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difference being that Mabon supported the payment of MPs while Davis did not. The campaign was therefore waged on other grounds. Davis's supporters claimed that Mabon lacked legitimacy, having been rejected by the
Liberal Association. Mabon's adherents, in turn, claimed that the miners' and held mass meetings throughout the two valleys to promote his candidature long before the middle-class-dominated Association was established. Davis's youth and inexperience was a major issue, although he had qualified as a barrister. There were also claims of intimidation on both sides. Mabon's supporters were said to be victimised at the workplace while several of Davis's meetings were disrupted by violence.
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Liberal
Association, however, formed in early 1885,was dominated by middle-class business and professional men, and included a disproportionate number of colliery officials. Fred L. Davis's father, Lewis Davis of Ferndale, was selected as president of the association. Shortly afterwards, Lewis Davis was invited by the Association to be its parliamentary candidate and defeated Mabon in a ballot by 143 votes to 51. In spite of his selection, however, he declined and proposed that his son be the candidate. In a further ballot, F.L. Davis again defeated Mabon by 125 votes to 56.
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Morgan of
Pontypridd, often described as the miners' lawyer. One nonconformist minister, supported Mabon, namely John Salisbury Edwards of Treorchy. In contest, Davis had the support of the vast majority of the middle-classes in the Rhondda, and natural deference together with the paternalistic influence of the Davis family, in the Rhondda Fach in particular, was a factor.
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The local trade union, the
Rhondda Steam Coal Miners' Association, laid claim to the candidacy as early as 1883, on the basis that the franchise had been extended to many working men within the county constituencies and that in Mabon, their agent for six years they had the ideal candidate. The local
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Class therefore became a major issue in the campaign. The vast majority of Mabon' supporters were trade union activists and working men, along with a relatively small number of tradesmen and professionals, some of whom had links of one form or another to the miners' union. These included Walter H.
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The constituency had been formed following the Third Reform Act of 1884, as a result of the rapid growth of population in the two valleys over the previous twenty years. During the 1880s the demand for working men representatives in the ranks of the
Parliamentary Liberal Party were increasingly
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The refusal of the trade union movement to accept this decision and to support an independent campaign by Mabon is regarded as an important watershed in the political history of South Wales. In terms of policy there was little apparent difference between the candidates, with the only notable
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After the result, the Davis family accepted Mabon's victory and he was not challenged thereafter for the parliamentary seat. Following the election, Mabon's supporters established the
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vociferous and there was a precedent for a
Liberal-Labour (Lib-Lab) candidate in South Wales as Thomas Halliday had contested Merthyr Tydfil in 1874.
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19:(30 January 1863 − 17 May 1920) was a Liberal politician and a member of a notable family of coal owners in South Wales. His grandfather,
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and was immediately selected as one of the first aldermen. However, he served for only one six-year term and did not seek re-election.
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which shortly afterwards absorbed the rival
Liberal Association which had supported Davis.
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39:. Having trained as a barrister, Davis joined the family business.
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developed the business and were pioneers of the coal trade in the
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On polling day, Mabon scored a clear and decisive victory.
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constituency but he was opposed by the trade union leader,
163:Democratic Rhondda: politics and Society 1885-1951
27:valley while his father, Lewis Davis and uncle,
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195:British businesspeople in the coal industry
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23:was a pioneer of the coal trade in the
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165:. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
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190:Members of Glamorgan County Council
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47:In 1885, Davis was chosen as the
180:19th-century British politicians
88:In 1889, Davis was elected to
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132:"Glamorgan County Council"
29:David Davis, Maesyffynnon
161:Williams, Chris (1996).
90:Glamorgan County Council
57:William Abraham (Mabon)
21:David Davis, Blaengwawr
51:candidate for the new
17:Frederick Lewis Davis
136:Pontypridd Chronicle
118:Democratic Rhondda
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142:13 February
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37:Ferndale
25:Aberdare
53:Rhondda
49:Liberal
33:Rhondda
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