The Christchurch mayoral election held on 27 November 1895 was contested by city councillors Howell Widdowson and Harry Beswick. Both candidates were young solicitors with few prior civic roles. Initially, the incumbent mayor—Walter Cooper—was one of the candidates but he withdrew. Widdowson attracted some controversy over the question whether he put his nomination forward ahead of a more senior city councillor; many voters still expected at the time that a mayoralty should be assigned to the most senior councillor. Another important issue for many voters was that Widdowson was a tee-totaller and was thus regarded as a prohibitionist, with Beswick seen as the representative of the liquor lobby. Beswick won the election with a clear majority and was installed as mayor of Christchurch on 18