Buckrose (UK Parliament constituency)

Yorkshire, East Riding, Buckrose Division
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
County	East Riding of Yorkshire
1885–1950
Replaced by	Bridlington and Beverley
Created from	East Riding of Yorkshire

Buckrose was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a county constituency comprising the northern part of the East Riding of Yorkshire, represented by one Member of Parliament, and was created for the 1885 general election.

Buckrose was abolished for the 1950 general election, when boundary changes reduced the East Riding's number of county constituencies from three to two, the eastern part of the constituency and most of the voters being included in the new Bridlington constituency and the remainder in the Beverley constituency.

Boundaries

The constituency consisted of the northern third of the East Riding. The largest town was Bridlington, but the constituency also included Filey, Driffield and Norton, as well numerous villages, and the rural element was predominant. At the time of the 1921 census, almost two-fifths (38%) of the occupied male population were engaged in agriculture.

It was redefined in 1918 as covering the borough of Bridlington, the urban districts of Great Driffield, Filey, Norton and the rural districts of Bridlington, Great Driffield, Norton and Sherburn.

Name

Buckrose took its name from the wapentake of Buckrose, one of the medieval sub-divisions of the East Riding which, however, had long ceased to have much administrative significance by 1885, and had covered only part of the area of the constituency and a minority of its population. (The constituency also included the whole of the former wapentake of Dickering, which included Bridlington and Filey, and part of the wapentake of Harthill which included Driffield.) The name seems to have been chosen primarily to avoid offending any local sensibilities, and with little regard for comprehensibility (a criticism also levelled at many of the other new constituency names created under the 1885 Reform Act).

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
1885		Christopher Sykes	Conservative
1886		William Alexander McArthur[1]	Liberal
1886		Christopher Sykes	Conservative
1892		Sir Angus Holden	Liberal
1900		Sir Luke White	Liberal
1918		Algernon Henry Moreing	Coalition Liberal
1922		Sir Guy Reginald Archer Gaunt [2]	Conservative
1926 by-election		Sir Albert Braithwaite	Conservative
1945		George Wadsworth	Liberal
1950	constituency abolished: see Bridlington and Beverley

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

General Election 1885: Buckrose[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Christopher Sykes			n/a
	Liberal				n/a
Majority			296	3.8	n/a
Turnout					n/a
	Conservative win (new seat)

William McArthur

General Election 1886: Buckrose[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Christopher Sykes	3,735	50.1
	Liberal	William Alexander McArthur	3,724	49.9
Majority			11	0.2
Turnout				81.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

• At the General Election of 1886, McArthur was declared the victor over Sykes by a single vote, 3,742 to 3,741, and took his seat, but "on scrutiny" the seat was eventually awarded to his opponent, Sykes, by a majority of 11 votes.

Elections in the 1890s

Frederick Fison

General Election 1892: Buckrose[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Angus Holden	4,294	54.1	+4.2
	Conservative	Frederick William Fison	3,642	45.9	-4.2
Majority			652	8.2	+8.2
Turnout				87.8
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+4.2

Angus Holden

General Election 1895: Buckrose[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Angus Holden	4,076	50.6	-3.5
	Conservative	Thomas Clarence Edward Goff	3,986	49.4	+3.5
Majority			90	1.2	-7.0
Turnout				86.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	-3.5

Elections in the 1900s

Luke White

General Election 1900: Buckrose[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Luke White	4,083	50.6	+0.0
	Liberal Unionist	Ernest Claude Meysey-Thompson	3,992	49.4	-0.0
Majority			91	1.2	+0.0
Turnout				83.7	-3.1
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.0

General Election 1906: Buckrose[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Luke White	5,236	59.0	+8.4
	Conservative	Reginald Bethune, Viscount Garnock	3,634	41.0	-8.4
Majority			1,602	18.0	+16.8
Turnout				87.4
	Liberal hold		Swing	+8.4

