Bournemouth (UK Parliament constituency)

Bournemouth
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950

Bournemouth is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. The seat was created as a parliamentary borough in 1918 and existed until it was divided into two in 1950. During the existence of the constituency it was the most south-westerly seat in Hampshire (although the border between Dorset and Hampshire was altered in the late twentieth century so the town was transferred to Dorset).

Boundaries

Before 1918 the County Borough of Bournemouth formed part of the Christchurch constituency. Under the Representation of the People Act 1918 Bournemouth became a single-member constituency, with the same borders as the then county borough.

To the west was the constituency of East Dorset, to the north was New Forest and Christchurch. The rest of the constituency bordered the English Channel.

In the 1950 redistribution of parliamentary seats, the Representation of the People Act 1948 provided for the division of Bournemouth (with the addition of the neighbouring town of Christchurch) into Bournemouth East and Christchurch and Bournemouth West.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Sir Henry Page Croft, Bt	National
	1921		Conservative
	1940 by-election	Sir Leonard Lyle, Bt.	Conservative
	1945 by-election	Rt Hon. Brendan Bracken	Conservative
	1950	Constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: Bournemouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Party	Henry Page Croft	14,048	66.3	n/a
	Labour	Frederick Jesse Hopkins	5,302	25.0	n/a
	Liberal	Thomas Dove Keighley	1,854	8.7	n/a
Majority			8,746	41.3	n/a
Turnout				64.1	n/a
	National Party win

Elections in the 1920s

C.B. Dallow

General Election 1922: Bournemouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Henry Page Croft	15,690	52.3
	Liberal	Cyril Berkeley Dallow	10,181	33.9
	Independent Unionist	Harry Keen Hargreaves	4,134	13.8
Majority			5,509	18.4
Turnout
	Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1923: Bournemouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Henry Page Croft	15,506	50.4	-1.9
	Liberal	Cyril Berkeley Dallow	9,256	30.1	-3.8
	Labour	Miss Minnie Pallister	5,986	19.5	n/a
Majority				20.3
Turnout				79.0
	Unionist hold		Swing	+1.0

General Election 1929: Bournemouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Henry Page Croft	25,945	52.2
	Liberal	Arthur Mortimer	15,890	31.9	n/a
	Labour	Maurice Spencer	7,900	15.9
Majority			10,055	20.3
Turnout
	Unionist hold		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Bournemouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Page Croft	39,859	80.03
	Labour	JH Collingbourne	9,943	19.97	n/a
Majority			29,916	60.07
Turnout				70.28
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1935: Bournemouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Page Croft	32,645	71.08
	Labour	MS Davidson	13,279	28.92
Majority			19,366	42.17
Turnout				62.62
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

Bournemouth by-election, 1940

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Charles Ernest Leonard Lyle	Unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1945: Bournemouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Charles Ernest Leonard Lyle	34,544	55.45
	Liberal	Basil Thomas Wigoder	14,232	22.85
	Labour	Robert Spence Watson Pollard	13,522	21.71
Majority			20,312	32.60
Turnout				71.32
	Conservative hold		Swing

Bournemouth by-election, 1945

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Brendan Bracken	22,980	46.8
	Labour	Edward Arthur Alexander Shackleton	16,526	33.7
	Liberal	Basil Thomas Wigoder	9,548	19.5
Majority			6,454	13.1	-19.6
Turnout				56.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

See also

• List of former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies

References

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press, revised edition 1977)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume III 1919-1945, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1979)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume IV 1945-1979, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1981)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 4)

• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
• http://web.archive.org/web/20120206224812/http://by-elections.co.uk/45.html