Kingston upon Hull Central (UK Parliament constituency)

Kingston upon Hull Central
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1983
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Hull North and Hull West[1]

Kingston upon Hull Central was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Kingston upon Hull in East Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the 1955 general election. It was then re-created for the February 1974 general election, and abolished again for the 1983 general election.

Boundaries

1885-1918: The Municipal Borough of Kingston-upon-Hull wards of Paragon and Queen's, and part of Central ward.

1918-1950: The County Borough of Kingston-upon-Hull wards of Beverley, East Central, Myton, Paragon, West Central, and Whitefriars.

1950-1955: The County Borough of Kingston-upon-Hull wards of Albert, Botanic, Coltman, East Central, Myton, North Newington, Paragon, South Newington, and West Central.

1974-1983: The County Borough of Kingston-upon-Hull wards of Avenue, Beverley, Botanic, Greenwood, Myton, Newland, and University.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1885–1955

Event		Member[2]	Party
	1885	Seymour King	Conservative
	1911 b-e	Mark Sykes	Conservative
	1919 b-e	Joseph Kenworthy	Liberal
	1926		Labour
	1931	Basil Barton	Conservative
	1935	Walter Windsor	Labour
	1945	Mark Hewitson	Labour
	1955	constituency abolished

MPs 1974–1983

Event		Member[2]	Party
	Feb 1974	Kevin McNamara	Labour
	1983	constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

Seymour King

General Election January 1910: Hull Central[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Henry Seymour King	3,606	50.1
	Liberal	Robert William Aske	3,586	49.9
Majority			20	0.2
Turnout				87.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

Robert Aske

General Election December 1910: Hull Central[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Henry Seymour King	3,625	51.5	+1.4
	Liberal	Robert William Aske	3,418	48.5	-1.4
Majority			207	3.0	+2.8
Turnout				86.1	-1.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+2.4

Kingston upon Hull Central by-election, 1911[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes	3,823	51.9	+0.4
	Liberal	Sir Robert William Aske	3,545	48.1	-0.4
Majority				3.8	+0.8
Turnout			7,368
	Conservative hold		Swing	+0.4

Sir Mark Sykes

General Election 1918
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Col. Sir Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes	13,805	80.1
	Liberal	Rev. Roderick Morris Kedward	3,434	19.9
Majority			10,371	60.2
Turnout			17,239	54.9
	Unionist hold		Swing

• endorsed by the Coalition Government.

Lord Percy

Kingston upon Hull Central by-election, 1919
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Joseph Montague Kenworthy	8,616	52.8	+32.9
	Unionist	Eustace Sutherland Campbell Percy	7,699	47.2	-32.9
Majority			917	5.6	65.8
Turnout				51.9	-3.0
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+32.9

• endorsed by the Coalition Government.

Elections in the 1920s

J.M. Kenworthy

General Election 1922:
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Joseph Montague Kenworthy	15,374	55.5	+2.7
	Unionist	Herbert William Looker	12,347	44.5	-2.7
Majority			3,027	11.0	+5.4
Turnout			27,721	79.1	+27.2
	Liberal hold		Swing	+2.7

General Election 6 December 1923: Hull Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Joseph Montague Kenworthy	15,847	60.1	+4.6
	Unionist	Edward Wooll	10,507	39.9	-4.6
Majority			5,340	20.2	+9.2
Turnout				73.0	-6.1
	Liberal hold		Swing	+4.6

General Election, 29 October 1924
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Joseph Montague Kenworthy	15,234	54.1	-6.0
	Unionist	Lancelot Evelyn Gaunt	12,904	45.9	+6.0
Majority			2,330	8.2	-12.0
Turnout				77.1	+4.1
	Liberal hold		Swing	-6.0

Kingston-upon-Hull Central by-election, 1926
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Montague Kenworthy	16,145	52.9	n/a
	Unionist	Lancelot Evelyn Gaunt	11,466	37.6
	Liberal	Charles Iain Kerr	2,885	9.5	n/a
Majority			4,679	15.3
Turnout			30,496	82.8
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election, 30 May 1929
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Montague Kenworthy	18,815	54.1
	Unionist	Lawrence Kimball	11,181	32.1
	Liberal	Alfred Samuel Doran	4,802	13.8
Majority			7,634	22.0
Turnout				78.3
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Kingston upon Hull Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Basil Kelsey Barton	19,773	55.10
	Labour	Joseph Montague Kenworthy	16,113	44.90
Majority			3,660	10.20
Turnout				83.16
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1935: Kingston upon Hull Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Walter Windsor	14,851	52.88
	Conservative	Basil Kelsey Barton	13,231	47.12
Majority			1,620	5.77
Turnout				75.63
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

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 from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

• Labour: Walter Windsor,
• Conservative: Diana Spearman (Mrs. A. C. Spearman)^[6]

General Election 1945: Kingston upon Hull Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Capt. Mark Hewitson	8,786	58.75
	Conservative	Diana Spearman	4,106	27.46
	Liberal	C Stanley Bell	2,062	13.79
Majority			4,680	31.30
Turnout				73.01
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

R.O. Wilberforce

General Election 1950: Kingston upon Hull Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Mark Hewitson	27,351	56.49
	Conservative	Richard Orme Wilberforce	15,951	32.95
	Liberal	Albert Richard Hardcastle	5,113	10.56
Majority			11,400	23.55
Turnout				78.19
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1951: Kingston upon Hull Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Mark Hewitson	29,674	61.71
	Conservative	William R Bull	18,413	38.29
Majority			11,261	23.42
Turnout				76.33
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election February 1974: Kingston upon Hull Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Kevin McNamara	26,855	58.27
	Conservative	PWJ Carver	19,236	41.73
Majority			7,619	16.53
Turnout				73.51
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Kingston upon Hull Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Kevin McNamara	22,417	52.35
	Conservative	PWJ Carver	12,596	29.41
	Liberal	N Turner	7,810	18.24
Majority			9,821	22.93
Turnout				67.67
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1979: Kingston upon Hull Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Kevin McNamara	22,318	52.14
	Conservative	J Tillett	14,725	34.40
	Liberal	J Bryant	5,069	11.84
	National Front	A Braithwaite	422	0.99
	Socialist Unity	PM Stanton	274	0.64
Majority			7,593	17.74
Turnout				70.41
	Labour hold		Swing

References

1. "'Hull Central', Feb 1974 - May 1983". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 4)
3. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
4. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
5. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
6. Hull Daily Mail, 24 June 1938