[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.

He served on the Whitechapel Board of Guardians and Central Unemployment Body, and was a Member of the Home Office Departmental Committee on Lead Poisoning.

The executive of the North of England Temperance League protested to the Liberal Party leader Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman on account of Buxton's supposed brewery interests.

Beckett, the Conservative candidate, was happy to support the Unionist Government's Education Act 1902, despite the fact that it increased rates in parts of the constituency to help pay for Protestant schools.

[12] Beckett's pro-Protestant positions unsurprisingly won him the endorsement of the Whitby Protestant Electoral Council, who had sent questions to both candidates about issues of their concern.