The 1921 Lewisham West by-election was a by-election held on 13 September 1921 for the British House of Commons constituency of Lewisham West.

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1921 Lewisham West by-election

← 1918 13 September 1921 1922 →

Candidate Dawson Windham Raffety Party Unionist Anti-Waste League Liberal Popular vote 9,427 8,580 6,211 Percentage 38.9 35.4 25.6

MP before election Coates Unionist Subsequent MP Dawson Unionist

Close

The by-election was triggered by the death of the serving Unionist Member of Parliament (MP), Sir Edward Coates.

This was considered a normally safe Conservative seat - Coates had been unopposed at the preceding general election;

• The Unionist candidate was Sir Philip Dawson, who represented the district on London County Council.
• He was opposed by Lieutenant-Commander W. G. Windham of the Anti-Waste League, and
• Frank Raffety, an Independent Liberal.

Excessive government expenditure was a major theme of the campaign: Dawson ran under the 'Conservative and Anti-Waste' banner, and Raffety also proclaimed himself an opponent of high spending.^[1]

No other major issues separated the candidates - all, for instance, declared themselves in favour of proportional representation^[2] - and the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, who questioned all three on behalf of women voters, declined to make a recommendation.^[3] Dawson won the support of the Middle Classes Union. The only point of controversy consisted of rumours which circulated to the effect that Dawson, who had worked for the Ministry of Munitions during the war, was a foreigner. He responded, according to The Times, by issuing a leaflet entitled 'Dirt' which insisted that he was of pure British stock, and produced details.^[4] An article in The Washington Post claimed that he admitted to being the illegitimate son of Field Marshal Sir Neville Chamberlain, and to have originally been given the surname Duvalle.^[5]

The result was a close three-way fight, with Dawson elected with a majority of only 847. British Pathe has newsreel footage of Dawson emerging victorious from the count. http://www.britishpathe.com/video/sir-philip-dawson/query/election

Dawson would go on to hold the seat until his death 17 years later.