14 December 1918: The ‘Khaki Election’ on this day. 

There was a General Election held throughout Britain and Ireland to elect a new Parliament to sit in Westminster London. It was the first held since 1910 as the advent of the First World War in 1914 meant none was held while the War lasted. It was the first general election to include on a single day all eligible voters of Great Britain & Ireland, although the result was not released until 28 December so that the ballots cast by soldiers serving overseas could be included in the tallies - hence the term ‘Khaki Election’.

It was also the first general election to be held after enactment of the Representation of the People Act 1918. It was thus the first election in which many women over the age of 30, and all men over the age of 21 could vote. Previously, all women and many men of the lower social classes had been excluded from voting at all. It was thus the most ‘popular’ General Election ever held till that time. In the event Lloyd George was returned as Prime Minister but his Party - the Liberals - was hopelessly split and he relied on the Conservatives to help him form what was in effect a Coalition Government.

In Ireland though a different battle was fought as the Sinn Fein Party campaigned on the promise of not taking any seats won in the London Parliament but to abstain instead and stay at home in Ireland. 

The spirit and confidence of the old Nationalist Party of John Redmond had been shattered by the 1916 Rising and its support for Britain’s War effort - in which many 10s of thousands of Irishmen had gone to their deaths.

The Party of Sinn Fein however under Arthur Griffith went from being basically a micro group on the edge of Irish politics in 1914 into being centre stage by the end of 1918. They were expected to do well and they expected to do well - the big question was just how well would they do?

In the event they  won  a Landslide returning 73 members. Of those elected 47 of them were  imprisoned by the British at the time. Of the 105 Irish seats in the election, the results were: Sinn Féin – 73+; Irish Unionist – 22; Irish Parliamentary – 6*;Labour Unionist – 3;Independent Unionist – 1. In total there were 103 Irish constituencies, two electing two MPs and the rest electing one. It should be noted that some of those elected stood in more than one constituency.
+ One woman was elected - Countess Markievicz thus becoming the 1st woman so returned
* T.P. O’Conner was returned for a Liverpool constituency brining their number to 7.

In all Ireland out of 1,526,910 votes cast the Unionist candidates received 315,394 votes - clearly the vast majority of voters wanted Ireland to have her own Parliament based in Ireland.

The Freemans Journal commented that:  the meaning of the Irish vote is as clear as it is emphatic. More than two thirds of the electors throughout national Ireland have endorsed the Sinn Fein programme. The Times of London admitted the ‘overwhelming nature of the victory of Sinn Fein’ & observed that: ‘the general election in Ireland was treated by all parties as a plebiscite and admittedly Sinn Fein swept the Country.

 It was a watershed in Irish political history that was immediately obvious to all observers that things could never be the same again.