Clapham (UK Parliament constituency)

Template:Short description Template:Infobox UK constituency Clapham was a borough constituency in South London which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It was created in time for the 1885 general election then altered in periodic national boundary reviews, principally in 1918, and abolished before the February 1974 general election. In its early years (until 1918) the seat was officially named Battersea and Clapham Parliamentary Borough: No. 2—The Clapham Division.

File:Clapham1918.png

Clapham in London 1918-50

File:Wandsworth Met. B Ward Map 1916.svg

File:Clapham1950.png

Clapham in London 1950-74

Boundaries

1885–1918: In 1885 the constituency was established as one of two divisions of a new parliamentary borough to be named Battersea and Clapham, in the northern part of the historic county of Surrey.

The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 provided the constituency, carved out of a corner of East Surrey, was to consist of:

No. 2—The Clapham Division.

• The Parish of Clapham,
• No. 1 Ward of Battersea Parish, and
• No. 4 Ward of Battersea Parish, except so much as is comprised in Division No. 1 as herein described.

— Template:Comma separated entries

1918–1950: In the redistribution of 1918 the seat was altered to remove half of the wards which constituted Battersea (into a new seat of Battersea South) and to instead consist of the local government wards of Clapham North and Clapham South, together with a part of Balham. As a matter of strict nomenclature it became a division of Wandsworth 'parliamentary borough'.

Local government bodies

In 1889 the area was among many square miles severed from Surrey to become part of a new county, the County of London. In 1900 the lower rung of local government in London was reorganised. The constituency became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth.

In 1965 the area as it then stood for the purposes of local government became almost wholly part of the London Borough of Lambeth and of Greater London.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1885	John Moulton	Liberal
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1886	John Saunders Gilliat	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1892	Percy Thornton	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1910	Denison Faber	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1918 b-e	Harry Greer	Unionist
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1918	Sir Arthur du Cros	Unionist
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1922 b-e	Sir John Leigh	Unionist
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1945	John Battley	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1950	Charles Gibson	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1959	Alan Glyn	Conservative
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1964	Margaret McKay	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1970	Bill Shelton	Conservative
1974		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

File:John Fletcher Moulton.jpg

Moulton

General election 1885: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Moulton	Template:Replace	52.1
		Algernon Henry Bourke	3,650	47.9
Majority			326	4.2
Turnout			7,626	80.7
Registered electors			9,454
	win (new seat)

File:John Saunders Gilliat.jpg

Gilliat

General election 1886: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Gilliat	Template:Replace	53.3
		John Moulton	3,347	46.7
Majority			469	6.6
Turnout			7,163	75.8
Registered electors			9,454
	gain from		Swing	+5.4

Elections in the 1890s

File:Reginald McKenna photo.jpg

R. McKenna

General election 1892: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Percy Thornton	Template:Replace	53.3
		Reginald McKenna	4,526	46.7
Majority			644	6.6
Turnout			9,696	80.0
Registered electors			12,124
	hold		Swing	0.0

General election 1895: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Percy Thornton	Template:Replace	60.3
		John Kempster	3,904	39.7
Majority			2,021	20.6
Turnout			9,829	70.9
Registered electors			13,872
	hold		Swing	+7.0

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1900: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Percy Thornton	Template:Replace	70.9
		Frank Duerdin Perrott	3,084	29.1
Majority			4,420	41.8
Turnout			10,588	63.9
Registered electors			16,572
	hold		Swing	+10.6

File:Frederick Low.jpg

Low

General election 1906: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Percy Thornton	Template:Replace	50.3
		Frederick Low	7,816	49.7
Majority			96	0.6
Turnout			15,728	82.0
Registered electors			19,180
	hold		Swing	−20.6

Elections in the 1910s

General election January 1910: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Denison Faber	Template:Replace	55.1
		John George Kipling	8,762	44.9
Majority			1,981	10.2
Turnout			22,611	86.3
	hold		Swing	+4.8

File:Sir John Benn.jpg

Sir John Benn

General election December 1910: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Denison Faber	Template:Replace	55.6
		John Benn	7,639	44.4
Majority			1,921	11.2
Turnout			22,611	76.1
	hold		Swing	+0.5

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 and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

