Bury (UK Parliament constituency)

Bury
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	Lancashire (now Greater Manchester)
Major settlements	Bury
1832–1950
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Bury & Radcliffe
Created from	Lancashire

Bury was a borough constituency centred on the town of Bury in Lancashire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency was created for the 1832 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election, when it was largely replaced by the new constituency of Bury & Radcliffe.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [1]	Party[2][3][4]
	1832	Richard Walker	Liberal
	1852	Frederick Peel	Liberal
	1857	Robert Needham Philips	Liberal
	1859	Frederick Peel	Liberal
	1865	Robert Needham Philips	Liberal
	1885	Sir Henry James	Liberal
	1886		Liberal Unionist
	1895	James Kenyon	Conservative
	1902 by-election	Sir George Toulmin	Liberal
	1918	Charles Ainsworth	Conservative
	1935	Alan Chorlton	Conservative
	1945	Walter Fletcher	Conservative
1950		constituency abolished: see Bury & Radcliffe

Election results

Elections in the 1900s

George Toulmin

Bury by-election, 1902[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Toulmin	4,213	52.6
	Conservative	Harry Lawson	3,799	47.4
Majority			414	5.4
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+9.0

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1923: Bury [6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Charles Ainsworth	10,680	40.3	-0.9
	Labour	Harry Wright Wallace	9,568	36.1	-0.6
	Liberal	James Duckworth	6,251	23.6	+1.5
Majority			1,112	4.2	-0.3
Turnout				80.8	-0.5
	Unionist hold		Swing	-0.1

General Election 1924: Bury [6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Charles Ainsworth	13,382	46.9	+6.6
	Labour	Harry Wright Wallace	10,286	36.1	0.0
	Liberal	James Duckworth	4,847	17.0	-6.6
Majority			3,096	10.8	+6.6
Turnout				86.5	+5.7
	Unionist hold		Swing	+3.3

General Election 1929: Bury [6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Charles Ainsworth	14,845	42.2
	Labour	James Bell	13,175	37.4
	Liberal	Clifford Stanley Ickringil	7,160	20.4
Majority			1,670	4.8
Turnout
	Unionist hold		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Bury [7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Ainsworth	24,975	70.3	+28.1
	Labour	James Bell	10,532	29.7	-7.7
Majority			14,443	40.7	+35.8
Turnout			35,507	81.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	+17.9

General Election 1935: Bury [8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alan Ernest Leofric Chorlton	18,425	49.4
	Labour	Edith Clara Summerskill	12,845	34.4
	Liberal	Donald McIntosh Johnson	6,065	16.2	n/a
Majority			5,580	15.0
Turnout			37,335	83.3
	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;

• Labour: William Harvey Moore^[9]

General Election 1945: Bury [10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Walter Fletcher	14,012	39.9
	Labour	Sydney Hand	13,902	39.6
	Liberal	Arthur Walter James	7,211	20.5
Majority			110	0.3
Turnout				78.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 6)
2. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 72. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
3. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 89. ISBN 0-900178-27-2.
4. Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 112. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
5. The Constitiutional Year Book, 1904, published by Conservative Central Office, page 165 (189 in web page)
6. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
7. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
8. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
9. Manchester Evening News 4 Apr 1939
10. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig