Swan by-election, 1918

The 1918 Swan by-election was a by-election for the Division of Swan in the Australian House of Representatives, following the death of the sitting member Sir John Forrest. Held on 26 October 1918, the by-election not only led to the election of, what was until 2010, the youngest person ever to be elected to the Parliament of Australia, Edwin Corboy, but also saw the conservative vote split between the Country Party and the Nationalist Party, directly prompting the introduction of preferential voting in Australia.

Background

Sir John Forrest, who had been the first Premier of Western Australia, was elected to the Australian House of Representatives for the Division of Swan at the first federal election on 29 March 1901.

On 6 February 1918, Forrest was offered a place in the British peerage (he was to be created Baron Forrest of Bunbury), though the relevant letters patent had not at the time been issued. Forrest set out for England to accept the offer and take up his place in the House of Lords, but he died en route on 2 September 1918, off the coast of Sierra Leone, from cancer. Thus, a by-election was called to replace Forrest as the representative for Swan.