Welsh Journals

THE FIRST WELSH "LABOUR" M.P. THE RHONDDA ELECTION OF 1885 by L. J. WILLIAMS JUST after 2 p.m. on Thursday, 3 December 1885, the result of the first parliamentary contest for the newly-created Rhondda Division of Glamorgan was announced. William Abraham, miners' agent, had polled 3,859 votes Frederick Lewis Davis, Coalowner, 2,992. William Abraham ("Mabon") was elected by a majority of 867 on an 83 per cent poll. This election is of some interest and importance on several counts. It was always a lively, frequently a boisterous, and occasionally a riotous contest. It was a decisive election in that after this heated initial struggle, Mabon's retention of the seat was almost undisputed for the next thirty-five years.1 It was also the first election under the 1884 Reform Act which had given the vote to a large number of miners. Above all, however, it marked the first return of a working-class candidate for Wales, and this in circumstances which posed the issue of labour repre- sentation in peculiarly well-defined terms. Its outcome was thus a significant pointer to the future. The first shots in the campaign were already being fired well before the Rhondda had become a separate constituency. One of the few definite commitments of the Gladstone administration of 1880 was to extend to householders in the counties the fran- chise which had been granted to the householders in the boroughs in 1867. This involved, inter alia, the granting of the vote to a large number of the miners and a substantial redistribution of 1 Conservative candidates came forward, but were easily defeated, in 1900 and 1910. In 1918 the constituency was divided and Mabon was returned for Rhondda West.