Joseph Bliss was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

.

He was elected as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Cockermouth

Cockermouth (UK Parliament constituency)

Cockermouth was the name of a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England in 1295, and again from 1641, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918. It was a parliamentary borough represented by two...

 at an unopposed by-election in March 1916, following the resignation of the Liberal MP Sir Wilfrid Lawson

Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 3rd Baronet, of Brayton

Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 3rd Baronet, of Brayton was English Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1910 to 1916....

. He had previously stood unsuccessfully in the North Lonsdale

North Lonsdale (UK Parliament constituency)

North Lonsdale was a parliamentary constituency in north Lancashire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....

 at the general elections in January 1910 and December 1910, losing narrowly both occasions. In January 1910, Bliss's campaign team asked for recount after the vote was declared, but were told that the ballot boxes had already been sealed and sent by train to London. He lodged a petition, which claimed that invalid votes for Haddock had been allowed while valid votes for Bliss had been disallowed. The petition was heard in the King's Bench Division of the High Court, before Justice Lawrence and Justice Phillimore. They allowed a recount, in which the Conservative George Haddock

George Haddock (politician)

George Bahr Haddock was a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament for North Lonsdale from 1906 to 1918.-Career:...

's majority was increased to 169 votes (2.0%), and Bliss was required to pay the costs of the hearing.

The Cockermouth constituency was abolished at the 1918 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1918

The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...

, when Bliss was one of two sitting MPs who contested the new Lonsdale

Lonsdale (UK Parliament constituency)

Lonsdale was a county constituency in north Lancashire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post system.-Members of Parliament:...

 constituency. The Coalition Coupon

Coalition Coupon

The ‘Coalition Coupon’, often referred to as ‘the coupon’, refers to the letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the United Kingdom general election, 1918 endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government. The 1918 election took place in the heady atmosphere of victory in...

 went to his Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 opponent Claude Lowther

Claude Lowther

Colonel Claude William Henry Lowther was an English Conservative politician. He was the son of Francis William Lowther and Louise Beatrice de Fonblanque; Francis William was the illegitimate son of the Earl of Lonsdale and an opera singer, and received £125,000 on the Earl's death.Lowther was...

, who won the seat. Bliss did not stand for Parliament

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 again.

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