Mitcham (UK Parliament constituency)

Mitcham
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	County of London, then Greater London
1918–1974
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Mitcham and Morden
Created from	Wimbledon

Mitcham was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Mitcham suburb of South London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election from part of the Wimbledon constituency, and abolished for the February 1974 general election.

Boundaries

1918-1945: The Urban Districts of Beddington and Wallington, Carshalton, and Mitcham.

1945-1974: The Municipal Boroughs of Beddington and Wallington, and Mitcham.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Notes
	1918	Thomas Worsfold	Conservative	Resigned 1923
	1923 by-election	James Chuter Ede	Labour
	1923	Richard Meller	Conservative	Died 1940
	1940 by-election	Malcolm Robertson	Conservative
	1945	Tom Braddock	Labour
	1950	Robert Carr	Conservative	Leader of the House of Commons 1972; Home Secretary 1972-74; subsequently MP for Carshalton
	Feb 1974	constituency abolished: see Mitcham and Morden

Election Results

1970s

General Election 1970: Mitcham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Leonard Robert Carr	27,257	54.58
	Labour	Reginald C Vincent	22,047	44.15
	Communist	Sidney E French	638	1.28
Majority			5,210	10.43
Turnout				68.76
	Conservative hold		Swing

1960s

General Election 1966: Mitcham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Leonard Robert Carr	24,234	45.73
	Labour	Thomas J Higgs	23,706	44.74
	Liberal	Ross C Burgess	4,470	8.44
	Communist	Sidney E French	580	1.09
Majority			528	1.00
Turnout				79.43
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1964: Mitcham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Leonard Robert Carr	25,087	46.61
	Labour	Roger Charles Mackay	21,175	39.34
	Liberal	William Antony Heath	6,902	12.82
	Communist	Sidney E French	657	1.22
Majority			3,912	7.27
Turnout				79.19
	Conservative hold		Swing

1950s

General Election 1959: Mitcham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Leonard Robert Carr	33,661	58.53
	Labour	Eric JC Smythe	23,845	41.47
Majority			9,816	17.07
Turnout				81.61
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Mitcham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Leonard Robert Carr	32,798	56.54
	Labour	Hugh Gater Jenkins	25,208	43.46
Majority			7,590	13.08
Turnout				80.53
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1951: Mitcham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Leonard Robert Carr	34,056	54.71
	Labour	Harry Enos Randall	28,187	45.29
Majority			5,869	9.43
Turnout				84.60
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1950: Mitcham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Leonard Robert Carr	31,881	50.77
	Labour	Thomas Braddock	27,055	43.08
	Liberal	Mrs Doreen L Page	3,864	6.15
Majority			4,826	7.68
Turnout				85.84
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

1940s

General Election 1945: Mitcham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Thomas Braddock	26,910	57.68
	Conservative	Sir Malcolm Arnold Robertson	19,742	42.32
Majority			7,168	15.36
Turnout				73.58
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Mitcham by-election, 1940
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Malcolm Arnold Robertson	unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

1930s

General Election 1935: Mitcham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Richard James Meller	35,239	57.46
	Labour	Paul Winterton	26,087	42.54
Majority			9,152	14.92
Turnout				66.74
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1931: Mitcham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Richard James Meller	38,948	76.26
	Labour	W Graham	12,124	23.74
Majority			26,824	52.52
Turnout				69.97
	Conservative hold		Swing

1920s

General Election 1929: Mitcham [1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Richard James Meller	20,254	47.9	-14.1
	Labour	Benjamin Skene Mackay	13,057	30.8	-7.2
	Liberal	Raymond V. Jones	9,016	21.3	n/a
Majority			7,197	17.1	-6.9
Turnout				70.2	-4.6
	Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1923: Mitcham [2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Richard James Meller	10,829	52.3
	Labour	James Chuter Ede	9,877	47.7
Majority			952	4.6
Turnout				63.2
	Unionist hold		Swing

References

1. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
2. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "M" (part 2)