[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.

It was one of the last by-election contests to take place before the outbreak of the Great War, and provided a good indicator of how the main parties would have performed at an anticipated general election for 1914 or 1915.

This was expected to be of benefit to them as Tuesdays tended to be days when large numbers of fisherman, who would have been likely to vote for the Liberal candidate, were going to be away at sea.

Lloyd George reminding him of Unionist Party attempts to create civil war in Ireland and mutiny in the British Army.

Carson, who had been widely criticised for his utterances on Ulster went to the extent of posting a letter to Grimsby electors, defending his militant position on Ireland.

At a Unionist campaign meeting on 4 May Lord Robert Cecil attacked the National Insurance Act, arguing that employers should not be made to contribute.

The following day, a deputation of local insurance agents met with Tickler to point out that without employer compulsion, the scheme would not work.

The result would have given a great deal of confidence to Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith about his party's prospects of winning the next general election.