Elections in the 1910s

Mark Sykes

General Election January 1910: Buckrose[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir Luke White	4,957	51.1
	Conservative	Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes	4,739	48.9
Majority			218	2.2
Turnout				91.0	+3.6
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election December 1910: Buckrose[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir Luke White	4,867	51.2	+0.1
	Conservative	Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes	4,635	48.8	-0.1
Majority			232	2.4	+0.2
Turnout				89.2
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.1

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 from 1914 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

• Liberal: Sir Luke White

General Election 1918: Buckrose[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Coalition Liberal	Algernon Henry Moreing	9,310	60.9
	Labour	George Henry Dawson	3,176	20.8
	Liberal	Austin Taylor	2,792	18.3
Majority			6,134	40.1
Turnout
	Coalition Liberal gain from Liberal		Swing

• denotes candidate who was endorsed by the Coalition Government.

Elections in the 1920s

Thomas Fenby

General Election 1922: Buckrose [12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Guy Reginald Archer Gaunt	12,012	51.3	n/a
	Liberal	Thomas Davis Fenby	11,411	48.7	+30.4
Majority			601	2.6
Turnout				82.5	+26.5
	Unionist gain from National Liberal		Swing	n/a

General Election 1923: Buckrose [13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Guy Reginald Archer Gaunt	12,336	50.4	-0.9
	Liberal	Thomas Davis Fenby	12,122	49.6	+0.9
Majority			214	0.8	-1.8
Turnout				84.1	+1.6
	Unionist hold		Swing	-0.9

General Election 1924: Buckrose[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Guy Reginald Archer Gaunt	13,966	56.0	+5.6
	Liberal	Harry Anson Briggs	10,962	44.0	-5.6
Majority			3,004	12.0	+11.2
Turnout				82.9	-1.2
	Unionist hold		Swing	+5.6

Buckrose by-election, 1926[15]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Albert Newby Braithwaite	12,098	48.7	-7.3
	Liberal	Sir Harry Calvert Williams Verney	10,537	42.5	-1.5
	Labour	Herbert Cecil Laycock	2,191	8.8	n/a
Majority			1,552	6.2	-5.8
Turnout				81.7	-1.2
	Unionist hold		Swing	-2.9

General Election 1929: Buckrose[16]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Albert Newby Braithwaite	15,625	50.0	+1.3
	Liberal	Sidney Streatfield Lamert	13,825	44.4	+1.9
	Labour	Harold H Vickers	1,766	5.6	-3.2
Majority			1,800	5.6	-0.6
Turnout				80.4	-1.3
	Unionist hold		Swing	-0.3

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Buckrose
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Albert Newby Braithwaite	unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1935: Buckrose
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Albert Newby Braithwaite	18,090	55.1
	Liberal	Thomas Macleod	14,763	44.9
Majority			3,327	10.2
Turnout			32,853	78.4
	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: Albert Braithwaite
• Liberal: Thomas Macleod

General Election 1945: Buckrose
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Wadsworth	15,934	51.5
	Conservative	Sir Albert Newby Braithwaite	14,985	48.5
Majority			949	3.1
Turnout				71.9
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

Notes

1. At the General Election of 1886, McArthur was declared the victor over Sykes by a single vote, 3,742 to 3,741, and took his seat, but "on scrutiny" the seat was eventually awarded to his opponent, Sykes, by a majority of 11 votes
2. Resigned his seat
3. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
4. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
5. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
6. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
7. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
8. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
9. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
10. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
11. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49, F W S Craig
12. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49, F W S Craig
13. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49, F W S Craig
14. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49, F W S Craig
15. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49, F W S Craig
16. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49, F W S Craig

References

• F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49" (Glasgow: Parliamentary Research Services, 1969)
• Michael Kinnear, "The British Voter" (London: Batsford, 1968)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
• "The Constitutional Yearbook, 1913" (London: National Unionist Association, 1913)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 6)