Benjamin St John Ackers

{{Short description|British politician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2016}}

Benjamin St John Ackers (6 November 1839 – 18 April 1915) was a British Conservative Party politician. He sat in the House of Commons in 1885.

At the 1880 general election he stood unsuccessfully in the borough of Gloucester.{{Cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. |title=British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 |publisher=Parliamentary Research Services |year=1989 |isbn=0-900178-26-4 |edition=2nd |location=Chichester |page=133 |author-link=F. W. S. Craig |orig-year=1977}}

A petition was lodged against the election of the two Liberal Party candidates, which led to one of the two returns being voided. However, the writ was suspended, and no by-election was held.

In 1885, a vacancy arose in the Western division of Gloucestershire, when the Liberal MP Nigel Kingscote was appointed as Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues.Craig, British parliamentary election results 1832–1885, page 392 Ackers was selected as the Conservative candidate for the resulting by-election, which was held on 12 March 1885. He won the seat with a majority of 411 votes (4.4% of the total) over his Liberal opponent.

Constituencies were radically revised by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and at the general election in November 1885 Ackers contested the new Thornbury division.{{cite book

|last=Craig

|first=F. W. S.

|authorlink= F. W. S. Craig

|title=British parliamentary election results 1885–1918

|origyear=1974

|edition= 2nd

|year=1989

|publisher= Parliamentary Research Services

|location=Chichester

|isbn= 0-900178-27-2

|page=287

}}

He was defeated by a margin of 145 votes by the Liberal Stafford Howard.

Ackers was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Gloucestershire in 1903.{{London Gazette | issue=27624 |page=8117 | date=8 December 1903}}