Elginshire and Nairnshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Elginshire and Nairnshire
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland	Elginshire and Nairnshire
1832–1918
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Moray & Nairn
Created from	Elginshire Nairnshire

Elginshire and Nairnshire was a county constituency in Scotland. From 1832 to 1918, it returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system.

Boundaries

The constituency was created in 1832 by the Scottish Reform Act 1832 by a merger of two former constituencies: Elginshire and Nairnshire. It extended to the counties of Elginshire and Nairnshire, with the exception of the burghs of Elgin, Nairn and Forres which were instead part of Inverness Burghs and Elgin Burghs.

It was replaced in 1918 by the new Moray and Nairn constituency, which included all of Elginshire and Nairnshire, including the burghs of Elgin, Nairn and Forres.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [1]	Party
	1832	Francis William Grant	Tory
	1834		Conservative
	1840 by-election	Charles Lennox Cumming Bruce	Conservative
	1868	James Ogilvy Grant	Conservative
	1874	Alexander William George Duff	Liberal
	1879 by-election	Sir George Macpherson-Grant	Liberal
	1886	Charles Henry Anderson	Liberal
	1889 by-election	John Seymour Keay	Liberal
	1895	John Edward Gordon	Conservative
	1906	Archibald Williamson	Liberal
1918		constituency abolished

Elections

General Election 1868: Lt-Col Hon James Ogilvie Grant returned unopposed.^[2]

Elections in the 1880s

General Election 1885: Elginshire and Nairnshire [3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir George Macpherson-Grant	1,612
	Conservative	Hugh Fife Ashley Brodie	1,556	33.8
	Independent Liberal	Charles Henry Anderson	1,435	31.2
Majority			56	1.2
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election 1886: Elginshire and Nairnshire [4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Charles Henry Anderson	1,991	51.5
	Liberal Unionist	Sir George Macpherson-Grant	1,872	48.5
Majority			119	3.0
Turnout				66.6
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elginshire and Nairnshire by-election, 1889 [5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Seymour Keay	2,573	55.7
	Liberal Unionist	Charles Bowman Logan	2,044	44.3
Majority			529	11.4
Turnout				79.0
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1890s

Sir William Gull

General Election 1892: Elginshire and Nairnshire [6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Seymour Keay	2,533	56.1	+0.4
	Liberal Unionist	Sir William Cameron Gull	1,978	43.9	-0.4
Majority			545	12.2	+0.8
Turnout				77.2	-1.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.4

General Election 1895: Elginshire and Nairnshire [7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Hon. John Edward Gordon	2,147	51.5	+7.6
	Liberal	John Seymour Keay	2,019	48.5	-7.6
Majority			128	3.0	15.2
Turnout				73.5
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+7.6

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1900: Elginshire and Nairnshire [8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Hon. John Edward Gordon	2,334	51.9
	Liberal	Archibald Williamson	2,159	48.1
Majority
Turnout				75.2	+1.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

A. Williamson

General Election 1906: Elginshire and Nairnshire [9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Archibald Williamson	3,006	66.0
	Conservative	Harry Hope	1,546	34.0
Majority			1,460	32.0	35.8
Turnout				79.1
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1910s

General Election Jan 1910: Elginshire and Nairnshire [10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir Archibald Williamson	2,917	62.7	-3.3
	Conservative	Ralph George Campbell Glyn	1,734	37.3	+3.3
Majority			1,183	25.4	-6.6
Turnout				80.9	+1.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	-3.3

General Election Dec 1910: Elginshire and Nairnshire [11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir Archibald Williamson	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

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: Sir Archibald Williamson
• Unionist:

References

1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "E" (part 1)
2. Debrett's House of Commons, 1870.
3. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1889
4. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1889
5. David Marquand, Ramsay MacDonald, (London: Richard Cohen Books), 1977, p. 22.
6. Whitaker's Almanack, 1893
7. Whitaker's Almanack, 1900
8. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1901
9. Whitaker's Almanack, 1907
10. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1916
11. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1916