Berwick and Haddington (UK Parliament constituency)

Berwick and Haddington
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland	Berwickshire, East Lothian
1918–1950
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Berwick and East Lothian

Berwick and Haddington was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918, when it replaced the separate Berwickshire and Haddingtonshire constiuencies, until it was renamed Berwick and East Lothian for the 1950 general election. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP), using the first-past-the-post voting system.

The constituency covered the counties of Berwickshire and East Lothian.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	John Deans Hope	Coalition Liberal
	1922	Walter Waring	National Liberal
	1923	Robert Spence	Labour
	1924	Chichester de Windt Crookshank	Unionist
	1929	George Sinkinson	Labour
	1931	John McEwen	Unionist
	1945	John James Robertson	Labour
	1950	constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

Harold Tennant

General Election 1918: Berwick and Haddington [1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Coalition Liberal	John Deans Hope	8,584		n/a
	Labour	R.W. Foulis	4,783		n/a
	Liberal	Rt Hon. Harold John Tennant	2,567		n/a
Majority					n/a
Turnout					n/a
	Coalition Liberal win

• endorsed by the Coalition Government.

Elections in the 1920s

Walter Waring

J.D. Hope

General Election 1922: Berwick and Haddington [2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Liberal	Walter Waring	6,342	31.9
	Labour	Robert Spence	5,842	29.3
	Liberal	William Henderson Pringle	4,422	22.2
	Independent Liberal	John Deans Hope	3,300	16.6
Majority			500	2.6
Turnout			19,906
	National Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1923: Berwick and Haddington [3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Spence	8,576
	Unionist	Chichester de Windt Crookshank	8,508		n/a
	Liberal	Walter Waring	6,084
Majority
Turnout
	Labour gain from National Liberal		Swing

General Election 1924: Berwick and Haddington [4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Chichester de Windt Crookshank	11,745	45.9
	Labour	Robert Spence	8,882	34.7
	Liberal	William Henderson Pringle	4,986	19.5
Majority
Turnout			25,613
	Unionist gain from Labour		Swing

Sir James Greig

General Election 1929: Berwick and Haddington[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Sinkinson	11,761	37.5	+2.8
	Unionist	John Helias Finnie McEwen	11,435	36.5	-9.4
	Liberal	Sir James William Greig	8,132	26.0	+6.5
Majority				1.0	12.2
Turnout			31,328
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+6.1

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Berwick and Haddington[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John Helias Finnie McEwen	25,169	73.5
	Labour	George Sinkinson	9,089	26.5
Majority			16,080	46.9
Turnout			34,258	74.8
	Unionist gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1935: Berwick and Haddington [7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John Helias Finnie McEwen	19,839	58.1
	Labour	John James Robertson	14,299	41.9
Majority			5,540	16.2
Turnout			34,138	71.9
	Unionist hold		Swing

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 and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;

• Unionist: John Helias Finnie McEwen
• Labour: John James Robertson ^[8]
• Liberal: ^[9]

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Berwick and Haddington[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John James Robertson	19,037	54.52
	Unionist	John Helias Finnie McEwen	15,880	45.48
Majority			3,157	9.04
Turnout			34,917	70.51
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

References

1. Whitaker's Almanack, 1920
2. The Times, 17 November 1922
3. The Times, 8 December 1923
4. Oliver & Boyd's Edinburgh Almanack, 1927
5. The Times, 1 June 1929
6. Whitaker's Almanack, 1934
7. Whitaker's Almanack, 1939
8. Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
9. The Liberal Magazine, 1939
10. Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 2)