East Dorset (UK Parliament constituency)

East Dorset
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1950
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Poole and North Dorset

East Dorset is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was formally known as the Eastern Division of Dorset. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was represented by one Knight of the Shire.

History

Before 1885 the historic county of Dorset, in south-west England, was an undivided three-seat county constituency - see the article on the Dorset constituency. In 1885 the county was divided for Parliamentary purposes into four single-member county constituencies: this constituency, North Dorset, South Dorset and West Dorset (no borough constituencies were created in Dorset in the 1885 redistribution). Each of these divisions comprised roughly a quarter of the area of the county and returned one Member of Parliament.

In the 1918 redistribution, the four Dorset constituencies were retained, but their boundaries were redrawn. East Dorset was reduced in area to about half its former size, with the northern part of the pre-1918 seat being transferred to North Dorset and the southern part to South Dorset.

In the 1950 redistribution, this constituency disappeared. A new borough constituency of Poole was created. Wimborne Minster Urban District and the part of Wimborne and Cranborne Rural District previously in the abolished seat were transferred to the redrawn North Dorset.

Boundaries

1885-1918: The Municipal Borough of the Town and County of Poole, the Sessional Division of Wimborne, and part of the Sessional Division of Wareham.

1918-1950: The Municipal Borough of Poole, the Urban District of Wimborne Minster, the Rural District of Poole, and part of the Rural District of Wimborne and Cranborne.

Members of Parliament

	Member	Party	Notes
1885	Pascoe Glyn	Liberal	Younger son of Lord Wolverton
1886	George Hawkesworth Bond	Conservative	Died in 1891
1891 by-election	Hon. Humphrey Napier Sturt	Conservative	Succeeded as 2nd Baron Alington in 1904
1904 by-election	Charles Henry Lyell	Liberal	MP for Edinburgh South from April 1910
January 1910	Hon. Frederick Edward Guest	Liberal	Unseated on petition in May 1910
June 1910	Hon. Christian Henry Charles Guest	Liberal	MP for Pembroke & Haverfordwest from Dec 1910
December 1910	Rt Hon. Frederick Edward Guest	Liberal	Liberal Chief Whip 1917–1921, Secretary of State for Air 1921–1922
1918	Rt Hon. Frederick Edward Guest	Coalition Liberal
1922	Gordon Ralph Hall Caine	Independent Conservative	Took Conservative Whip January 1923
1923	Gordon Ralph Hall Caine	Conservative	Took Conservative Whip January 1923
1929	Alec Ewart Glassey	Liberal
1931	Gordon Ralph Hall Caine	Conservative
1945	Mervyn James Wheatley	Conservative
1950	constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1900s

A.A. Allen

General Election January 1900^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Humphrey Sturt	4,776	50.5	n/a
	Liberal	Arthur Acland Allen	4,680	49.5	n/a
Turnout				81.4	n/a
Majority			96	1.0	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Charles Lyell

East Dorset by-election, 1904^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Charles Lyell	5,929	53.7	+4.2
	Conservative	Charles Van Raalte	5,109	46.3	-4.2
Turnout				87.0	+5.6
Majority			820	7.4	8.4
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+4.2

General Election January 1906^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Charles Lyell	6,104	50.1	-3.6
	Conservative	Charles Van Raalte	6,083	49.9	+3.6
Turnout				89.9	+2.9
Majority			21	0.2	6.2
	Liberal hold		Swing	-3.6

Elections in the 1910s

Frederick Guest

General Election January 1910^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Frederick Guest	6,957	51.6	+1.5
	Conservative	John Nicholson	6,531	48.4	-1.5
Majority			426	3.2	+3.0
Turnout				91.2	+1.3
	Liberal hold		Swing	+1.5

Henry Guest

East Dorset by-election, 1910^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Henry Guest	6,967	52.2	+0.6
	Conservative	John Nicholson	6,375	47.8	-0.6
Majority			592	4.4	+1.2
Turnout				90.2	-1.0
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.6

General Election December 1910^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Frederick Guest	6,819	52.1	-0.1
	Conservative	Maurice George Carr Glyn	6,266	47.9	+0.1
Majority				4.2	-0.2
Turnout				88.4	-1.8
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election 1914/15

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1914 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

Liberal: Frederick Guest
Unionist:

General Election 1918
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Coalition Liberal	Frederick Guest	11,944	73.4	+21.3
	Labour	Alfred Smith	4,321	26.6	N/A
Majority			7,623	46.8	+42.6
Turnout			16,265	54.2	−34.2
Registered electors			29,988
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

endorsed by the Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

By-election, 1921
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Coalition Liberal	Frederick Guest	Unopposed
	Liberal hold

General Election 1922
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Independent Unionist	Gordon Hall Caine	12,513	49.1	N/A
	Labour	Frederick Jesse Hopkins	6,914	27.1	+0.5
	National Liberal	Frederick Guest	6,062	23.8	−49.6
Majority			5,599	22.0	N/A
Turnout			25,489	80.2	+26.0
Registered electors			31,797
	Independent Unionist gain from National Liberal		Swing	N/A

General Election 1923: East Dorset
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Gordon Hall Caine	12,480	48.5	−0.6
	Liberal	Richard Evan Williams Kirby	7,535	29.2	+5.4
	Labour	Frederick Jesse Hopkins	5,760	22.3	−4.8
Majority			4,945	19.3	-−2.7
Turnout			25,775	78.5	−1.7
Registered electors			32,828
	Unionist hold		Swing	−3.0

General Election 1924
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Gordon Hall Caine	14,479	52.6	+4.1
	Liberal	Alec Glassey	8,828	32.1	+2.9
	Labour	Edward Joseph Stocker	4,205	15.3	−7.0
Majority			5,651	20.5	+1.2
Turnout			27,512	80.3	+1.8
Registered electors			34,249
	Unionist hold		Swing	+0.6

General Election 1929: East Dorset
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Alec Glassey	17,810	42.2	+10.1
	Unionist	Gordon Hall Caine	17,533	41.6	−11.0
	Labour	Edward Joseph Stocker	6,819	16.2	+0.9
Majority			277	0.6	N/A
Turnout			42,162	81.5	+1.2
Registered electors			51,756
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+10.6

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Dorset East
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Gordon Hall Caine	20,711	44.5
	Liberal National	Alec Glassey	18,801	40.4
	Labour	Edward Joseph Stocker	7,009	15.1
Majority			1,910	4.1
Turnout			46,521	82.6
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1935
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Gordon Hall Caine	25,520	53.5
	Liberal	Frank Raffety	11,349	23.8
	Labour	Edward Joseph Stocker	10,823	22.7
Majority			14,171	29.7
Turnout			47,692	74.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1939/40

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

Conservative: Mervyn Wheatley
Liberal: David Hutton
Labour: Hugh Ross Williamson

General Election 1945
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Mervyn Wheatley	26,561	43.8
	Labour	Charles Fletcher-Cooke	25,093	41.4
	Liberal	John AH Mander	8,975	14.8
Majority			1,468	2.4
Turnout				75.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

↑ British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
↑ British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
↑ British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
↑ Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan.
↑ Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan.
↑ Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan.

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 2)
Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1977)
British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
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 II 1886-1918, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1978)
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)

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.