The British general election of July 1945, coming at the end of the Second World War, was one of the major political turning-points of the last century. It saw the decisive rejection of the wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and the unforeseen huge victory of the Labour Party, with its first ever overall majority. What happened in Somerset at that historic election?
The background to the election was highly unusual. A decade had passed since the last general election, with a huge Conservative-dominated National Government majority following landslides in 1931 and 1935. A formal ‘electoral truce’ between the main parties had operated for the duration of the war, which meant that any by-elections were forced by Independents or new parties created to fill the political void.
After much political discussion, the wartime coalition ended in late May 1945, with the general election set for 5 July. In the meantime, Churchill ran a ‘caretaker’ Conservative government.
At the start of the war in 1939, there were 7 seats in Somerset, six of which – Bath, Frome, Taunton, Wells, Weston-super-Mare and Yeovil – were held by the Tories, all but one – Frome – with large majorities. The other seat, Bridgwater, had been captured in a 1938 by election by an Independent. There was only one wartime vacancy in Somerset, at Wells, where a Conservative was returned unopposed in late 1939 following the death of the sitting Tory.
The main parties had already selected most of their candidates by 1939, in the expectation of an imminent election, but the 6 years of war inevitably caused some changes by mid-1945. For example, the sitting Tory at Frome, Mavis Tate, had announced before the war that she would not stand again, and another candidate was chosen, though she later agreed in 1944 to run again .
One other unusual aspect of the 1945 election was that, though polling day was Thursday 5 July, results were not declared until three weeks later, on 26 July, to allow for the gathering of the votes of the thousands of service personnel on active duty around the world.
Most of the local newspapers (mainly weeklies) both expected and supported a victory for Churchill and the Conservatives. However, by modern standards they generally provided substantial, broad reporting of the national and local campaigns and issues, and published reasonably objective profiles of the local candidates and afforded them space to write extensive articles themselves; regular round-ups of campaign meetings and speeches through the local constituencies, and many election advertisements.
Tory ads often gave prominence to their leader, Churchill, hoping that voters would reward him for his wartime leadership (“Wickham for Winston” was the Taunton candidate’s slogan), but sometimes the other parties tried to turn this around. A Labour ad in Wells asked the voters: “Are you aware that the present Tory candidate voted against Winston Churchill becoming Premier in 1940?”
As polling day loomed, the papers urged a large turnout. The Wells Journal on 29 June thundered: “In this General Election, no elector should hold back. Every possible vote must be recorded.” The Somerset County Herald the following day also warned of the effect on world opinion “if it is shown that the path of unity and co-operation has been deserted for purely sectional interests and theories…”
The results saw Labour capture two Tory seats – Frome and Taunton – with the Conservative majorities slashed in Bath, Wells, Weston-super-Mare and especially in Yeovil, where the Conservative squeaked in with a majority of 174, down from over 5,000. At Bridgwater, the Independent maintained his small majority over the Tories. The Liberals fared poorly, losing their four 1935 second-place finishes at Bath, Wells, Weston-super-Mare and Yeovil, to Labour.
The Wells Journal editorial on 3 August neatly summed up the outcome: “Few people thought, before the results were declared, that the Labour Party’s victory throughout the country in the General Election would be so overwhelming as it has been. Many a prophet was confounded when the will of the people became manifest.”
In its own way, Somerset, in its seven constituencies, had reflected the huge national political upheaval of the July 1945 general election.
© JB Seatrobe (Barry K Winetrobe & Janet Seaton) 2018. A version of this article was published originally in the July 2018 issue of the Somerset Leveller, #39