East Carmarthenshire (UK Parliament constituency)

East Carmarthenshire
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1918
Number of members	one
Created from	Carmarthenshire

East Carmarthenshire was a county constituency in Carmarthenshire, Wales. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.

It was created for the 1885 general election, when the old two-member Carmarthenshire constituency was divided into two new single-member seats: East Carmarthenshire and West Carmarthenshire, both of which were in turn abolished for the 1918 general election.

Boundaries

Carmathenshire showing boundaries for 1885-1918

The constituency included parts of the Sessional Divisions of Llandeilo and Llandovery and the Sessional Division of Llanelly.

Members of Parliament

Year		Member	Party
	1885	David Pugh	Liberal
	1890 by-election	Abel Thomas	Liberal
	1912 by-election	Josiah Towyn Jones	Liberal
1918		constituency abolished

History

When the former Carmarthenshire constituency was established in 1885, both the sitting members chose to contest the West Carmarthesnhire division. The Liberals of East Carmarthesnhire chose David Pugh as their candidate. Pugh had previously served as MP for Carmarthenshire from 1857 until his defeat in 1868 and had been considered to be on the more conservative wing of the Liberal Party. Pugh, has, however, become increasingly radical in his pronouncements in recent years.^[1] The significant increase in the electorate in the industrial portions of the constituency was considered to be the key element in deciding the contest. The electorate of Cwmamman, for example, had increased from 164 to 550 and that of neighbouring Brynamman from 175 to 450. ^[2]

Upon his death in 1890 he was succeeded by Abel Thomas, who served for twenty two years until his death in 1912.

Abel Thomas

By this time, the first signals of the emergence of the Labour Party were seen in the constituency, but a Labour candidate made little impact at the by-election which saw the election of the prominent nonvonformist minister, Josiah Towyn Jones, as the new MP.

Towyn Jones

Election Results 1885-1918

General Election 1885 East Carmarthenshire[3] Electorate 8,669
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	David Pugh	4,487	67.9	n/a
	Conservative	Sir Marteine Lloyd	2,122	32.1	n/a
Majority			2,365	35.8	n/a
Turnout				76.2	n/a
	Liberal win (new seat)

General Election 1886 East Carmarthenshire[4] Electorate 8,669
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	David Pugh	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

East Carmarthenshire by-election, 1890[5] Electorate 9,308
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Abel Thomas	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1892 East Carmarthenshire[6] Electorate 9,136
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Abel Thomas	4,439	78.4	n/a
	Liberal Unionist	Thomas Davies	1,223	21.6	n/a
Majority			3,216	56.8	n/a
Turnout				62.0	n/a
	Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1895 East Carmarthenshire[7] Electorate 9,217
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Abel Thomas	4,471	64.5	-13.9
	Conservative	EE Richardson	2,466	35.5	+13.9
Majority			2,005	29.0	-27.8
Turnout				75.3	+13.3
	Liberal hold		Swing	-13.9

General Election 1900 East Carmarthenshire[8] Electorate 9,967
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Abel Thomas	4,337	66.8
	Conservative	EE Richardson	2,155	33.2
Majority			2,182	33.6
Turnout				65.1
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election 1906 East Carmarthenshire[9] Electorate 10,746
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Abel Thomas	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

General Election January 1910 East Carmarthenshire[10] Electorate 12,268
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Abel Thomas	7,619	75.7	n/a
	Conservative	Mervyn Lloyd Peel	2,451	24.3	n/a
Majority			5,168	51.4	n/a
Turnout					n/a
	Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

General Election December 1910:[11] Electorate 12,268
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Abel Thomas	5,825	62.5
	Conservative	Mervyn Lloyd Peel	2,315	24.8
	Labour	Dr John Henry Williams	1,176	12.6
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

East Carmarthenshire by-election, 1912 Electorate [12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Rev. Josiah Towyn Jones	6,082	57.8	-4.7
	Unionist	Mervyn Lloyd Peel	3,354	31.9	+7.1
	Labour	Dr John Henry Williams	1,089	10.3	-2.3
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

References

1. "Representation of East Carmarthenshire. Biographical Sketch of Mr David Pugh". South Wales Daily News. 29 July 1885. p. 2. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
2. "Election Prospects in South Wales. Carmarthenshire,". South Wales Daily News. 2 November 1885. p. 3. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
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. East Carmarthenshire British parliamentary election results 1885-1918
12. East Carmarthenshire British parliamentary election results 1885-1918

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 3)