The first election to the Carmarthenshire County Council was held in January 1889. It was followed by the 1892 election.
1889 was one of those landmark years in the history of Welsh Liberalism, a coming of age symbolized by the triumph across Wales of Liberal candidates in the inaugural county council elections.
Most of the seats were contested by Liberal and Conservative candidates, although in a number of cases rival Liberals fought each other. The number of unopposed returns was small.
There were a large number of contested elections and the majorities were small in most instances. The Liberals won a large majority of the seats with only nine Conservatives returned. There were also two Liberal Unionists, in Carmarthen and Llansteffan.
The Liberal victory was later auegmnented by the election of fourteen Liberals as aldermen, as opposed to three Conservatives.
This was the inaugural county election and therefore no comparison can be made with the previous elections. In some cases there is an ambiguity in the sources over the party affiliations and this is explained below where relevant.
Thomas Morris of Coomb was the son of William Morris, former Liberal MP for Carmarthen Boroughs.
J. Lewis Philipps of Bolahaul, near Carmarthen, had been a prominent figure in county government for many years and was chairman of the Carmarthen Board of Guardians from 1861 until 1884.
In addition to the 51 councillors the council consisted of 17 county aldermen. Aldermen were elected by the council, and served a six-year term. Following the election of the initial sixteen aldermen, half of the aldermanic bench would be elected every three years following the triennial council election. After the initial elections, there were seventeen aldermanic vacancies and the following aldermen were appointed by the newly elected council (with the number of votes cast recorded in each case). A second vote was held to determine which aldermen should retire in three years.
Elected for six years
Elected for three years
As in Cardiganshire the Liberals agreed that the Conservatives be allocated three aldermanic seats only. Only John Lewis Philipps was an elected member of the council.
Initially, Lewis Morris had been elected an alderman but he declined on the basis that he had no sufficient time at his disposal. He was then replaced by W.R. Edwards at the second meeting of the council.
David Bowen died a few weeks after his election as alderman, The council resolved to replace him with another representative from the Llandeilo area to serve for the remainder of the three-year term.
Two vacancies arose in early 1891 following the resignation of W de G Warren and the death of J. Lewis Philipps. The vacancies were filled as follows:
As a result of these changes there was one additional Liberal alderman at the expense of the Conservatives.
Morgan Davies died in February 1892, shortly before the end of his term as alderman.
In contrast to the position in other counties only one by-election was caused by the election of aldermen. This was in St Ishmaels where, following the election of John Lewis Philipps as an alderman the Liberal candidate captured the seat after a contest that took place in heavy snow.
Thomas Davies, Bremenda, the member for Llanarthney, died in August 1889 as a result of injuries sustained falling off his horse. Rev R.G. Lawrence of Middleton Hall, an unsuccessful candidate at the election held earlier in the year was returned unopposed.
A by-election arose in the Pembrey ward following the appointment of William Howell as returning officer for the county.
D. Rixon Morgan, the sitting member, resigned late in 1890. Professor D.E. Jones of the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, was chosen as his replacement as Liberal candidate.