J. Batty Langley Liberal Joseph Pointer Labour A 1909 by-election was held for the British House of Commons constituency of Sheffield Attercliffe on 4 May 1909.

[2] Arnold Muir Wilson, a local Conservative Party councillor and honorary consul for Serbia had contested the seat in 1906, taking 46.8% of the vote.

Only one candidate then put themselves forward for nomination: Richard Cornthwaite Lambert, a London-based barrister who had narrowly failed to win Sheffield Ecclesall at the 1906 election.

[8] The Labour Party asked President of the Yorkshire Miners' Association Herbert Smith to stand, but he declined.

[9] The two engaged in a widely discussed dispute, Muir Wilson writing to King-Farlow "I think you have found out by now how you have been fooled and betrayed, so you have better throw the sponge up and return to London".

[10] The two held rival meetings a few feet apart in Heeley, and Muir Wilson attacked local Conservative MP Samuel Roberts for appearing on King-Farlow's platform.

[9] His campaign was criticised for being poorly organised, and suffered from a lack of resources, being largely based on open air speeches.

[12] At the end of April, Captain Hunnable, an eccentric poet from Ilford,[13] arrived in the constituency, promising to raise wages to £2 a week and form a government within five years.

[17] On 22 May, Winston Churchill spoke in favour of the introduction of proportional representation, claiming that "the present system has clearly broken down.

[12] The following week, Muir Wilson called a public meeting, at which he complained that he had spent £1,100 on contesting the 1906 and 1909 elections, and "if that is not enough to buy the seat of Attercliffe, I don't know what is".

King-Farlow contested the seat again in January 1910, then stood in Hackney South in December, but was never elected, and instead became a judge in British East Africa.