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

He had particularly large interests in drydocks, including the world's first ever floating repair docks, the Tyne Pontoons at Wallsend, which he sold to Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd in 1903.

The Social Democratic Federation, with the support of some local Independent Labour Party branches, then nominated their own candidate, 53-year-old Bradford man, Edward Hartley.

However, the Liberals banned the carrying of the Host in the Eucharistic Congress Procession in London earlier in the month, which was expected to cost them votes in Newcastle.

[4] The SDF candidate antagonised the ILP and the local suffragists by refusing to pledge himself to oppose any future franchise reform restricted to manhood suffrage.