United Kingdom Historical Election Maps 1918-50

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I've decided to do a new set of inter-and-immediate-postwar election maps in a new and more detailed style. New ones will appear here on a strictly irregular timescale.

[afleitch]

I've decided to do a new set of inter-and-immediate-postwar election maps in a new and more detailed style. New ones will appear here on a strictly irregular timescale.

Yes.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I've decided to start with something entirely new for me, and that is with some maps of Dublin for the 1918 General Election, the last time that that city (and the bulk of Ireland) was part of the United Kingdom. The Sinn Fein MPs elected did not, of course, take their seats in Westminster and instead formed the First Dáil. For all British constituency series I will provide a degree of commentary on each constituency, but my knowledge of Irish social geography during this period is a lot weaker and so others will have to fill that gap, if they so desire.




Will do some party vote maps etc. shortly.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[YL]

It always seems amazing that Belfast was once considered worthy of having nine constituencies of its own.  Today it struggles to find enough territory outside the expanded city boundary for four.

I wonder how many of the nine would have been carried by a Unionist candidate in 2019.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It always seems amazing that Belfast was once considered worthy of having nine constituencies of its own.  Today it struggles to find enough territory outside the expanded city boundary for four.

There isn't a major population centre in either Great Britain or elsewhere in Ireland that feels as thoroughly wrecked and ruined by the 20th century as Belfast: not even industrial cities that have lost their primary economic function like Liverpool or Bradford.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Interesting that there is a constituency called "Belfast Victoria".

[YL]

Interesting that there is a constituency called "Belfast Victoria".

It was also used for a Stormont constituency from 1929 (FPTP in those days) and remained the name of a local government electoral area until 2011.  One of the successors is now called Titanic: yes, the name refers to that Titanic.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[xelas81]

Are the white shading representing seats where there was no candidate standings for an party or got less than x% of votes?

[YL]

Are the white shading representing seats where there was no candidate standings for an party or got less than x% of votes?

Sinn Féin stood everywhere.

Either an official Unionist or a "Labour Unionist" stood everywhere except Falls, which was an Irish Parliamentary Party/Sinn Féin only contest.

The Irish Parliamentary Party only stood in Falls and Duncairn.

Belfast Labour stood in Cromac, Pottinger, Shankill and Victoria.

In addition there were Independent Unionist candidates in Ormeau and St. Anne's, and an Independent Labour candidate in Pottinger.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes: essentially if a party polls below 5% then that's such a low share of the vote that I'm not sure if there's any meaningful difference between that and not running a candidate at all. There's the option of showing the latter in e.g. grey instead, but I don't like that aesthetically.

[EastAnglianLefty]

Interesting that there is a constituency called "Belfast Victoria".

It was also used for a Stormont constituency from 1929 (FPTP in those days) and remained the name of a local government electoral area until 2011.  One of the successors is now called Titanic: yes, the name refers to that Titanic.

Although the old Victoria DEA only included bits east of the river, whereas that Belfast Victoria constituency was made up of the bits of East Belfast north of the Newtownards Road (very working-class round Sydenham with ship-building as the main employer; more middle-class further east) but also hopped across the Lagan to take in the Docks and the nationalist New Lodge area.

[ObserverIE]

Interesting that there is a constituency called "Belfast Victoria".

It was also used for a Stormont constituency from 1929 (FPTP in those days) and remained the name of a local government electoral area until 2011.  One of the successors is now called Titanic: yes, the name refers to that Titanic.

Although the old Victoria DEA only included bits east of the river, whereas that Belfast Victoria constituency was made up of the bits of East Belfast north of the Newtownards Road (very working-class round Sydenham with ship-building as the main employer; more middle-class further east) but also hopped across the Lagan to take in the Docks and the nationalist New Lodge area.

Swam, really, given that there was (and is) no road connection between the two.

Victoria AIUI refers to Victoria Park, just east of the docks.



Victoria ward ran north of the Newtownards Road; the Victoria constituency for Stormont didn't include the shipyard which was in Pottinger along with the western part of that ward north of Albertbridge Road (confusingly, most of Pottinger ward made up Belfast Bloomfield).

[YL]

Why did Victoria constituency (in 1918, not the Stormont one) do that?  Was Elbridge Gerry involved in any way?

[ObserverIE]

Why did Victoria constituency (in 1918, not the Stormont one) do that?  Was Elbridge Gerry involved in any way?

