East Perthshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Eastern Perthshire
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland	Perthshire
1885–1918
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Perth
Created from	Perthshire

East (or Eastern) Perthshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1918. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.

Boundaries

The constituency was defined by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, by dividing the Perthshire constituency to form two new constituencies which were first used in the 1885 general election. The other new constituency was West Perthshire. Together with the burgh constituency of Perth, which was unaltered, these constituencies covered the county of Perth, except that five detached parishes had been merged into the Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire constituency by the Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832.^[1]

As defined in the 1885 Act, the constituency consisted of the "Parishes of Aberdalgie, Alyth, Abernyte, Auchtergaven, Arngask, Abernethy, Blairgowrie, Bendochy, Coupar Angus, Cargill, Caputh (except the detached portions locally situated in Forfarshire), Collace, Clunie, Dunbarney, Dunning, the detached portion of the parish of Dunkeld and Dowally which contains the town of Dunkeld, Dron, Errol, Fowlis-Easter, Forteviot, Forgandenny, Findogask, Inchture, so much of the parish of Kettins as is locally situate in Perthshire, Kinloch, Kinfauns, Kinclaven, Kinnaird, Kinnoull, Kilspindie, Lethendy, Longforgan (including so much of the parish of ‘Liff, Benvie, and Invergowrie’ as is situate in Perthshire), Meigle, Methven, Moneydie, Perth, Redgorton, Tibbermore, Rattray, Rhynd, Scone, St. Martins, and St Madoes." ^[2]

1885 boundaries were used also in the general elections of 1886, 1892, 1895, 1900, 1906, January 1910 and December 1910.

By 1918, throughout most of Scotland, county boundaries had been altered, and detached parishes were generally historic. The Representation of the People Act 1918 took account of new local government boundaries and grouped the county of Perth with the county of Kinross for parliamentary representation purposes. Therefore, for the 1918 general election, the two counties were covered by the Perth constituency, which was now a county constituency, entirely within the county of Perth, and the Kinross and West Perthshire constituency, which covered the county of Kinross and part of the county of Perth.^[1]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member[3]	Party
	1885	Robert Stewart Menzies	Liberal
	1889 b-e	Sir John Kinloch	Liberal
	1903 b-e	Thomas Buchanan	Liberal
	Jan. 1910	William Young	Liberal
1918		constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

1885 general election: Eastern Perthshire [4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Robert Stewart Menzies	4,222		n/a
	Conservative	Andrew Graham Murray	2,421		n/a
Majority					n/a
Turnout					n/a
	Liberal win (new seat)

1886 general election: Eastern Perthshire [4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Robert Stewart Menzies	3,504
	Liberal Unionist	John Robert Holland	2,195
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1890s

Sir John Kinloch

1892 general election: Eastern Perthshire [5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir John George Smyth Kinloch	3,533
	Conservative	William Lindsay Boase	2,484
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

1895 general election: Eastern Perthshire [6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir John George Smyth Kinloch	3,410
	Conservative	William Lindsay Boase	2,535
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1900s

1900 general election: Eastern Perthshire [6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir John George Smyth Kinloch	3,185
	Conservative	John Graham Stewart	2,143
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

T.R. Buchanan

East Perthshire by-election, 1903[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Ryburn Buchanan	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

1906 general election: Eastern Perthshire [8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Ryburn Buchanan	3,738	58.5
	Conservative	Marquess of Tullibardine	2,648	41.5
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1910s

William Young

Jan 1910 general election: Eastern Perthshire [9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Young	3,884
	Conservative	Alexander David Murray	2,703
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

A.N. Skelton

Dec 1910 general election: Eastern Perthshire [9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Young	3,658
	Conservative	Archibald Noel Skelton	2,826
Majority
Turnout
	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:William Young
• Unionist: Archibald Noel Skelton^[10]

Notes and references

1. Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972 (ISBN 0-900178-09-4), F. W. S. Craig 1972
2. Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, Seventh Schedule
3. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 1)
4. Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench, 1889
5. Whitaker's Almanack, 1893
6. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1901
7. The Times, 27 February 1903 p8
8. Whitaker's Almanack, 1907
9. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1916
10. Perthshire Advertiser 17 Jun 1914