Ryland Adkins

In 1911 upon his appointment as Recorder of Nottingham, Adkins was obliged by the electoral law of the day to resign his seat and re-contest it at a by-election held on 2 August 1911.

Knowing that the government was about to issue a lucrative contract to the British Marconi company, they had bought shares in an American subsidiary.

Adkins was chosen by the government Whips to move an amendment to a motion of censure on the issue which accepted the ministers’ expressions of regret and acquitted them of acting in bad faith and of charges of corruption.

As a result of receiving the ‘coupon’ Adkins did not face a Conservative opponent at the general election and held his seat comfortably with a majority of 8,330 over Labour.

Although Lloyd George had been ousted as prime minister as a result of the decision of Conservative MPs at the Carlton Club meeting of 19 October 1922 to withdraw from the coalition, Adkins did not face Unionist opposition in 1922.

Adkins was also opposed again by Farr for Labour and in a close three-cornered fight he just failed to hold his seat by the margin of 529 votes (or 1.9% of the poll).

But by this time the electorate was increasingly coming to see British politics through its traditional two-party lens, with the realistic choice for government being between Conservative or Labour parties.

[15] In 1911 he was appointed a member of the Home Office Committee of Inquiry into the constitutional crisis in the Isle of Man,[16] which arose out of dispute between the Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man, the Island's Legislative Council and the British Home Office on the one side and the members of the House of Keys on the other, on the question of where responsibility for the passing of money bills should sit, with the Keys asserting primacy as the elected representatives of the Manx people.

[17] Adkins also sat as a member of the Speaker's Conference on Electoral Reform of 1917–1918, which looked amongst other things at the proposals for votes for women which came into effect for the 1918 general election.

[18] The conference also proposed the ending of plural voting and the introduction of proportional representation in large urban areas [19] but these were among the recommendations not introduced.

[22] Adkins seemed to be especially interested in this issue of devolution and led or was a member of different deputations to the prime minister to promote home rule all round.

[23] In 1924, he was appointed chairman of a committee established to investigate offences against children and also served as a member of the Royal Commission on Local Government Adkins died at his home at Springfield, Northampton of gastric influenza on 30 January 1925, at the age of 62.