Bolton (UK Parliament constituency)

Bolton
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1832–1950
Number of members	two
Replaced by	Bolton East and Bolton West
Created from	Lancashire

Bolton was a borough constituency centred on the town of Bolton in the county of Lancashire. It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons for the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.

Created by the Reform Act of 1832, it was represented by two Members of Parliament. The constituency was abolished in 1950, being split into single-member divisions of Bolton East and Bolton West.

Members of Parliament

Election	1st Member		1st Party	2nd Member		2nd Party
1832		Robert Torrens	Whig		William Bolling (1st time)	Tory
1835		Peter Ainsworth	Whig
1837
1841					John Bowring	Whig
1847		William Bolling (2nd time)	Conservative
1848		Stephen Blair	Conservative
1849					Sir Joshua Walmsley	Whig
1852		Thomas Barnes (1st time)	Whig		Joseph Crook	Whig
1857		William Gray	Conservative
1859
1861					Thomas Barnes (2nd time)	Liberal
1865
1868					John Hick	Conservative
1874		John Kynaston Cross	Liberal
1880					John Pennington Thomasson	Liberal
1885		Herbert Shepherd-Cross	Unionist		Francis Charles Bridgeman	Unionist
1886
1892
1895			Conservative		George Harwood	Liberal
1900
1906		Alfred Henry Gill	Labour
Jan 1910
Dec 1910
1912					Thomas Taylor	Liberal
1914		Robert Tootill	Labour
1916					William Edge	Liberal
1918						Coalition Liberal
1922		William Russell	Conservative			National Liberal
1923		Sir Joseph Herbert Cunliffe	Conservative		Albert Law (1st time)	Labour
1924					Cecil Hilton	Unionist
1929		Michael Brothers	Labour		Albert Law (2nd time)	Labour
1931		Sir John Haslam	Conservative		Sir Cyril Fullard Entwistle	Conservative
1935
1940		Sir Edward Cecil George Cadogan	Conservative
1945		John Henry Jones	Labour		John Lewis	Labour
1950	constituency abolished: see Bolton East & Bolton West

Election results

Elections in the 1900s

Shepherd-Cross

George Harwood

General Election 1900 Bolton[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Herbert Shepherd-Cross	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Liberal	George Harwood	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Liberal hold		Swing	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

George Goschen

General Election 1906 Bolton [2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Harwood	10,953	39.0	n/a
	Labour	Alfred Henry Gill	10,416	37.1	n/a
	Conservative	Hon. George Joachim Goschen	6,693		n/a
Majority					n/a
Turnout				91.5	n/a
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal hold		Swing

Alfred Gill

General Election January 1910 Bolton[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Harwood	12,275
	Labour	Alfred Henry Gill	11,864
	Conservative	Miles Walker Mattinson	7,479
	Conservative	Percy Ashworth	7,326
Majority			4,385	11.3
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election December 1910:Bolton[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Harwood	10,358	35.5
	Labour	Alfred Henry Gill	10,108	34.7
	Conservative	George Hesketh	8,697	29.8
Majority			1,411	4.9
Turnout				89.3
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Labour hold		Swing

Bolton by-election, 1912[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Taylor	10,011	53.1
	Unionist	Arthur Brooks	8,835	46.9
Majority			1,176	6.2
Turnout			18,846	88.9
	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 and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

• Liberal: Thomas Taylor
• Labour: Robert Tootill
• Unionist: Thomas Clarke Pilling Gibbons

General Election 1918: Bolton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Edge	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Labour	Robert Tootill	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Liberal hold		Swing	n/a
	Labour hold		Swing	n/a

• endorsed by the Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Bolton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	William Russell	37,491		n/a
	National Liberal	Sir William Edge	31,015		n/a
	Labour	Samuel Lomax	20,559		n/a
	Labour	William James Abraham	20,156		n/a
	Liberal	Isaac Edwards	9,267		n/a
Turnout					n/a
Majority					n/a
	National Liberal hold		Swing	n/a
Majority					n/a
	Unionist gain from Labour		Swing	n/a

General Election 1923: Bolton (2 seats) [6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Albert Law	25,133	18.6
	Unionist	Joseph Herbert Cunliffe	22,833	16.9
	Unionist	Cecil Hilton	22,640	16.8
	Liberal	Sir William Edge	22,173	16.5
	Labour	Fleming Eccles	21,045	15.6
	Liberal	John Fletcher Steele	21,040	15.6	+1.1
Turnout				80.0
Majority			660	0.4
	Unionist hold		Swing
Majority			2,493	1.8
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1924: Bolton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Joseph Herbert Cunliffe	34,690
	Unionist	Cecil Hilton	33,405
	Labour	Albert Law	30,632
	Labour	William Harold Hutchinson	28,918
	Liberal	J P Taylor	10,036
	Liberal	Alfred Ernest Holt	8,558
Turnout
Majority
	Unionist hold		Swing
Majority
	Unionist gain from Labour		Swing

Cyril Entwistle

General Election 1929: Bolton (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Albert Law	43,520	24.0
	Labour	Michael Brothers	37,888	20.9
	Unionist	Cyril Fullard Entwistle	36,667	20.3
	Unionist	Cecil Hilton	35,850	19.8
	Liberal	Patrick Redmond Barry	27,074	15.0
Turnout			180,999
Majority			1,221	0.7
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing
Majority
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Bolton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Cyril Fullard Entwistle	66,385	33.94
	Conservative	Sir John Haslam	63,402	32.42
	Labour	Albert Law	33,736	17.25
	Labour	Michael Brothers	32,049	16.39
Turnout				79.56
Majority
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing
Majority
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1935: Bolton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Cyril Fullard Entwistle	54,129	29.05
	Conservative	Sir John Haslam	52,465	28.15
	Labour	Albert Law	39,890	21.41
	Labour	J Lynch	39,871	21.40
Turnout				75.07
Majority
	Conservative hold		Swing
Majority
	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: Sir Cyril Entwistle, Sir John Haslam
• Labour: E Mellor

However, in the by-election held in 1940 no other parties contested the seat due to the War-time electoral pact meaning that the Conservative candidate Edward Cadogan was elected unopposed.

General Election 1945: Bolton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Henry Jones	44,595	23.99
	Labour	John Lewis	43,266	23.28
	Conservative	Sir J.F.R. Reynolds	31,217	16.79
	Conservative	Maj. Sir Cyril Fullard Entwistle	30,911	16.63
	Liberal	Rev. Robert Kewley Spedding	18,180	9.78	n/a
	Liberal	Brian Reginald Connell	17,710	9.53	n/a
Turnout				77.2
Majority
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing
Majority			12,049	6.65
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 4)

1. British parliamentary election results, 1885–1918 (Craig)
2. British parliamentary election results, 1885–1918 (Craig)
3. British parliamentary election results, 1885–1918 (Craig)
4. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 by Craig, F. W. S. (1974)
5. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 by Craig, F. W. S. (1974)
6. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–49, FWS Craig