• Unionist: Denison Faber
• Liberal: Joseph William Molden

1918 Clapham by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Harry Greer	Template:Replace	57.5
		Henry Hamilton Beamish	3,331	42.5
Majority			1,181	15.0
Turnout			23,526	33.3
	hold		Swing	N/A

• Beamish was the nominee of Pemberton Billing's Vigilante Society

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link coalition 1918Template:Election box end 1918

• Beamish was supported by, and may have been the nominee, of the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers

Elections in the 1920s

File:Sir John Leigh.jpg

Sir John Leigh

General election 1918: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Henry Hamilton Beamish	3,070	18.9
		Philip Henry Thomas	2,790	17.2
		William James Harvey	594	3.7
Majority			6,706	41.3
Turnout			16,230	46.9
Registered electors			34,640
	hold		Swing	+15.9

Template:Election box winning candidate unopposed with party link

By-election 1922: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	hold

General election 1922: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Leigh	Template:Replace	58.7
		Leopold Spero	4,919	21.7
		Ernest Villiers	4,444	19.6
Majority			8,366	37.0
Turnout			22,648	63.0
Registered electors			35,962
	hold		Swing	−2.0

General election 1923: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Leigh	Template:Replace	46.4
		Leopold Spero	6,404	28.9
		Thomas George Graham	5,479	24.7
Majority			3,883	17.5
Turnout			22,170	60.7
Registered electors			36,498
	hold		Swing	−9.8

General election 1924: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Leigh	Template:Replace	64.1
		Charles Diamond	9,204	35.9
Majority			7,200	28.2
Turnout			25,608	69.5
Registered electors			36,872
	hold		Swing	+5.4

General election 1929: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Leigh	Template:Replace	41.7
		J. Allen Skinner	9,871	30.5
		Owen Davies	8,991	27.8
Majority			3,636	11.2
Turnout			32,369	67.3
Registered electors			48,061
	hold		Swing	−8.5

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Leigh	21,648	68.00
		Hilda Browning	7,317	22.98
		John Henry Clarke	2,869	9.01
Majority			14,331	45.02
Turnout			31,834	66.13
	hold		Swing

General election 1935: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Leigh	17,458	60.56
		Monica Whately	11,368	39.43
Majority			6,090	37.58
Turnout			28,826	60.54
	hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		John Battley	15,205	54.17
		Roy Lucas Lowndes	10,014	35.68
		Charles Erik Paterson	2,850	10.15
Majority			5,191	18.49
Turnout			28,069	70.78
	gain from		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Charles Gibson	23,300	47.47
		Roy L Lowndes	22,094	45.01
		Beatrice L Curtis	3,071	6.26
		Gladys Mary Draper	619	1.26
Majority			1,206	2.46
Turnout			49,084	80.64
	hold		Swing

General election 1951: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Charles Gibson	25,053	51.34
		Roy L Lowndes	23,745	48.66
Majority			1,308	2.68
Turnout			48,798	81.86
	hold		Swing

General election 1955: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Charles Gibson	22,398	50.25
		William van Straubenzee	22,173	49.75
Majority			225	0.50
Turnout			44,571	81.86
	hold		Swing

General election 1959: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Alan Glyn	22,266	52.20
		Charles Gibson	20,390	47.89
Majority			1,876	4.31
Turnout			42,656	76.19
	gain from		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Margaret McKay	17,657	46.20
		Alan Glyn	17,101	44.75
		Peter Lyden-Cowan	2,611	6.83
		David G Russell	847	2.22
Majority			556	1.45
Turnout			37,369	72.34
	gain from		Swing

• Anti-Common Market

General election 1966: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Margaret McKay	19,555	51.60
		Ian Gow	15,379	40.58
		Michael A Minter	2,968	7.83
Majority			4,176	11.02
Turnout			37,902	73.05
	hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970: Clapham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Bill Shelton	Template:Replace	49.8
		David Pitt	13,473	40.4
		Eric G Thwaites	2,982	8.9
		F.E. Simkins	220	0.7
		Bill Boaks	80	0.2
Majority			3,120	9.4
Turnout			33,348	62.9
	gain from		Swing	+10.2

Bibliography

• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
• Debrett’s Illustrated Heraldic and Biographical House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
• Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1901
• Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1918