1904 Reading by-election
The Reading by-election was a Parliamentary by-election. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system. Vacancy. George Palmer had been Liberal MP for the seat of Reading since the 1898 Reading by-election. He resigned from Parliament in 1904, due to advancing deafness. Electoral history. Since the Reading constituency was created in 1885 it had been closely contested between Liberal and Conservative; The Conservatives winning in 1885, 1886 and 1895 and the Liberals in 1892, 1898 and  1900. The Liberal victor on each occasion was Palmer, who was a very well known biscuit manufacturer in the town. At the last election he had won narrowly; Campaign. Polling day was fixed for the 6 August 1904. Result. The Liberals held the seat with an almost identical result to the previous election; Aftermath. Keyser did not stand for parliament again. At the following General Election, Isaacs was re-elected;