[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.

William Gully resigned due to ill-health[2] and was raised to the peerage with the title of Viscount Selby, of the City of Carlisle.

He ran the family's cotton-manufacturing firm in the town, Ferguson Brothers,[3] and served as Mayor of Carlisle in 1904, before becoming a member of Cumberland County Council.

The small Carlisle branch of the Social Democratic Federation chose to play no part in the election and gave no advise to electors.

[8] The North of England Temperance League announced that as no candidate supported banning the sale of alcohol, they could not recommend either to the Carlisle electors.