New Forest and Christchurch (UK Parliament constituency)

New Forest and Christchurch
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Number of members	one

New Forest and Christchurch was a county constituency in Hampshire which elected one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 1918 general election, partially replacing the previous New Forest constituency, and was abolished for the 1950 general election, when it was partially replaced by a recreated New Forest constituency.

Boundaries

The Municipal Boroughs of Christchurch, Lymington, and Romsey, and the Rural Districts of Christchurch (the civil parishes of Christchurch East, Highcliffe, Holdenhurst, Hurn, and Sopley), Fordingbridge (the civil parishes of Ashley Walk, Breamore, Damerham, Fordingbridge, Hale, Martin, North Charford, Rockbourne, South Charford, Toyd Farm with Allenford, Whitsbury, and Woodgreen), Lymington (the civil parishes of Boldre, Brockenhurst, Hordle, Milford on Sea, Milton, Pennington, Rhinefield, and Sway), New Forest (the civil parishes of Beaulieu, Bramshaw, Colbury, Copythorne, Denny Lodge, Dibden, East Bramshaw, Eling, Exbury, Fawley, Lyndhurst, Marchwood, Minstead, and Netley Marsh), Ringwood (the civil parishes of Broomy, Burley, Ellingham, Harbridge, Ibsley, and Ringwood), and Romsey (the civil parishes of Dunwood, East Dean, East Wellow, Lockerley, Melchet Park, Michelmersh, Mottisfont, Nursling, Plaitford, Romsey Extra, Rownhams, Sherfield English, Timsbury, and West Wellow).

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Notes
	1918	Walter Perkins	Conservative
	1922	Wilfrid Ashley	Conservative	Resigned 1932 on being raised to the peerage
	1932 by-election	John Mills	Conservative
	1945	Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre	Conservative
	1950	constituency abolished: see New Forest & Bournemouth East and Christchurch

Election Results

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: New Forest and Christchurch[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Walter Frank Perkins	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Unionist hold		Swing	n/a

• denotes candidate who was endorsed by the Coalition Government.

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: New Forest and Christchurch[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Wilfrid William Ashley	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Unionist hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1923: New Forest and Christchurch [3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Wilfrid William Ashley	13,900	53.9	n/a
	Liberal	Alexander Claude Forster Boulton	11,889	46.1	n/a
Majority			2,011	7.8	n/a
Turnout				68.8	n/a
	Unionist hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1924: New Forest and Christchurch[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Rt Hon. Wilfrid William Ashley	17,945	64.6
	Liberal	Alexander Claude Forster Boulton	6,681	24.1
	Labour	C Lincoln Brighton	3,137	11.3
Majority			11,264	40.5
Turnout				71.4
	Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1929: New Forest and Christchurch[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Rt Hon. Wilfrid William Ashley	22,122	55.5	-9.1
	Liberal	Marcus John Cheke	11,520	28.9	+4.8
	Labour	G W Austin	6,206	15.6	+4.3
Majority			10,602	26.6	-13.9
Turnout				72.6	+1.2
	Unionist hold		Swing	-7.0

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: New Forest and Christchurch[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Wilfrid William Ashley	35,544	83.3
	Labour	Frank Stainer	7,130	16.7
Majority			28,414	66.6
Turnout			47,067	71.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

New Forest and Christchurch by-election, 1932
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Digby Mills	23,327	82.0
	Independent Labour	Charles Andrew Smith	5,135	18.0
Majority				64.0
Turnout				48.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1935: New Forest and Christchurch[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Digby Mills	32,209	74.8
	Labour	Mrs CM Wadham	10,876	25.2
Majority			21,333	49.6
Turnout			43,085	64.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

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: John Digby Mills
• Liberal: H J Dey^[8]
• Labour: RE Gray^[9]

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: New Forest and Christchurch[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Oliver Eyre Crosthwaite-Eyre	31,888	50.9
	Labour	Horace Maybray King	22,478	35.9
	Independent Liberal	JW Howlett	8,299	13.2
Majority			9,410	15.0
Turnout				71.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

1. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
2. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
3. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
4. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
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. The Liberal Magazine, 1939
9. Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
10. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig

• "UK General Elections since 1832".
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 1)
• Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (2nd ed.). Aldershot. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.