[1] The constituency returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.

Rigg resigned from the Liberal party on 25 November 1904 because he found himself in agreement with the Conservative government on so many key issues.

[3] However, the local Conservative Association had already selected 46-year-old Major George Noble as their candidate to re-gain the seat at the next general election.

He claimed that the “ruffianism” of Liberals angry at his defection of the party had made him ill, and he went to an unnamed continental health resort to recover.

[5] On 14 December 1904, the local Liberal Association selected 42-year-old Leif Jones as their new candidate to hold the seat.

[9] The main national issue at the time was the decision of the Unionist Government to abandon free trade to advocate the introduction of tariff reform.

Noble launched his campaign by not fully endorsing Chamberlain's tariff reform programme, stating he was opposed to any fiscal scheme that would raise the price of food.

“There can be no shadow of doubt,” declared Josceline Bagot, Conservative MP for neighbouring Kendal, “that Major Noble’s defeat was caused by the efforts of wives who feared the introduction of protection.” A month after the by-election, Noble wrote to Appleby Conservatives that “his health had failed” and his doctors had sent him on vacation to Gibraltar and Tangier.