eleventh London County Council, which were filled as follows:[21]