London School Board election, 1897

The tenth election to the School Board for London was held on Thursday, 25 November 1897.

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

The County of London 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 tenth election, the majority party were the Moderate 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.

The Moderate Party had become deeply split and consisted of three factions: 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 gymnasiums, free school meals and the direct employment of labour.
 * Diggleites: led by Joseph Diggle, the former chairman of the school board. Diggle, a controversial figure, had been deposed following the 1894 election. His group published its own manifesto opposing many of the policies of the main Moderate Party grouping.
 * Anti-Diggleites: The main section of the Moderates, led by Lord George Hamilton who had replaced Diggle as chairman.
 * Rileyites: led by Athelstan Riley, and supported by the Voluntary Schools Defence Union. This sought to maintain the primacy of Church of England practices in religious instruction.

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. However, due to the three-way split in the Moderate Party, many Conservative and Unionist Associations declined to support any of the candidates.

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 and others promoted by the Social Democratic Federation.

Results
The results saw the Progressives seize control of the board, with a gain of five seats. A Labour member, who supported the Progressive Party policies also gained a seat, giving the Progressives an effective majority of five seats over the various Moderate factions, independents and Roman Catholic members.

The election was a disaster for the Moderates: Diggle lost his seat at Marylebone to a Progressive while Riley was unseated at Chelsea by a Diggleite.

At the dissolution of the old board there had been 29 Moderate Party members divided between the three factions, 24 Progressives, 1 Independent and 1 Roman Catholic.

A summary of the gains and losses was as follows:


 * M(D)= Moderate (Diggleite)
 * M(A)= Moderate (Anti-Diggleite)
 * M(V)= Moderate (VDSU)
 * P = Progressive
 * Lab = Labour
 * Ind = Independent
 * RC = Roman Catholic

** see breakdown of Moderate Party faction votes:

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

Finsbury (6 members)
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Co-options to 1897
The school board elected in 1894 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 six co-options during the term of the eighth school board.

Greenwich (9 May 1895)
Death of Gover, 25 March 1895.

Finsbury (27 February 1896)
Death of Bartram 7 December 1895.

Tower Hamlets (12 November 1896)
Resignation of Jackson.

Marylebone (11 March 1897)
Resignation of Angus.

Westminster (7 October 1897)
Resignation of Sim.

Hackney (7 October 1897)
Resignation of Fiennes. -->