1925 – 6th April – KUDC Triennial Election

Elected (12 seats)

Candidate	Party	Votes
Ernest Hadow	Unattached	1021
*Edward Hodges	Conservative	1019
*William Parkinson	Conservative	981
*Charles Randall	Conservative	864
*Charles Barwell	Conservative	852
*William Dencer	Conservative	775
*William Marriott	Conservative	747
*Robert Grindrod	Conservative	714
*Edwin Gee	Conservative	710
*John Clarke	Independent	699
Kevitt Rotherham	Independent	573
*Charles Carter	Conservative	557

Not Elected

Alfred Keeling	Conservative	546
*Andrew Hacking	Independent	508
B. J. Tuck	Labour	422
Eustace Carey-Hill	Conservative	401
Warrington Bennett	Unattached	399
A. Fayermen	Unattached	369
William Hiorns	Unattached	361
H. H. A. Eykyn	Unattached	355
Percy Fox	Independent	333
George Hughes	Unattached	314
Harold Moss	Conservative	313
W. Webster	Independent	279
W. Shreeve	Unattached	197
G. Mason	Unattached	188
T. Sykes	Unattached	169

*denotes retiring councillor

‘The Twelve’ Return Nine – In Heavy Poll

A group of present councillors (plus some new candidates) fought the election as ‘The Twelve’, somewhat similar to the 1922 election when they called themselves the ‘Business Group’. Who, were infact, supported by the Conservative Party. Their election cry being, ‘economy combined with efficency’.

Polling took place as usual at St. Nicholas School in School Lane from 8am to 8pm, where four polling stations were used inside the school. 27 candidates took part in the election.

There was a slow start to the polling with only about a hundred people voting in the first hour. But there was a steady stream of arrivals throughout the day despite the drizzling rain . The weather changed in the afternoon to a bright spring day, which may have encouraged more people to vote. Well, something aroused the electorate as 1700 votes were recorded, a local record.

The count took place at the council house in Upper Rosemary Hill at 9am on the following day (Tuesday 7th). Returning officer, Sholto Douglas, declared the results at the door of the council house at 1.30pm. No demonstrations of any kind took place. There was a large number of spoilt ballot papers, mainly due to people voting for more than maximum twelve candidates.

There was a strong vote in favour of the old councillors, which resulted in only two new members being elected, Hadow and Rotherham. They replaced, Hacking (not re-elected) and Jackson, who did not seek re-election due to retirement after 30 years on the council.

Dencer who was first elected at the 1919 election for the ‘Local Trades & Labour Council’ and again in 1922 as a Labour candidate, had now switched to the Conservatives.

The ‘Unattached’ group fielded nine candidates, but only one was elected, Ernest Hadow, who was standing for the first time in a Kenilworth election. He was the former KUDC clerk.

KUDC Councillors

9 Conservatives (Hodges, Parkinson, Randall, Barwell, Dencer, Marriott, Grindrod, Gee, Carter)

2 Independents (Clarke, Rotherham)

1 Unattached (Hadow)

Chairman

photo courtesy of Warwickshire County Records Office. (ref. PH (N) 600/147/3)