1910 Rotherham by-election

Holland, who held his seat in Rotherham with a majority of 7,558 [1] agreed to resign to make way for J A Pease to return to Parliament.

Asquith had taken Pease’s defeat quite hard and had sent him a telegram on 12 January 1910 saying: ‘This is the worst incident of the election and grieves me more than I can say...’[3] In return for his resignation Holland was rewarded with a peerage in the King’s birthday honours list in June 1910.

However the Conservatives were apparently faced with the difficulty of raising the necessary funds to fight a by-election so soon after the general election but they indicated they would put up a candidate if the Labour Party made it a three-cornered contest.

Macpherson was an official of the British Steel Smelters, Mill, Iron, Tinplate and Kindred Trades Association[7] and the union was said to be strong in the Rotherham constituency and willing to pay for his deposit and other expenses.

[8] The strongest local trade union however was the Yorkshire Miners' Association and the officials of the Federation were traditionally supporters of the Liberals.