London School Board election, 1894

The ninth election to the School Board for London was held on Thursday, 22 November 1894.

The electorate included all ratepayers, including women, who were entitled to vote in vestry elections, and women could also be members.

The "Metropolis" or area of the Metropolitan Board of Works was divided into eleven divisions for the election of school board members: each division returned between four and seven members depending on population. The total size of the board was 55 members.

Each voter had a number of votes equal to the number of seats in the division. The voter was free to allocate the votes between the candidates in any way they wished. Where an elector gave all of his votes to a single candidate this was known as "plumping", and was seen as a way of ensuring representation of minority religious denominations. Voting was by secret ballot, with the exception of the City of London, where open voting was used.

Politics
By the time of the ninth election, the majority party were the Moderate Party, also known as the Church Party: in favour of providing elementary education, "economy" or low rates, bible teaching in schools and the toleration of voluntary schools provided by various Christian denominations.

In opposition to them were the Progressive Party, who had held control of the board from 1870-1885. The party's candidates were supporters of free, compulsory and non-sectarian education, manual and physical training, the provision of secondary schools, swimming pools and gynasiums, free school meals and the direct employment of labour.

In general the candidates supporting the board's policy received the support of the Conservative Party organisation, while the Progressives were aligned with the Liberal Party and Labour organisations.

The "Moderate" and "Progressive" party labels were also adopted by the two parties on the London County Council, following the first election to the body in January 1889.

There were also some independent candidates.

Results
At the dissolution of the old board there had been 34 Moderate Party members, 19 Progressives, 1 Independent and 1 Roman Catholic: some newspapers of the time gave the strength as 35 Moderate and 20 Progressive. Following the election the Moderate majority was reduced to 3, with the Progressives making a number of gains.

There were 90 candidates for the 55 seats and a summary of the gains and losses was as follows:

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Successful candidates are shown in bold type. Members of the outgoing board have an asterisk next to their name.

Co-options to 1894
The school board elected in 1891 had a three-year term of office. Under the terms of Section 44 of the Elementary Education Act 1876 casual vacancies occurring in the membership of school boards due to death or resignation were filled by co-option. Where a vacancy occurred the sitting members nominated a candidate or candidates. Where there was only one nomination, they were automatically co-opted. Where there was more than one candidate, the vacancy was filled by a vote of the entire board.

There were three co-options during the term of the eighth school board.

Lambeth East (13 July 1893)
Resignation of Sandhurst.

Westminster (13 July 1893)
Resignation of Spink.

City of London (25 October 1894)
Resignation of Temple.