Birmingham Deritend (UK Parliament constituency)

Birmingham Deritend
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Birmingham Sparkbrook, and Birmingham Small Heath
Created from	Birmingham South and Birmingham Bordesley

Birmingham Deritend was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1950. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.

Boundaries

Prior to 1918 the parliamentary borough of Birmingham (within its boundaries in 1885) was split into seven single-member divisions. Under the Representation of the People Act 1918 the city contained twelve divisions, one of which was Birmingham Deritend.

This division of Birmingham was composed of the City Council Wards of St. Bartholomew's, St. Martin's and Deritend as they existed in 1918.^[1] The St. Martin's and Deritend wards had previously been part of the Birmingham South constituency, and the St. Bartholomew's ward had previously been part of the Birmingham Bordesley constituency.^[2]

In the redistribution under the Representation of the People Act 1948 which took effect in 1950, the then Deritend and St. Martin's wards became part of Birmingham Sparkbrook, and the St. Bartholomew's ward became part of Birmingham Small Heath.^[3]

Member of Parliament

Election		Member [4]	Party
	1918	John William Dennis	Coalition Conservative
	1922	John Smedley Crooke	Conservative
	1929	Fred Longden	Labour Co-operative
	1931	Sir John Smedley Crooke	Conservative
	1945	Fred Longden	Labour Co-operative
	1950	constituency abolished

Election results

General Election 5 to 19 July 1945: constituency of Birmingham Deritend Composed of the Birmingham wards of St Bartholomew and St Martins & Deritend Electorate 23,693, Turnout 63.0%, Voters 14,941
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Fred Longden	9,749	65.3%
	Conservative	G R Matthews	5,172	34.7%
Majority			4,577	30.6%
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	18.6%

Election in the 1930s

General Election 14 November 1935: constituency of Birmingham Deritend Composed of the Birmingham wards of St Bartholomew and St Martins & Deritend Electorate 42,078, Turnout 59.6%,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Smedley Crooke	14,925	59.5%
	Labour	Fred Longden	10,144	40.5%
Majority			4,781	19.0%	N/A
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 27 October 1931: constituency of Birmingham Deritend Composed of the Birmingham wards of St Bartholomew and St Martins & Deritend Electorate 45,671, Turnout 71.9%,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Smedley Crooke	21,684	66.0%
	Labour	Fred Longden	11,163	34.0%
Majority			10,521	32.0%
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Election in the 1920s

General Election 30 May 1929: Birmingham Deritend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Fred Longden	16,932	50.7	+2.2
	Unionist	John Smedley Crooke	14,165	42.5	-9.0
	Liberal	Mrs Beta Hornabrook	2,268	6.8	n/a
Majority			2,767	8.2	11.2
Turnout				70.6	+0.9
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+5.6

General Election 29 October 1924: constituency of Birmingham Deritend Composed of the Birmingham wards of St Bartholomew and St Martins & Deritend Electorate 37,980, Turnout 69.7%,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Smedley Crooke	13,552	51.5%
	Labour	Fred Longden	12,760	48.5%
Majority			792	3.0%
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 6 December 1923: Birmingham Deritend
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John Smedley Crooke	12,015	56.1	+7.2
	Labour	Fred Longden	9,396	43.9	+15.1
Majority			2,619	12.2	-7.9
	Unionist hold		Swing	-3.9

General Election 15 November 1922: constituency of Birmingham Deritend Composed of the Birmingham wards of St Bartholomew and St Martins & Deritend Electorate 36,985, Turnout 64.7%,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Smedley Crooke	11,700	48.9%
	Labour	Fred Longden	6,892	28.8%
	Liberal	H Willison	5,331	22.3%
Majority			4,808	20.1%
	Conservative hold		Swing

Election in the 1910s

General Election 14 December 1918: constituency of Birmingham Deritend Composed of the Birmingham wards of St Bartholomew and St Martins & Deritend Electorate 38,552, Turnout 43.9%,
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	J W Dennis	9,495	82.7%
	Liberal	Arthur Brampton	1,990	17.3%
Majority			7,505	65.4%
	Conservative win (new seat)

Sources

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)

References

1. Representation of the People Act 1918, Schedule 9
2. Representation of the People Act 1885, Schedule 6
3. Representation of the People Act 1948, Schedule 1
4. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 1)