The official rationale would have been that docks and shipbuilding have a common interest. I'm sure reducing the possibility of a second non-unionist MP being elected for Belfast would have been entirely irrelevant (it would have been unlikely anyway, but putting Dock in with Victoria eliminated any such possibility).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The process for drawing boundaries in 1917 was different to the regular reviews from the 1950s onwards and there was more room for consciously political decisions: one we can confirm for definite would be the curious decision to go against the general policy of abolishing all District of Boroughs constituencies outside of Scotland in the case of the constituency in North Wales that just so happened to be represented by the Prime Minister. My suspicion (and it can only be a suspicion) is that if the boundaries had been drawn before the Conservatives entered the Wartime Coalition, then the boundaries in certain parts of Ireland would have been drawn rather differently.

[YL]

The process for drawing boundaries in 1917 was different to the regular reviews from the 1950s onwards and there was more room for consciously political decisions: one we can confirm for definite would be the curious decision to go against the general policy of abolishing all District of Boroughs constituencies outside of Scotland in the case of the constituency in North Wales that just so happened to be represented by the Prime Minister. My suspicion (and it can only be a suspicion) is that if the boundaries had been drawn before the Conservative entered the Wartime Coalition, then the boundaries in certain parts of Ireland would have been drawn rather differently.

If Caernarfonshire had instead been given the more obvious division into an eastern constituency based on Conwy, Llandudno and Bangor and a western one based on Caernarfon, Porthmadog and the Llŷn (i.e. basically the 1950 to 1983 arrangement), would that have given Lloyd George any problems?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

If Caernarfonshire had instead been given the more obvious division into an eastern constituency based on Conwy, Llandudno and Bangor and a western one based on Caernarfon, Porthmadog and the Llŷn (i.e. basically the 1950 to 1983 arrangement), would that have given Lloyd George any problems?

No. Lloyd George would have comfortably won any constituency (no matter how drawn) in North Wales (let alone North West Wales) throughout the second half of his career, which makes what happened at the boundary review all the more ridiculous.

[ObserverIE]

The process for drawing boundaries in 1917 was different to the regular reviews from the 1950s onwards and there was more room for consciously political decisions: one we can confirm for definite would be the curious decision to go against the general policy of abolishing all District of Boroughs constituencies outside of Scotland in the case of the constituency in North Wales that just so happened to be represented by the Prime Minister. My suspicion (and it can only be a suspicion) is that if the boundaries had been drawn before the Conservative entered the Wartime Coalition, then the boundaries in certain parts of Ireland would have been drawn rather differently.

The obvious one being Fermanagh retaining a second (highly marginal Unionist) seat when neighbouring Leitrim had a larger population and similarly awkward geography.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Quite a complex set of boundaries, think it's fair to say. A grand total of three constituencies with detached parts, one of which was comprised (infamously, notoriously, completely unjustifiably) entirely of detached parts. Much more information about each constituency to follow with later maps, but for now a little note on nomenclature: I personally prefer 'f' to 'v' in the spelling of 'Caernarfon', but 'v' was widely and officially used at the time. 'Carn' rather than 'Caern' was also quite common, but I draw the line at that. 'Merioneth' might seem inconsistent alongside 'Flintshire' and 'Caernarvonshire', but reflects common usage: no one normal ever used 'Merionethshire', but both 'Caernarvonshire' and 'Flintshire' were (and are) frequent. 'Caernarvonshire' is also, obviously, necessary to draw a verbal distinction between that constituency and the absurd division of Caernarvon Boroughs - which, anyway, contained the county town.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

While most contextual notes can wait for later, a brief explanation for Anglesey in 1918 and 1922 is probably required. In 1918 it was won by Brigadier General Sir Owen Thomas as an Independent Labour candidate against the incumbent Coalition Liberal MP in what was possibly the biggest shock of an election full of them,* as Anglesey was generally regarded at the time as being one of the very safest Liberal seats in Britain. It was a rare example of the atmosphere of the Khaki Election working against the Coalition: Sir Owen, who was previously an active Liberal and who had been a well-known public figure on the Island for decades, had led the recruiting drive on Anglesey during the war and there was a great deal of public sympathy for him as he had lost three of his own sons as a result of it. He joined the PLP on his election, but left it a few years later and ran as an Independent Labour candidate again in 1922, before dying a few months later.

_{*Outside Ireland in any case, obviously.}