Mid Lanarkshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Coordinates: 55°48′36″N 4°12′36″W / 55.810°N 4.210°W

Mid Lanarkshire
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland	county of Lanark
1885–1918
Number of members	One

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

Boundaries

The name relates the constituency to the county of Lanark. The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 provided that the Mid division was to consist of "the parishes of Rutherglen, Carmunnock, so much of the parish of Cathcart as adjoins the two last-mentioned parishes, Cambuslang, Blantyre, so much of the parish of Hamilton as lies south and west of the River Clyde, Dalserf and Cambusnethan".^[1]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member[2]	Party
	1885	Stephen Mason	Liberal
	1888 by-election	John Wynford Philipps, later Viscount St Davids	Liberal
	1894 by-election	James Caldwell	Liberal
	Jan. 1910	John Howard Whitehouse	Liberal
1918		constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

William Bousfield

General Election 1885: Mid Lanarkshire [3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Stephen Mason	2,875	39.0	n/a
	Conservative	William Robert Bousfield	2,579	35.0	n/a
	Independent Liberal	John Clark Forrest	1,913	26.0	n/a
Majority			296	4.0	n/a
Turnout					n/a
	Liberal win (new seat)

General Election 1886: Mid Lanarkshire [4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Stephen Mason	3,779	56.5	+17.5
	Liberal Unionist	James Widrington Shand-Harvey	2,909	43.5	+8.5
Majority			870	13.0	+9.0
Turnout			6,688	74.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	+4.5

John Philipps

27 April 1888 by-election: Mid Lanarkshire [5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Wynford Philipps	3,847	52.1	-4.5
	Conservative	William Robert Bousfield	2,917	39.5	-4.0
	Independent Labour	James Keir Hardie	617	8.4	N/A
Majority			930	12.6	-0.4
Turnout			7,381	80.7	+5.9
	Liberal hold		Swing

• Resignation of Mason, April 1888

Elections in the 1890s

General Election 1892: Mid Lanarkshire [6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Wynford Philipps	4,611	56.9
	Conservative	Robert E.S. Harington-Stuart	3,489	43.1
Majority			1,122	13.8
Turnout				77.2
	Liberal hold		Swing

James Caldwell

Mid Lanarkshire by-election, 1894
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Caldwell	3,965	45.0
	Liberal Unionist	Robert E.S. Harington-Stuart	3,635	41.2
	Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party	Robert Smillie	1,221	13.8	n/a
Majority			330	3.8
Turnout				78.1
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election 1895: Mid Lanarkshire [7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Caldwell	4,447	50.4
	Conservative	Charles Kincaid MacKenzie	4,376	49.6
Majority			71	0.8
Turnout				77.4
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1900: Mid Lanarkshire [8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Caldwell	5,267	50.9	+0.5
	Conservative	Charles Kincaid MacKenzie	5,075	49.1	-0.5
Majority				1.8	+1.0
Turnout				79.6	+2.2
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.5

General Election 1906: Mid Lanarkshire [9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Caldwell	7,246	58.1
	Conservative	Duncan Frederick Campbell	4,470	35.8
	Independent	A.S. Gibson	758	6.1
Majority			2,776	22.3
Turnout				81.1
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1910s

Robert Smillie

General Election Jan 1910: Mid Lanarkshire [10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Howard Whitehouse	5,792	38.4
	Conservative	John Johnson Pickering	5,401	35.9
	Labour	Robert Smillie	3,864	25.7
Majority			391	2.5
Turnout				84.6	+3.5
	Liberal hold		Swing

John Whitehouse

General Election Dec 1910: Mid Lanarkshire [11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Howard Whitehouse	6,033	38.7	+0.2
	Conservative	Henry Shanks Keith	5,702	36.6	+0.7
	Labour	Robert Smillie	3,847	24.7	-1.0
Majority			331	2.1
Turnout				84.3
	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: John Howard Whitehouse
• Unionist:
• Labour: Robert Smillie

References

1. Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, Seventh Schedule, Part II
2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 1)
3. Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench, 1889
4. (1) Craig. (2) Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench, 1889
5. Craig
6. Whitaker's Almanack, 1893
7. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1901
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

• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)

See also

• Mid Lanarkshire by-election, 1888