Skip to main content
School of Society and Environment - Department of History
  1. School of Society and Environment - Department of History
  2. Study
  3. PhD
  4. Current PhD Students
  5. Profiles

Ed Green

Ed Green

Research Topic: A testing ground for parliamentary elections: English and Welsh school board elections 1870-1902

Email: e.j.green@qmul.ac.uk

PhD project summary  

The 1870 Elementary Education Act enabled the formation of school boards, whose members were elected by the cumulative vote. The system led to the election of minority candidates and particularly favoured organised minorities. Cumulative vote elections endured for over 30 years until the abolition of school boards under the 1902 Education Act. 

 My research explores innovations tested at the school board elections; how the peculiarities of the cumulative voting system, as applied to these elections, related to the broader development of electoral politics in Britain; and how major players – women, working-class candidates, early Independent Labour Party candidates, religious minorities (and the Church establishment itself) harnessed the cumulative vote to advance. 

I draw on over 2,500 school board election results to identify patterns and themes, further explored against contemporary newspaper reporting and archival material. 

 

Supervisors  

Dr Robert Saunders, Department of History, QMUL  

Dr Rhodri Hayward, Department of History, QMUL 

 

Publications 

Green, E. (2026), School Board Elections in England and Wales, 1870–1902: An Electoral Experiment?. History. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229x.70113 

 

Research Interests 

Electoral history, with particular interest in voting systems, party organisation and campaigning, and minority representation 

 

Teaching 

I have been a teaching associate at Queen Mary, University of London. In 2025-26, I taught on the module Unravelling Britain: British History since 1801. 

Back to top