1887 Cardiff Town Council election

The 1887 Cardiff Town Council election was held on Tuesday 1 November 1887 to elect councillors to Cardiff Town Council in Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales.

These were to be the penultimate all-Cardiff elections before the creation of the county borough in 1889. The previous elections were in November 1886 and the final town council elections were to take place on 1 November 1888.

The election saw the Liberals gain an extra four seats in Cardiff.

Background

Cardiff Town Council had been created in 1836. Elections were held annually, though not all council seats were included in each contest, because the six councillors in each ward stood down for election in three-yearly rotation.

The council consisted of 30 councillors who were elected by the town's voters and ten aldermen who were elected by the councillors. Ten seats were up for election in November 1888.

Overview of the result

Contests took place in four of the five Cardiff electoral wards in November 1887. In the East ward the two councillors were elected unopposed.

The weather was exceptionally poor on polling day, but the South Wales Echo reported a strong turnout of the town's Irish voters. There was also noticeably strong campaigning by the Liberal Party, with many carriages made available to transport 'lady voters' to the polling booths.

Council composition

The Liberal Party saw an increase of four seats, which made the composition of the council immediately following these elections as Conservatives 20, Liberals 19. There was one vacant alderman seat following the death of Alderman Jones. Whoever filled the post could affect the balance of the council.

Ward results

Canton

Canton ward 1887

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	W. E. Vaughan *	1,381
	Liberal	J. R. James	1,366
	Conservative	J. W. A. Stevens *	935
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

East

East ward 1887

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Morgan Morgan *	Unopposed
	Liberal	P. Price *	Unopposed
	Conservative hold
	Liberal hold

Roath

Roath ward 1887

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	E. F. Kennard	1,409
	Conservative	W. J. Trounce *	1,271
	Liberal	John Sully Stowe	1,222
	Conservative	Solomon Andrews*	721
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing
	Conservative hold		Swing

In such a large ward there was only one polling station, in the schoolroom in Metal Street, but interest was much stronger than normal.

South

South ward 1887

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	F. J. Beavan	574
	Liberal	W. B. Gibbs	547
	Conservative	W. C. Hurley *	500
	Conservative	V. Trayes *	463
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

South had been regarded as a Conservative stronghold. However, with a 79% turnout and with Irish voters supporting the Liberals almost exclusively, the retiring Conservative councillors lost their seats. New councillor Beavan had stood unsuccessfully in November 1886 (previously representing the Canton ward).

West

West ward 1887

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	J. G. Proger *	645
	Conservative	R. Price	601
	Liberal	J. H. Jones *	575
	Conservative	S. Herne	455
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

There was considerable interest in the West ward election (with very large crowds at the results) because there had been no contest in the ward for many years. Mr Proger had represented the ward for nine years without having to fight a contest.

* = 'retiring' ward councillor for re-election