Combined Scottish Universities (UK Parliament constituency)

Combined Scottish Universities
Former University constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Number of members	Three
Created from	Glasgow & Aberdeen Universities Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities

The Combined Scottish Universities was a university constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until 1950. It was created by merging the constituencies of Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities and Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities.

Boundaries

The constituency was not a physical area but was rather elected by the graduates of the Scottish Universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

The constituency returned three Members of Parliament to Westminster, elected by Single Transferable Vote. The by-elections used the first past the post voting system.

This University constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 and abolished in 1950 by the Representation of the People Act 1948.

Members of Parliament

Election	1st Member		1st Party	2nd Member		2nd Party	3rd Member		3rd Party
1918		Sir William Cheyne	Coalition Conservative		Dugald McCoig Cowan	Coalition Liberal		Sir Henry Craik	Coalition Conservative
1922		Sir George Berry	Unionist			Liberal			Unionist
Apr 1927								John Buchan	Unionist
1931		Noel Skelton	Unionist
Mar 1934					George Alexander Morrison	Liberal
Jun 1935						National Liberal		Sir John Kerr	Unionist
Jan 1936		Ramsay MacDonald	National Labour
Feb 1938		Sir John Anderson	National
Apr 1945					Sir John Boyd-Orr	Independent
Nov 1946					Walter Elliot	Unionist
1950	University constituencies abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

Dugald Cowan

General Election, November 1918: Combined Scottish Universities [1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir William Watson Cheyne	3,719
	Liberal	Dugald McCoig Cowan	3,499
	Unionist	Sir Henry Craik	3,286
	Labour	Dr Peter Macdonald	1,581
	Independent	Prof William Robert Smith	850

Elections in the 1920s

General Election, November 1922: Combined Scottish Universities
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir George Andreas Berry	unopposed
	Liberal	Dugald McCoig Cowan	unopposed
	Unionist	Sir Henry Craik	unopposed

General Election, December 1923: Combined Scottish Universities
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir George Andreas Berry	unopposed
	Liberal	Dugald McCoig Cowan	unopposed
	Unionist	Sir Henry Craik	unopposed

General Election, 1924: Combined Scottish Universities [2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Henry Craik	7,188
	Liberal	Dugald McCoig Cowan	5,011
	Unionist	Sir George Andreas Berry	3,781
	Labour	Rev John Martin Munro	1,639

Combined Scottish Universities by-election, 1927
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John Buchan	16,963	87.7
	Labour	Hugh B. Guthrie	2,378	12.3
Majority			14,585	75.4
Turnout			19,341	55.1	+0.0
	Unionist hold		Swing

Combined Scottish Universities (3 seats) [3]
Party		Candidate	% 1st Pref	Count 1	Count 2
	Unionist	John Buchan	39.7	9,959
	Unionist	Sir George Andreas Berry	22.9	5,755	9,262
	Liberal	Dugald McCoig Cowan	26.7	6,698
	Labour	James Kerr	10.7	2,691	2,867
Electorate: 43,192   Valid: 25,103   Quota:   Turnout:

Elections in the 1930s

General Election, October 1931: Combined Scottish Universities
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John Buchan	unopposed
	Liberal	Dugald McCoig Cowan	unopposed
	Unionist	Archibald Noel Skelton	unopposed

Combined Scottish Universities by-election, 1934
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Alexander Morrison	18,070	79.2
	Labour	Robert Gibson	4,750	20.8
Majority			13,320	58.4
Turnout				44.3
	Liberal hold		Swing

Combined Scottish Universities by-election, 1935
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Prof. John Graham Kerr	20,507	82.7	N/A
	Labour	Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison	4,293	17.3	N/A
Majority			16,214	65.4	N/A
Turnout			24,800	48.1	N/A
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

General Election, November 1935: Combined Scottish Universities [4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John Graham Kerr	8,252
	Liberal National	George Alexander Morrison	7,529
	Unionist	Archibald Noel Skelton[5]	7,479
	Independent	Andrew Dewar Gibb	3,865

Combined Scottish Universities by-election, 1936
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Labour	Rt Hon. James Ramsay MacDonald	16,393	56.5	N/A
	SNP	Andrew Dewar Gibb	9,034	31.1	+16.9
	Labour	David Cleghorn Thomson	3,597	12.4	N/A
Majority			7,359	37.4
Turnout				54.8	+3.6
	National Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	N/A

Combined Scottish Universities by-election, 1938
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Independent	Sir John Anderson	14,042	48.8	−7.7
	Independent	Frances H. Melville	5,618	19.5	N/A
	SNP	Andrew Dewar Gibb	5,246	18.2	−12.9
	Independent Progressive	Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell	3,868	13.5	N/A
Majority			8,424	29.3	+3.9
Turnout				52.1	−2.7
	National hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

United Kingdom general election, 1945: Combined Scottish Universities
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	John Anderson	16,011	48.8
	Independent	John Boyd Orr	10,685	32.6
	Labour	Halliday Gibson Sutherland	2,860	8.7
	Liberal	Ralph Somerville Weir	1,872	5.7
	Unionist	John Graham Kerr	1,361	4.2
Turnout			32,789	51.6
	National hold		Swing	N/A
	Independent hold		Swing	N/A
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

Combined Scottish Universities by-election, 1946
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Walter Elliot Elliot	22,152	68.2	+64.0
	Labour	Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad	3,731	11.5	+2.8
	Liberal	John MacDonald Bannerman	2,593	8.0	+2.3
	Independent	J. G. Jameson	2,080	6.4	N/A
	Liberal National	Dr R. S. Stevenson	1,938	5.9	N/A
Majority			18,421	56.7
Turnout			32,494	50.7	−0.9
	Unionist gain from National		Swing	N/A

References

1. Whitaker's Almanack, 1920
2. Oliver and Boyd's Edinburgh Almanack, 1927
3. The Times, 11 June 1929
4. The Times, 26 November 1935
5. Skelton died on 22 November, and his election has announced posthumously

• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 2)