Peebles and Southern Midlothian (UK Parliament constituency)

Peebles and Southern Midlothian
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Midlothian & Peeblesshire
Created from	Peebles & Selkirk Midlothian

Peebles and Southern Midlothian was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster) from 1918 to 1950. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.

Boundaries

The Peebles and Southern Midlothian constituency was described in the Representation of the People Act 1918 as comprising:

The county of Peebles with all the burghs situated therein, and the Gala Water and Lasswade County Districts of Midlothian (except that part of the latter district which is included in the Northern Division) with all burghs situated therein except the burghs of Leith and Musselburgh.

Until 1918 the area of the constituency was, at least nominally, partly within the Peebles and Selkirk constituency and partly within the Midlothian constituency.

When the constituency was abolished in 1950 the Midlothian and Peeblesshire constituency was created.

Member of Parliament

Election		Member [1]	Party
	1918	Sir Donald Maclean Previously MP for Peebles and Selkirk	Liberal
	1922	Joseph Westwood	Labour
	1923
	1924
	1929
	1931	Archibald Maule Ramsay	Unionist
	1935
	1945	David Johnstone Pryde Subsequently member for Midlothian and Peeblesshire	Labour
1950		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

Donald Maclean

General Election 1918: Peebles and Southern Midlothian[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Rt Hon. Sir Donald Maclean	7,429	60.6
	Labour	J. Gold	4,830	39.4
Majority			2,599	21.2
Turnout				52.6
	Liberal win

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Peebles and Southern Midlothian [3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph C. Westwood	6,394	36.0	-3.4
	Unionist	Archibald Crawford	5,992	33.7	n/a
	Liberal	Rt Hon. Sir Donald Maclean	5,337	30.3	-30.3
Majority			402	2.3	23.5
Turnout				75.7	+23.1
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing	n/a

General Election 1923: Peebles and Southern Midlothian [4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph C. Westwood	7,882	43.0	+7.0
	Unionist	Archibald Crawford	6,203	33.8	+0.1
	Liberal	William Mitchell	4,245	23.2	-7.1
Majority			1,679	9.2	+6.9
Turnout				76.9	+1.2
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.4

General Election 1924: Peebles and Southern Midlothian [5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph C. Westwood	7,797	40.8	-2.2
	Unionist	Charles William Baillie-Hamilton	6,723	35.3	+1.5
	Liberal	William Mitchell	4,550	23.9	+0.7
Majority			1,074	5.5	-3.7
Turnout				78.8	+1.9
	Labour hold		Swing	-1.8

General Election 1929: Peebles and Southern Midlothian [6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph C. Westwood	11,161	45.5	+4.7
	Unionist	Hylton Ralph Murray-Philipson	7,736	31.5	-3.8
	Liberal	James McGowan	5,648	23.0	-0.9
Majority			3,425	14.0	+8.5
Turnout				75.7	-3.1
	Labour hold		Swing	+4.2

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Peebles and Southern Midlothian[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Archibald Henry Maule Ramsay	17,435	65.5
	Labour	Joseph C. Westwood	9,185	34.5
Majority			8,250	31.0
Turnout			26,620	79.7
	Unionist gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1935: Peebles and Southern Midlothian [8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Archibald Henry Maule Ramsay	13,671	52.8
	Labour	David Johnstone Pryde	12,209	47.2
Majority			1,462	5.6
Turnout			25,880	74.9
	Unionist 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;

• Unionist:
• Labour: David Johnstone Pryde^[9]

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Peebles and Southern Midlothian[10] Electorate 37,844
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Johnstone Pryde	15,546	55.7
	Unionist	JL Clyde	9,050	32.4
	Liberal	Capt. Leonard Gellatly	3,299	11.8
Majority			6,496	23.3
Turnout				73.7
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

References

1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 1)
2. Whitaker's Almanack, 1920
3. The Times, 17 November 1922
4. The Times, 8 December 1923
5. Oliver & Boyd's Edinburgh Almanac, 1927
6. The Times, 1 June 1929
7. Whitaker's Almanack, 1934
8. Whitaker's Almanack, 1939
9. Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
10. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig