Farnham (UK Parliament constituency)

Farnham
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
1918 (1918)–1983 (1983)
Number of members	one
Replaced by	South West Surrey
Created from	South Western (Guildford) Division of Surrey

Farnham was a parliamentary constituency in the county of Surrey, in south east England. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918, until it was abolished for the 1983 general election. It was largely replaced by the new constituency of South West Surrey.

Contents 1 Boundaries 1.1 1918–1950 1.2 1950–1983 2 Members of Parliament 3 Elections 3.1 Elections in the 1930s 3.2 Elections in the 1920s 4 References

Boundaries

The constituency took its name from the town of Farnham, but included a number of other towns and a large rural area. The boundaries were altered at each redistribution of parliamentary seats, reflecting the increase in population of the area.^[1]

1918–1950

The constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 as one of seven divisions of the parliamentary county of Surrey, and was defined in terms of the county districts existing at that date:^[2]

The rural district of Farnham, the part of the rural district of Guildford which consists of the civil parish of Pirbright, and the urban districts of Farnham, Frimley, Windlesham, and Woking.

1950–1983

Constituencies throughout Great Britain were redrawn by the Representation of the People Act 1948, with new seats first contested at the 1950 general election.

Surrey was divided into ten county constituencies, and Farnham County Constituency was defined as comprising:^[3]

• The borough of Godalming;
• the urban districts of Farnham and Haslemere;
• the parish of Seale in the rural district of Guildford
• the following parishes in the rural district of Hambledon, namely, Chiddingfold, Dockenfield, Elstead, Frensham, Peper Harow, Thursley, Tilford and Witley.

Godalmimg and Haslemere had previously formed part of the Guildford constituency. Woking, Windlesham and Pirbright were transferred to the new seat of Woking. The constituency was unaltered at the next redistribution that took place prior to the general election of February 1974.^[1]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Sir Arthur Samuel	Conservative
	1937	Sir Godfrey Nicholson	Conservative
	1966	Maurice Macmillan	Conservative

Elections

Elections in the 1930s

Farnham by-election, 23 March 1937
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Godfrey Nicholson	20,580	66.7	-11.8
	Labour	Peter Pain	7,792	25.3	+3.8
	Independent Conservative	Linton Thorp	2,327	7.5	N/A
	Independent	Edward Miller	154	0.5	N/A
Majority			12,788	41.5	-15.5
	Conservative hold

United Kingdom general election, 1935: Farnham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Arthur Samuel	28,211	78.5	N/A
	Labour	D M Fraser	7,725	21.5	N/A
Majority			20,486	57.0	N/A
	Conservative hold

United Kingdom general election, 1931: Farnham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Samuel	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1920s

United Kingdom general election, 1929: Farnham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Samuel	21,050	59.8	-20.0
	Liberal	J W Todd	9,268	26.3	N/A
	Labour	Francis Noel Palmer	4,866	13.8	-6.4
Majority			11,782	33.5	-26.2
	Conservative hold

United Kingdom general election, 1924: Farnham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Samuel	18,272	79.8
	Labour	Mrs A Corner	4,613	20.2
Majority			13,659	59.7
	Conservative hold

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "F"