Farnham (UK Parliament constituency)

Coordinates: 51°12′50″N 0°47′46″W / 51.214°N 0.796°W

Farnham
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1983
Number of members	one
Replaced by	South West Surrey Guildford[1]
Created from	South Western (Guildford) Division of Surrey

Farnham was a parliamentary constituency in Surrey, England that returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election. It was largely replaced by the new constituency of South West Surrey, though parts had already broken away to form Surrey Heath.

During its 65-year lifetime it was represented by three Conservatives successively.

Boundaries

The constituency took its name from the town of Farnham and included a number of other towns and a large rural area. The boundaries were altered at each redistribution of parliamentary seats, reflecting the increase in population of the area and thus the splitting of Western Surrey (or Guildford) into South West Surrey or Guildford and North West Surrey, followed by South West Surrey, most of Surrey Heath, and Guildford covering this part of Surrey, the arrangement by 1983.^[2]

1918–1950

The constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 as one of seven divisions of the parliamentary county of Surrey, and was defined in terms of the county districts existing at that date:^[3]

The rural district of Farnham (based on the Hundred before it), a small part of the Guildford Rural District which was the civil parish of Pirbright, and the urban districts of Farnham, Frimley (including Camberley), Windlesham, and Woking.

1950–1983

Constituencies throughout Great Britain were redrawn by the Representation of the People Act 1948, with new seats first contested at the 1950 general election.

Rural Surrey had ten county constituencies and Farnham County Constituency was defined as comprising:^[4]

• The borough of Godalming;
• the urban districts of Farnham and Haslemere;
• the parish of Seale in the rural district of Guildford
• Parishes in the rural district of Hambledon: Chiddingfold, Dockenfield, Elstead, Frensham, Peper Harow, Thursley, Tilford and Witley.

Godalming and Haslemere had previously formed part of the Guildford constituency. Woking, Windlesham and Pirbright were transferred to the new seat of Woking. The constituency was unaltered at the next redistribution that took place prior to the general election of February 1974.^[2]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Sir Arthur Samuel	Conservative
	1937	Sir Godfrey Nicholson	Conservative
	1966	Maurice Macmillan	Conservative
	1983	constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: Farnham[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Michael Samuel	7,558	52.5
	Labour	Corp. John Hayes	3,534	24.6
	Independent Unionist	John Henry Harris	3,289	22.9
Majority			4,024	27.9
Turnout				44.0
	Unionist hold		Swing

• endorsed by the Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Farnham[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Michael Samuel	14,557	73.3
	Labour	Thomas Humphrey Marshall	6,312	26.7
Majority			9,245	46.6
Turnout				56.8
	Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1923: Farnham[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Michael Samuel	12,534	59.6	-13.7
	Liberal	Christopher a’Beckett Williams	4,979	23.7	n/a
	Labour	Anne Elizabeth Corner	3,520	16.7	-10.0
Majority			7,555	35.9	-10.7
Turnout				59.6	+2.8
	Unionist hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1924: Farnham[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Michael Samuel	18,272	79.8
	Labour	Anne Elizabeth Corner	4,613	20.2
Majority			13,659	59.7
	Conservative hold

General Election 1929: Farnham[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Michael Samuel	21,050	59.8	-20.0
	Liberal	John William Todd	9,268	26.3	N/A
	Labour	Francis Noel Palmer	4,866	13.8	-6.4
Majority			11,782	33.5	-26.2
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Farnham[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Michael Samuel	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Conservative hold

United Kingdom general election, 1935: Farnham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Arthur Michael Samuel	28,211	78.5	N/A
	Labour	D M Fraser	7,725	21.5	N/A
Majority			20,486	57.0	N/A
	Conservative hold

Farnham by-election, 1937
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Godfrey Nicholson	20,580	66.7	-11.8
	Labour	Peter Pain	7,792	25.3	+3.8
	Independent Conservative	Linton Theodore Thorp	2,327	7.5	N/A
	Independent	Edward Miller	154	0.5	N/A
Majority			12,788	41.5	-15.5
	Conservative hold

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 and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;

• Conservative: Godfrey Nicholson
• Labour: C W Gittins^[11]

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Farnham[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Godfrey Nicholson	31,557
	Labour	TW Gittins	20,013
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1950: Farnham[13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Godfrey Nicholson	21,665	55.70
	Labour	Eric Charles Neate	12,972	33.35
	Liberal	F. P. Shannon	4,262	10.96
Majority			8,693	22.35
Turnout			38,899	83.11
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1951: Farnham[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Godfrey Nicholson	24,239	63.32
	Labour	Charles Leonard James	14,041	36.68
Majority			10,198	26.64
Turnout			38,280	80.44
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Farnham[15]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Godfrey Nicholson	23,717	64.93
	Labour	John Stuart Paul Davey	12,811	35.07
Majority			10,906	29.86
Turnout			36,528	76.32
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1959: Farnham[16]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Godfrey Nicholson	23,538	59.03
	Labour	Joseph Greenwood Turner	9,800	24.58
	Liberal	Dennis William Saunders	6,538	16.40	n/a
Majority			13,738	34.45
Turnout			39,876	79.36
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1964: Farnham[17]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Godfrey Nicholson	21,382	51.20
	Liberal	Dennis William Saunders	11,876	28.44
	Labour	Kenneth Frank Urwin	8,500	20.36
Majority			9,506	22.76
Turnout			41,758	78.71
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1966: Farnham[18]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Maurice Victor Macmillan	21,028	48.84
	Liberal	Dennis William Saunders	12,036	27.96
	Labour	Leslie G R Pinchen	9,988	23.20
Majority			8,922	20.89
Turnout			43,052	80.00
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1970: Farnham[19]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Maurice Victor Macmillan	25,113	56.87
	Liberal	Piers Millar Odger Stonham	10,178	23.05
	Labour	Leslie G R Pinchen	8,870	20.09
Turnout			44,161	73.59
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: Farnham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Maurice Victor Macmillan	25,686	49.87
	Liberal	F Davies	19,224	37.32
	Labour	HC Hodge	6,347	12.32
	Independent	N Dane	251	0.49
Majority			6,462	12.55
Turnout			51,508	82.96
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Farnham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Maurice Victor Macmillan	23,885	49.95
	Liberal	P Davies	15,626	32.68
	Labour	HC Hodge	8,305	17.37
Majority			8,259	17.27
Turnout			47,816	76.22
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1979: Farnham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Maurice Victor Macmillan	30,127	58.32
	Liberal	P Raynes	13,658	26.44
	Labour	PW Davies	7,497	14.51
	Independent - Citizens Protest Vote	SL Bradford	204	0.39
	United Country Party	R Peel	170	0.33
Majority			16,469	31.88
Turnout			51,656	79.95
	Conservative hold		Swing

See also

Surrey portal Politics portal

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "F"

1. "'Farnham', Feb 1974 - May 1983". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
2. Youngs, Frederic A, Jr. (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.I: Southern England. London: Royal Historical Society. pp. 765–766. ISBN 0-901050-67-9.
3. Representation of the People Act 1918 c.64, Ninth Schedule, Redistribution of Seats
4. Representation of the People Act 1948 c.65, Schedule 1: Parliamentary Constituencies
5. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
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. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
10. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
11. Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
12. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
13. British parliamentary election results, 1950-1973 by FWS Craig
14. British parliamentary election results, 1950-1973 by FWS Craig
15. British parliamentary election results, 1950-1973 by FWS Craig
16. F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1950-1973; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1973
17. F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1950-1973; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1973
18. British parliamentary election results, 1950-1973 by FWS Craig
19. British parliamentary election results, 1950-1973 by FWS Craig